Autodesk excludes maintenance customers from AutoCAD 2017.1 update (Edit: actually, it doesn’t)

Autodesk excludes maintenance customers from AutoCAD 2017.1 update (Edit: actually, it doesn’t)

Edit: it turns out that when Autodesk said this was subscription-only, that wasn’t true. See my later post for details.

A mid-term update containing a bunch of useful stuff, AutoCAD 2017.1 is the first update made available exclusively to subscription customers (renters). I’d love to tell you about how great this update is, but I can’t because I’m not allowed to use it.

If you’ve been a loyal customer of Autodesk for 30 years and have paid countless thousands for your software, upgrades and Subscription (now called maintenance) over those years, even if you are right now still paying maintenance to keep that software up to date, Autodesk is rewarding that loyalty by waving a virtual digit in your general direction. If you’re not a renter, you’re now officially a second class customer.

Autodesk is going to progressively hammer in a wedge to try to separate customers from their perpetual licenses. AutoCAD 2017.1 is the thin end of that wedge. Expect worse to come.

11 Comments

    1. Strange, you’re not supposed to. From Heidi Hewett:

      Everything you need to know about the benefits in the first subscription-only update for AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT 2017, now available everywhere.

      I wonder how long it’s going to take to shut off that little avenue of potential productivity?

        1. I quite believe it’s happening to you, although I wouldn’t know about anything that happens through desktop app because it’s a pile of pus I refuse to have installed.

          I guess the new question is, why is Autodesk saying one thing and doing another? The plot thickens.

  1. The 2017.1 update is listed as a Product Update at the subscription web portal. I downloaded and installed via browser without any issues. So it is available for perpetual licenses like mine, but only because I pay for a subscription, aka maintenance.

    1. But these days subscription means rental. If you have a perpetual license and are paying to keep it up to date, although this used to be called Subscription, it’s currently called maintenance. So if Autodesk says something is subscription-only, according to its own jargon then perpetual license customers are excluded. Or should be excluded; I wonder what’s going to happen in the next few hours?

      1. yah, is it better to get all the Autodesk we pay for, or worse?
        This issue is further complicated by the fact that the app manager will not show the 17.1 update for some people. You know how this came up? Autodesk finally caught and fixed a major civil3d bug with corrupt styles, after we have complained about it for years. We used to have to delete the c3d styles portion of the dwg to deal with it, but the adesk fix cleans out the corrupt styles. The end result is c3d drawings open 30 seconds faster sometimes. You know what they called the bugfix? “Performance Enhancement Tool”. Now, you almost have to laugh while you are crying it took so long to get. Does the bugfix come in a prescription bottle with little blue usb keys? My Gosh. It seems the more embarrassing the problem being fixed, the more outlandish the fix title. They released the fix for FOUR versions back, like “oops, sorry we wasted tons of your time these last years…”. I am just wondering what customer got them to look close enough. You know it was a DOT that they are so desperate for these days, as c3d is not great for roads with knuckles and cul-de-sacs (3 line profiles).

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