Inventor and no subscription

If I purchase Inventor without a subscription how much would an upgrade cost
be if it fell within 1 year.

I am thinking go without and just pay for the upgrade say every 2 years.

Don

 

what are you on about Tel

 

That's what I'm doing too - since R8 is just out, it's a good bet there
won't be another release for a couple of years. Trouble is, the subscription
gives you all the bug fixes as well - you'd think this would be included
with the amount you have to pay for the license. After all, there's a
difference between adding new features and fixing something that's broken.
We'll see how it goes.

G Faris

 

I had the same decision to make when we first got Inventor, at
version 5.3. I ended up not getting subscription, and am very glad for
it. When you are subscribing, you are pre-paying for future releases.
The main benefit is that some companies need the idea of a yearly fee
to avoid a battle with management to obtain a need upgrade. However,
it also removes any insentive for the software vendor to make the
upgrades earn your dollar.

It is possible you will not install a upgrade you get on subscription
because it breaks assemblies which used to work fine in the version
they were made, thus waisting your subscription fees. Not subscribing
also gives you money in the bank to switch platforms.

When I got 5.3, I though this was THE version where it had achieved
enough stability to be viable. But, for my work, it was far too
unstable to use, and we ended up abandoning it. I know some will say
"it is much more improved now", but after many years of frustration
over bugs, I've decided that upgrades don't really improve the bug
situation, they just shift the bugs around.

I suspect it is better to stay on a version where you know where the
bugs are, and how to avoid them. Upgrade only if the upgrade really
has features you absolutely need... (provided the new feature actually
works well).

Joe Dunfee

 

So, did you end up abandoning Inventor altogether?
What do you use in its place?

G Faris

 

We really only used it for one small project, that really demanded
the parametric technology. Part of the problem when you are new to a
program is that you don't know whether to blame the program or user
error. After a training class, and months of effort, I realized that
many of my problems were program bugs.

I ended up falling back on AutoCAD. But there seem to be growing
problems with using AutoCAD for 3d... hide problems, snap problems,
etc. I've pretty much decided to go with Solidworks. But, they are
certainly not trouble free either. Both CAD companies seem to be run
by the marketing departments.

Joe