Autodesk Suites – Are They Worth The Price? (Or is the Cost of “Free” One-Way)

Now is the time of year our Autodesk AutoCAD Users come up for subscription renewal…  

This is a troubling tale I’ve heard too many times:

Company A purchased the Ultimate Suite because of a promotional special by their Autodesk Partner.  All they really needed was the Standard Suite and when they asked to revert back that Partner wants them to pay the Upgrade Price to get back down!

or this one:

Company B transferred all their AutoCAD Licenses to Suites or vertical versions of AutoCAD such as AutoCAD Mechanical because of a ‘promotion’ by their Autodesk Partner and now their subscription costs have skyrocketed.  The solution is the same as above – you pay the full upgrade price to revert to plain AutoCAD.

If you do a Google search on Autodesk and Suites you need to go at least 10-20 pages deep to find the true story = but its there nonetheless.  Autodesk and their dealer channel are pushing the Autodesk Design Suites and Vertical Products.  In order to get them into the market they are offering “Free” or low cost upgrade deals.

Many of our customers have experienced this first-hand so please look at the bottom line and ensure the decision to move to a “low-cost” Suite or Vertical is the best decision long term!  The cost to move is “Free”.  The cost to move back is NOT.

Downgrades do not exist in the world of Autodesk!

If you determine you don’t need the extra “Free” tools and want to go from the Ultimate Suite to the Standard Suite or the Standard Suite to plain AutoCAD to reduce your subscription costs then you pay the Upgrade Price for every license.  Period.  “Free” is a one way street!

Most companies do not need 3, 4, 5, 6+ applications to get a Plant Design project done nor do they have the resources to operate that many different technologies. Moreover, the application inter-operability is marginal at best.  Be careful.

CADWorx is CADWorx!  One application all integrated.  CADWorx Plant Professional exchanges with the CAESAR II for Stress Analysis and PV Elite for Pressure Vessel Analysis…none of the Autodesk Suite Products or other applications come close to these programs.  With the acquisition of GT STRUDL and the new AutoCAD/Structural analysis application being released in the near future, Intergraph and CADWorx will have another Analysis Package that will become the market leader.  In this case, GT STRUDL will take over the ‘steel’ market with all these capabilities under one platform.  Further, there is now a growing integration between CADWorx, SmartPlant and Leica too.

Since the Intergraph transition from COADE, ECE has heard every rumor from every Autodesk Dealer ‘expert’.  Unlike AutoPlant, CADWorx releases an AutoCAD compatible version within 3-4 month after the new AutoCAD release.  Unlike AutoDesk, Intergraph is focused solely on Plant, Process and Marine with a truly integrated suite on the AutoCAD platform.   Intergraph owns the Number 1 Plant Design Software on Microstation (PDS) and the Number 1 Plant Design Software on AutoCAD.

CADWorx & Analysis Products are the Market Leader and Here to Stay!

Autodesk Suites – Are They Worth The Price? Please let me know your thoughts!

Thank you,

Jeffrey Suffet