Who is still holding onto their Perpetual Licenses?

[mserapiglia]

I am!  I haven't wavered from the position on my Current Ownership,  A Standalone Perpetual License w/ maintenance plan with the software that I have used now for 36 years.  But it's apparent that Autodesk does not want owners anymore:o(  And when did Subscription become Maintenance.  Subscription used to be our annual renewal fee, right?

Hmm, my guess I'm not alone in pondering my future maintenance with this software.

Signed, a sad old timer.. that's still wondering why did Subscription become Maintenance?

[AllenJessup]

I wouldn't call us a large firm with only 5 licenses. But we've done very well with pricing by taking advantage of each offer Autodesk had made.

[igee]

I don't agree with you that Autodesk did us a favour by
1. removing the option of buying a right to permanent use of their software; and especially not by
2. Trying to force those with existing rights to give them up.

You may enjoy having lost your right to permanent use of the software - I will hold on to my right until Kingdom Comes.

Autodesk could really have made the transition in an honorable way.

[pendean]

@AllenJessup @JezEmin igee is here to vent, let's give him the space to do so.

FWIW they started an identical rant/vent/discussion over here https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/previous-version-support/deactivation-of-the-perpetuals-you-sold-us-w...

[geremy.grote]

We have 5 licenses that I am not moving to subscription.  I get there's a big discount to trade in your serial numbers and the guaranteed discount for 8 years.

What I'm curious about is how much the price will possibly increase at the 9th year?  Are they going to have to catch up to new customer prices?

I also like the idea of keeping the programs we've already purchased.  If business gets tight and we need to cut costs, we'd never be able to suspend our subscription and get it back at the same price.  And while our subscriptions are suspended, we wouldn't be able to use the program to make profit to get back to owning the subscriptions again.

No rank intended, just conversation.  We still have 3 seats that haven't gotten to their end date yet, so they can go either way.

Thank you!

Geremy

[tcorey]

I like the idea of owning software but, facing reality, the way software is licensed and delivered has changed. I'm not big enough to fight Adobe and Autodesk.

The downside to staying with the perpetual license, especially as it sounds like your career might go on another twenty years, is that you won't be able to be current. At some point, more-modern companies might not be able collaborate with you in a streamlined fashion. Possibly, they choose your competitor for the next project, because the competitor is using modern versions of the software and using you has this negative wrinkle.

On the other hand, you'll be saving subscription fees. 

[geremy.grote]

I had that same thought about staying current before making my decision and did a little research a while ago.  Most of the files we receive as a company don't need the latest version.  In fact, I could have been using 2013 for almost all of our business.

That being said, I have liked some of the updates Autocad has done.  Like pdf to line art import in 2018.

I also haven't really used any of their newer features (unless I'm missing something) since 2013 also.

That all might change when 2022 hits and a new file version is made with no free-ware to save to a previous version.  Then I'll have to pay for a way to accomplish this task.

Or I might be ok for 5 years, who knows   Adobe knows 

[Anonymous]

I was, but then it (AutoCAD LT) was effectively disabled when my computer operating system was upgraded to Windows 10.   Not very perpetual.   So I learned LibreCAD instead.

[AllenJessup]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

AutoCAD LT was effectively disabled when my computer operating system was upgraded to Windows 10.

---

Yes. That's the problem. Eventually the perpetual license won't run on new hardware or OS. We can't risk that running the AEC collection. Replacing that would be too expensive.

[Anonymous]

I realize I found this topic late, but want to put my word in. I will be sticking with my perpetual license. My company, which is only me, is very dependent on being able to work, and the uncertainty of the business and with everything that the year 2020 had to offer in terms of lost income, I can't gamble on a subscription.

I see people comparing Autodesk with Adobe, but with the massive difference in cost I can't really see how that's a relevant point. Also, the difference in cost between maintenance and subscription is ridiculous, and for what? What are Autodesk putting up as a reason for drastically raising the prices? I can't see anything. (Yes, I know, there's the discount, but I'd like to think I'll still be around in seven years.)

I have invested a lot of time and money in my Maya pipeline and plugins, and I really love Maya, but I feel that Autodesk have put me in a choke hold which forces me to lean more towards exchanging Maya for another software when I can no longer use my perpetual license.

[Deiopei]

I am definitely holding on to my perpetual license. I wish they had a once a year even when you can buy a perpetual license. I do not use autocad that much, so it's not worth it for me to pay each year to use it.

[chriswade]

If you don't use it that often, try looking into BricsCAD, they have perpetual licenses and it works fairly similar to AutoCAD.

[Juha_P]

I'm holding the perpetual. Today I need to make a decision if I pay for another year. However, the reseller didn't know if the perpetual licensing will work with 3DS Max 2023. By the way, I still use almost daily Autodesk Stitcher unlimited 2008, and had newer any problems transferring the license to a new workstation.

