Revit Renewal

[narlee]

Last summer, Revit had abandoned its monthly lease option and had gone to only two options: 1-year license @ $2,000 or full-license @ $4,000. I bought the 1-year license from Consulting for Architects in Boston. Now, the full-license option appears to have disappeared and I would need to purchase a brand-new 1-year license for $3,000 plus an-upfront 1-year subscription fee of $627 for a total of $3,600!!! (to be paid again and again and again...). AND I will not own a damn thing but will be indentured forever (to Autodesk) or dump the entire investment.

Does anyone know a better way? It's worse than renting an apartment. At least if you change places if the product doesn't hold up over time, you don't have to loose $3,000. Plus, what happens down the road if you skip a year? Start over? This is bull.

[Steve_Stafford]

Once you've paid the purchase price, you "only" have to pay the $600ish subscription fee per year thereafter. Not $3600...you knew that right?

Tough pill to swallow, I'd say CFA did you a disservice suggesting you should do the 1 year...or did they? Considering Revit's frequent build and updates and new version releases, anything other than subscription makes little sense.

[czoog]

Last summer, Revit had abandoned its monthly lease option and had gone to only two options: 1-year license @ $2,000 or full-license @ $4,000. I bought the 1-year license from Consulting for Architects in Boston. Now, the full-license option appears to have disappeared and I would need to purchase a brand-new 1-year license for $3,000 plus an-upfront 1-year subscription fee of $627 for a total of $3,600!!! (to be paid again and again and again...). AND I will not own a damn thing but will be indentured forever (to Autodesk) or dump the entire investment.

Does anyone know a better way? It's worse than renting an apartment. At least if you change places if the product doesn't hold up over time, you don't have to loose $3,000. Plus, what happens down the road if you skip a year? Start over? This is bull.

You won't have to pay the full purchase price, you just need to pay the $695 for the subscription. and you'll get a paid up license. It was part of the deal to not alienate existing customers. It's a pretty goiod deal, CFA should have told you that.

[czoog]

BTW, Narlee.
You're from walpole? I have familiy in Foxboro, near the stadium. I just ate at that IHOP near the Walpole mall, a few weeks ago.

[narlee]

Thanks for the info, guys. Also, ajholland emailed me to talk to MSC Software in Lowell, who apparently have been very good to customers. He thinks there was a transition program that might work, though it doesn't fit my situation exactly: "...recently, they offered the remaining RTC subscription-only customers a 'perpetual license' at around $700 (per year)." Steve, I knew the 1-year license was for 1 year - I just didn't think it would then double the next time around. Too many price changes in 1 year. Chris, I don't know how the locals feel about the new stadium, but it is AWESOME: great seating, and incredible acoustics for an open air venue. Saw a soccer game with my daughters and their coach. Of course, if you need to eat anything there, bring last week's paycheck. But hey, that's biz.

Best,
Geof.

[narlee]

Gentlemen,

Guess what magically arrived in my e-mail today? Offer from Autodesk for "Paid-up" license customers to transition to their subscription program for $695. You guys were right (had I ever doubted?) Talk about timing. Not sure if the June 9 offer date was appended for my e-mail or if it's a new offer. Guess the guy at CFA was mistaken. He told me I'd have to pay the full boat all over, but that someone would contact me, but this email came from Autodesk, not CFA. Anyway, in a much better mood.

[BomberAIA]

I paid to own Revit, I thought, which included all the updates forever. I found out yesterday it only included updates for a year. Was I dreaming trhis or did the Revit salesperson "sold me a bill of goods?"

[aaronrumple]

Revit has never been sold that way.

A paid up subscription does give you a perpetual license to Revit, just not all the updates for free forever. As long as you keep current with your yearly subscription fees, you do indeed get all the updates. If for whatever reason you decide to drop the subscription, you can keep using the last version you paid for for as long as you like.

[BomberAIA]

Revit has become Autocad,& I hate it. Revit is too exspensive and now you have to go thru dealers.

[gregcashen]

I have mentioned before, and I'll say it again...If Autodesk really wants to sell Revit, they would bundle it with AutoCAD LT and sell it all for $2000 with $500/year upgrades. Suddenly they become price competitive with Chief Architect and others of their ilk and they open up a whole new market. In addition, they abandon the image that their software is WAY TOO EXPENSIVE (which it is).

Notice that almost all of the workarounds for linking projects involves exporting/importing with AutoCAD, so it is not really a good option to upgrade a seat of Acad for Revit. You really need to keep some sort of Acad functionality.

I personally have found no value in my reseller, so technically, I can't call them a VAR. They sold me a seat, and then they call me once every 2 months to see if I need training. They have no one that I've talked to that appears to know revit as well as I do, so I can't go to them for tech support.

{end of whining}