Autodesk CAD and DCC Tools Go Rental Pay As You Go

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As an Engineer living outside of the US, I have to say Autodesk has some of the most outrageously priced softwares out there. Unless you work in a company that can get you a copy, buying it is simply not an option.
 

wopr11

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The subscription plans are the most effective way to drain the wallets of consumers - and the software company doesn't have to offer a real upgrade every so often to justify increasing their prices. As we are seeing with Adobe CS6, the company is making minor upgrades to the software while still charging their exorbitant monthly premium. But the situation presents a great opportunity for competing products - a lot of companies and individual users take the time to do the math and realize that the subscription plans are a total rip off - and are looking for alternative solutions. Many companies and users don't even need or use the multiple "new features" that many programs offer - and those additions are made mostly to sell the upgraded version of the program, not because they offer a new indispensable tool that users were clamoring for. The programs become so bloated and big - many offering features that no user would ever use in their life time - but still paying an outrageous price for the software.
The advantage of those professional programs is mostly the support - unlike the apps sold on iTunes that require upgrades several times a week because of the extremely high number of bugs (so much for the mythical "higher quality in that walled garden" ) - those programs are very stable and functional - but even then their costs are inflated several times simply because they have set a standard and users believe they are getting the best for their money. Shopping around takes time but alternatives are out there - and present an actual viable solution without having to spend a fortune on a subscription plan.
 

soo-nah-mee

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As a designer that uses Autodesk Inventor for 10 hours a day, everyday, I implore anyone that is looking for 3D design software to look elsewhere. It is the most unstable, click-happy, time-wasting pile of crap I have ever used. Go with PTC (Pro/E - Creo) or Dassault Systems (Catia / SolidWorks). Screw Autodesk and their overpriced junk software and maintenance costs! You guys make my daily life miserable!
 

John Bauer

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I remember using Autodesk in school.

Only worked when it wanted to, and this poor kid's work would get regularly corrupted. Happened to all of use once, but to this kid multiple times.

Same thing with Revit.
 

jhansonxi

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I switched from AutoCAD and AutoSketch to DraftSight. It's free and works on Linux, OS X, and Windows. It is developed by Dassault Systèmes (same as CATIA and SolidWorks) and is based on IntelliCAD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IntelliCAD) which is backed by many companies and is designed to be compatible with AutoCAD.
 

stevejnb

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Maybe you should have signed that as "one of the people who is likely to bitch and piss and moan when DRM becomes an increasingly prevalent in all types of software in the future." Ironic, seeing as you people are the cause of it.


As a consumer, your right to reject/rebel against a product consists of not buying it. If you choose to pirate, go figure, you motivate companies to continually beef up security again and again and again making it an incredible pain for anyone who wants to use products legitimately. On top of it, many people who routinely pirate sit there scratching their heads wondering "durrr... Why is this company who makes games/programs I like adding more DRM every new version released? DURRRR!"

Rather than pirating, if you just don't buy, you motivate companies to improve pricing, offer better products, etc. Most of us pirate in some way or another, but announcing it like a badge of honour is just stupid. Use an alternative product and give money to the people making good programs so they stay in business, and the people who take advantage of their position with established programs will lose money and either change their ways or die out.
 
G

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All Autodesk is doing is charging people for UI facelifts and bug fixes, which is just plain silly, and from the actual YouTube video comments, people eat it up like a chocolate covered turd.

Autodesk has jumped on the dumb-customer wagon that companies like SolidWorks have been riding for a while. SolidWorks puts out a new version every year with 5 service packs per year, yet the new version the following year has bugs that should have been fixed previously. Sadly, SolidWorks is as buggy as Autodesk's AutoCAD and neither are well optimized for multi-threading, at the moment.
 
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