I've been using Max since R1, 3D-studio for MS DOS before that and Autodesk AutoShade before that. Today I need to decide whether Max 2022 or Max 2023 will be the last Max. Having said that, there's still no guarantee Max 2023 will have perpetual licensing.

[Anonymous]

Autodesk assured us that those with perpetual licenses would always be able to renew them as long as there was no lapse- Then - what do you know- they did everything they could to obfuscate payment of the annual fee so to ensure that these lapsed. First, no email as in past years, forewarning of payment being due, then when you try to pay, they provide no dialogue box that allows access to the payment system. It stinks of restrictive trade practices. I have been trying to get their co-operation for 4 days now, to make my payment and they just continue to run down the clock - giving me nothing but case numbers, until lapse day passes. 

[rkmcswain]

@Anonymous wrote:

..... allows access to the payment system. 

I don't understand. You call your reseller and arrange for payment, and it's taken care of. Been doing it this way for 20+ years.

[jproia]

I too have been holding on to (2) perpetual licensees while adding subscriptions (rentals) for other seats.

Logic was why rent when you already own it AND Maintenance allowed support for the product.

As AutoDesk was phasing out Maintenance I intended to keep the perps running for a few years more - without support.

BUT

The Maintenance contracts were being phased out last year - I emailed my reseller for a renewal one last time before they stopped allowing them...

Shame On Me... for not reading what I received back closer. It was to convert the Perpetuals to Rentals rather than a Maintenance renewal. I did not realize that till 7 months in : when I expected the Maintenance contracts would be ending.

Never wanted to convert to a subscription/rental contract....especially for one license that was originally purchase personally. All my emails over the years supported that objective. But now it's gone and no one seems to be willing to get even (1) of the perpetual licenses reinstated. I will be retiring soon and wanted to continue use my CAD non-commercially.

After 26 years of great experience with AutoDesk it is now ending sadly.

There doesn't seem to be a happy resolve of this for me.

This post is more a warning for others that hold Perpetual Licenses.

[mserapiglia]

I'm very sorry to hear of your experience with AutoDesk. I have used
Autodesk products since 1984 and marveled at their changes over most of
these years..

But unfortunately the product has become much more than a drafting tool. I
always tried to embrace their changes year after year. But I'm afraid that
all of this development has come at a cost!

But now to not only deny loyal customers the right to continue to own the
Perpetual License they paid dearly for.. They preceded to strong arm loyal
customers into releasing their Perpetual License by raising the renewal
fees for 3 years. Standalone, Perpetual License w/ maintenance plan up 5%
2017, then 10% 2018, then 20% 2019. Plus, if us (loyal customers) do not
switch to the new business model of leasing software, AutoDesk will now
penalize us (loyal customers) buy charging us more then if we had made the
switch at the beginning of this new business model. Basically no
compensation for ever purchasing nor maintaining our Perpetual License.

I know I'm not alone in this nor is this the ending of this Perpetual
License ordeal. I'm sure some loyal customers are still trying to
understand why, others are being tricked... But some will hold fast to
their Perpetual License, others fill fight somehow.. But will AutoDesk take
note of us? Will they acknowledge what they have done to their loyal
customers. Shouldn't we get some type of refund on our original Perpetual
License fee? Shouldn't this be resolved in a way that supports us loyal
customers? That is what is important.

[geremy.grote]

I have discontinued my company's maintenance perpetual licenses with AutoDesk, which means we're stuck at version 2021.  My hope is that they will not create a new save format to out date our version, because then I'll have to abandon the product to keep up with the industry.  Guess I'll have to watch the Lynn Allen videos about switching to Draftsight.

[rkmcswain]

@Anonymous wrote:
But will AutoDesk take
note of us? Will they acknowledge what they have done to their loyal
customers. Shouldn't we get some type of refund on our original Perpetual
License fee? Shouldn't this be resolved in a way that supports us loyal
customers? That is what is important.

Autodesk didn't get to where they are at by being dumb. They know exactly what they are doing and the reward is obviously outweighing the risks here. Are you and everybody else that is angry about this, going to challenge this in the courts?  With all due respect, standing on this street corner yelling about it does nothing.

They are not going to refund anyone, and they are not bringing back perpetual licenses. In 2017, the Autodesk CEO said "If you don't see value in subscription, you should probably find another software solution"

[neilyj666]

Autodesk will do what is necessary to make money and there is no money to be made from people holding onto perpetual licenses. 

[igee]

Switching an engineering firm from one software to another is extremely
costly. The cost of the software is not negligible but small in comparison.
Choosing a fraudulent character to be the core of my practice was a huge
mistake I made twelve years ago when I based my entire practice on Autodesk
software. But, Autodesk CEO is not the only one who intentionally harmed me.
The other day I was robbed at gunpoint (true) - I feel the same about both
perpetrators. I also thought of a class legal action but, I suspect that
Autodesk looked at the script and found that they have the legal right to
forcefully expropriate, without compensation, our perpetual rights to
software that was offered with a promise of continued maintenance.