This blog article was submitted by Florida based AutoCAD user Brian Benton. Check out Brian's blog for more http://cadablog.blogspot.com/
How often do you (or the company you work for) update your AutoCAD software? How much does it cost? What are the benefits of upgrading? How difficult will it be for our users to upgrade?
These are but a few questions CAD Managers and IT Directors ask every March. Why? Because it is the time of year for the newness of spring, baseball, taxes (in the U.S. anyway) and the release of new Autodesk products! This year is no different. So, what are you going to do? If your company is considering upgrading to the latest release of design software from Autodesk, then may I suggest going with their subscription plan.
Let’s take a look at what it can offer you and your design team. In a nutshell, Autodesk subscription will provide a user with software updates, online training, web support and now even more (I’ll get into that later.) Don’t I get that without subscription? Not really. Without subscription you will pay full price for the software and then pay somebody else to train your users. If something goes wrong you will pay again to have it fixed. Where’s the fun in that?
The most obvious reason (and perhaps the most important) is that members of the subscription program will receive the latest updates to their subscribed software. Nice, real nice! Here’s how it works, again, in a nutshell. A user purchases a license of their favorite Autodesk product (AutoCAD, Civil3D, Revit, etc.) then purchases the subscription plan. During the length of that plan, if Autodesk releases a new release, then said user will receive it, at no additional cost. Since Autodesk has released a new version of most of their products every year since 2003, that has added up to huge savings for many users and companies. At the end of your subscription contract, just renew it. Of course the price of subscription is much lower than the price of the application, thus the savings. AND, if Autodesk decides to skip a year, you will still be saving. I suggest you take a look at Autodesk’s pricing to better understand this, but you will quickly see the financial benefits from subscription.
In the case that saving tons of cash were not reason enough to subscribe, Autodesk has added some additional carrots to sweeten the pot. Besides the automatic update of software, subscribers will also receive (I sound like a game show host-tell them what they’ve won Bob!!) direct one-on-one technical support from Autodesk (via web support); self paced e-learning lessons (to keep users up to date on the latest software); and extended licensing privileges.
All of these added benefits to subscription mean that you and your company will always have the latest software and the training needed to run it! If an issue pops up, just contact Autodesk via the web support. One more thing (as if cheaper, faster, and better wasn’t enough), Autodesk has added something to subscription available for the 2009 releases. Impression. Impression is a design document illustration software package. That’s a fancy way of saying that Impression will digitally render a drawing with the ability to make it look hand rendered. It was first released last year with great success. This year, Impression 2 will be available via a download to subscribers only!! For free! Anyone that is creating drawings and needs to better illustrate those drawings (better compared to 2D black and white prints) can, and should be using, use Impression. Go on and check it out before you buy, wait a minute, it’s free to subscribers!!
To wrap this up, Autodesk’s Subscription Program is a good deal. Users will get the latest software (at a better rate), free training, free tech support, free Impression, and even more. If you are looking at updating your Autodesk products, I suggest checking out their subscription plan before you buy.
I even got a slick ride back to my hotel in Jay's hydrogen cell powered GM SUV which runs on hydrogen. I would love to have a hydrogen powered vehicle but with only 40 of them made so far they run about 1 million dollars so the price needs to come down to an affordable level. 
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