Autodesk CAD and DCC Tools Go Rental Pay As You Go

By Jon K. Carroll
published

As suspected, after the announcement of the subscription plan for Maya LT, Autodesk revealed that its products and suites will become available under a rental license as well as a purchased perpetual license.

As suspected, after the announcement of the subscription plan for Maya LT, Autodesk revealed that its products and suites will become available under a rental license as well as a purchased perpetual license.

Not only are the plans available for Autodesk Media and Entertainment's packages like its Design and Creation Suites (opens in new tab), Autodesk 3ds Max (opens in new tab), Autodesk Maya (opens in new tab), and the new Autodesk Maya LT (opens in new tab), but are also available for its CAD and Engineering products such as Revit (opens in new tab), AutoCAD (opens in new tab) and Inventor (opens in new tab).

"Our customers wanted more choices and flexibility in how they access our portfolio of design, engineering and entertainment creation tools. We expect rental plans to be attractive across all the industries we serve, especially for freelancers, startups or businesses that are project-based in nature," said Andrew Anagnost, senior vice president of Industry Strategy and Marketing at Autodesk. "This model allows customers to compete with the highest quality, industry leading software, while using only what they need when they need it."

Design projects and even studios are becoming more and more project-based with more and more of the people working on them on a freelance or contract basis instead of as employees of the studio. Having affordable subscription rental plans for the tools that artists and designers need should go a long way towards facilitating their being able to have the tools necessary to do their work. The rental service includes the same level of support received by subscription customers, meaning that the rental customer doesn't need to worry about having an old unsupported version of the software or file format incompatibilities induced by using different versions of the software -- which can always be a headache when working with a lot of freelancers. The rental service also includes access so some Autodesk 360 (opens in new tab) services and basic support.

Availability
The option to purchase a monthly, quarterly or annual rental plan will be available starting now. New rental plans apply to products including Autodesk AutoCAD Design Suite (opens in new tab), Autodesk AutoCAD Inventor LT Suite (opens in new tab), Autodesk AutoCAD Revit LT Suite (opens in new tab), Autodesk Building Design Suite (opens in new tab), Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite (opens in new tab), Autodesk Factory Design Suite (opens in new tab), Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite (opens in new tab), Autodesk Plant Design Suite (opens in new tab), Autodesk Product Design Suite (opens in new tab), Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, and Autodesk Maya LT. Availability varies by country. For more information, visit http://www.autodesk.com/pay-as-you-go (opens in new tab) .

Jon K. Carroll
9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Murissokah
    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.
    Reply
  • wopr11
    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.
    Reply
  • soo-nah-mee
    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!
    Reply
  • John Bauer
    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.
    Reply
  • jhansonxi
    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.
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    11553482 said:
    I HATE freakin subscription plans !!!

    You'll get no argument from me! :D
    Reply
  • stevejnb
    11555152 said:
    What are you guys retarded? Torrent is your friend! Sheesh, who would even have the right mind of paying literally thousands of dollars for a software? Seriously, wake up peeps~ it's not that hard to crack, and YOU'RE WELCOME!! ^_^

    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.
    Reply
  • 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.
    Reply
  • falchard
    Not as good as Blender.
    Reply