Hi all
I have just received an email saying that the conditions for renewing the maintenance of your SOLIDWORKS software will change on January 1st, 2016.
Anyone have more information?
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I just found an article here:
http://www.solidsmack.com/cad/the-new-solidworks-subscription-late-policy-and-how-to-avoid-it/
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OUoh ouoh ouoh interesting subject!
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Maybe Axemble could shed a little light on the subject....
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Hooo, roughly, if I understand correctly.
By having a solidworks 2011 and to switch to a solidworks 2015, I will have to pay 4 years of licenses/updates + the one of the current year.
Gash, it's even less going to motivate people to change versions if they're already late :S
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According to the site, 95% of customers are industrialists who already renew their licenses every year, so it would make a difference for the remaining 5% as coin37coin :).
But I think this is negotiable with the reseller who can take care of some of these costs
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After contacting Axemble.
These are the renewals of licenses that are no longer under a maintenance contract.
When resuming maintenance:
- BEFORE:
- Trade-in fees
- Year's maintenance cost
- FROM NOW ON:
- Cost of renewals for all years spent without maintenance
- Year's maintenance cost
So for example:
If you have had a maintenance-free SW license for four years. You pay the maintenance price x 5. (4 years late and the current year)
Reason:
Limit license renewals without annual maintenance.
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Haha, I'm in a way a rarity by being part of the 5% ... yes, well, all I have to do is go and scare the management now. Maybe I could FINALLY have a new version
(not to mention that when you change PCs now, you can't even have the maintenance that has been done. Too old, not kept in stock. What happiness ;) )
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Coin37coin, you still have to paint more than 2 months to update to SolidWorks 2016 at the current price!
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And I didn't have time to read the whole article in English that I posted, but they say:
"how to avoid it" = how to avoid it.
Do you have any leads?
Yes I know, this is exactly the report I just submitted PL.
I think that to avoid it, there is no 36 solution, do it before January! :S ....
Another way is to decide to stay advitam in its current version (but hey, it's going to be nice in 10 years to pay the arrears)
Or else, to be part of a large group. Have workstations that become available in them (hello crisis!) and ask to recover the licenses and therefore the maintenance history.
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Or simply bought a new license without maintenance.
This does not prevent, a priori, from keeping the old versions.
It is a calculation to be made between the cost of maintenance and the cost of a new license.
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@stefbeno: it is written at the beginning of the article in English:
"up to the cost of a new license." => "within the limit of the price of a new license"
Fortunately, by the way!
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I'm in a small BE, we have 2 licenses that we bought a little over a year ago. Originally we hesitated with inventor (which I practiced for 9 years now) and we chose solidworks because the maintenance policy was economical by updating the software every 3-4 years for example.
In short, with this change in policy, it calls into question a lot of things for us. In my opinion, it's well over 5% of the fleet that doesn't have maintenance, and it's a good way to force maintenance to be maintained.
I have the feeling that the "contract" I made with solidworks when I bought my licenses has been changed without my agreement.
I find this policy really very very limited... But what to do?
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Good everyone,
Another solution, switch to another CAD software....
About this, does anyone know of a software of the same level as SW, of which they don't release a version
every year, and whose maintenance conditions do not turn into a bad ???
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I saw that Anna Wood, who had an influential blog about SolidWorks, is now switching to OnShape:
https://twitter.com/solidmuse/status/629009376825585665
There is a free version:
https://www.onshape.com/
And a priori imports and exports are compatible with SolidWorks.
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To sum up:
Updating a license can cost up to the price of a new license: before you had to pay for a fixed update, now, you have to pay this price for each version, even if you haven't used them (which corresponds to the cost of annual maintenance): going from 2011 to 2015 costs almost 4 times more than before (the maximum cost being the price of a new license).
There is no solution to avoid this. The advice of the link I posted:
http://www.solidsmack.com/cad/the-new-solidworks-subscription-late-policy-and-how-to-avoid-it/
Budget maintenance by impacting the cost on projects sold to the customer, or switch to another CAD solution, they offer: Rhino, SketchUp, Autodesk Fusion 360 and Onshape...
SketchUp has a fixed price and updates are free. Rhino has no maintenance costs. Fusion 360 and Onshape continue to work as long as you pay for the monthly subscription...
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It's really amazing how many people are part of the 5% who don't pay for their annual maintenance....
Strangely enough, SW's results will grow by 20 to 30% next year... (those of axemble and other resellers too I guess).
We have one license under maintenance for every 5 not maintained. Annual use of the hotline: 5 to 10 times maximum (and in addition in 80% of cases it is pure and hard bug reporting without any solution). We're already nice to maintain one given the lack of use of the hotline. If we put all our licenses under maintenance, SW and Axemble would see their turnover increase by 500% without providing any additional work....
So we're going to wait 4 or 5 years minimum before buying back licenses when there are promotions (why put the old ones back under maintenance: it would cost as much, or even more). Contact me at this time if you want to work on an old SW license ;-)
And in 5 years we will also change the software (since the license cost parameter will no longer be an advantage for SW, only the recovery of the existing one will be).
Welcome to a cash cow world (Draftsight will become paid shortly after SW has eaten up more than 50% of the Autocad market)
Imagine the outcry if Volkswagen did the same: 'oh but sir, you did your oil change off the grid last year: this year your service will cost double'
It also shows that SW is no longer screwed up to innovate enough that users are willing to pay every year to have the latest version. In most cases we are entitled to a gain of 2 mouse clicks on a function, 1 bug fixed for 2 new ones and access to new tools that no one uses (who really uses solidworks costing or solidworks sustainability: the green touch of SW ????)
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Hello
I was planning to suspend the maintenance of our 5 licenses, but seeing this article I am thinking of changing software.
My previous company was working with Missler's TopSolid and it worked pretty well and I think for less...