SolidEdge offers Monthly Subscriptions
This is creating a bit of noise. So far I’ve seen comments from Anna Wood and Devon Sowell, two of the more stable and conservative of the defunct SolidWorks Blog Squad who have both made positive comments about this move.
There are 5 levels, priced monthly from $20 to $300, depending on the functionality you need. Here is the link to the site making the Solid Edge offer. It is part of the deal with Local Motors to offer affordable software to folks who want to contribute to the LocalMotors effort.
At $20/month, the extra modeling power can only be a good thing.
@Mark Burhop
As well as Synch…
Hi Folks… sorry for the late reply. I tried to answer your questions both from here and some other blogs in a new post. Frankly, we are still learning to so some of the feedback here has been pretty useful.
http://blog.industrysoftware.automation.siemens.com/blog/2012/01/19/solid-edge-subscriptions-questions-blogosphere/
P.S. Chris, one point – Synchronous is very powerful in a multiCAD environment and easier to understand that a history tree (for someone new to CAD). It was just a better fit for Local Motors. Having said that, all the levels above Design1 still have the full history functionality.
Mark
@Chris
If you are used to only modelling in ordered (8 years in my case) then synchronous requires you to think very differently. The environment is very similar so the temptation is to assume things work in a similar way – they really don’t!
Clearly pure sync is not suitable for every modelling scenario but I think it will work well for many of the Local Motors contributors, especially at the price. My VAR told me last week that customers coming from 2D have not problem with sync and commonly use it exclusively, but existing users need quite a bit more training before they feel comfortable.
I reckon 80% of my models are now sync or sync/ordered hybrids so maybe you should contact my main client (a market leading German multi-national) and tell them their parts are being
designed by a non-professional! (just joking). .
This version includes just the Synchronous mode, for me as a Solid Edge user (4 years) useless.
The whole ST technology is in my eyes (made two plastic parts projects with ST) trash, for marketing ok but not for professional working!!
@asdf
that is 2500euros, i might add.
@Adam B
Totally agree Adam, and for hobby use this model is fine. If they opened it up to full commercial use this would be very very interesting to a lot more potential users (myself included). The scenario you mention – short term projects is one we face all the time. I would even consider it is a way of undertaking an extended benchmark process (in that 30 day trials are useless on the whole).
What I find amusing though is it takes one of the big CAD companies to partially do this and it is suddenly all new. No.
Short term commercial software for rent has been around for years. Back in 2000 you could rent Think 3 software for 3 months at a time. Ashlar-Vellum have had a rental programme for years.
http://www.ashlar.com/shop/cad-and-3d-modeling-software-rental.html
VX used to do it. Even the big boys do it – you just have to ask. If you have specific short term project needs you can actually rent seats of SolidWorks from some of the larger VARs (as I understand it the VAR has to have a full commercial software license – they can’t just use their NFRs). I’ve not done this for several years so I’m not sure who still does it but a customer recently rented CATIA for a few months to cover a surge from these guys…..
http://www.appliedgroup.com/catia-rental/
It is fair to say that management of these schemes would have been tricky in the past, but these days of internet activation and deactivation, software downloads and online payments it is very doable. I’m convinced that many software companies would generate more income if they offered this as an alternative to the usual big buy and subs model. In the last 2 years we would have certainly used at least 3 or 4 months of SolidWorks had it been easily accessible (our VAR doesn’t offer it and I couldn’t be bothered to check all the others – so we just bought in sub cons).
the cheapest pro/e is ~2500 in my country. i don’t know exactly what’s not included though.
standard parts are, custom design from var anyway, surfaces are definitely not…
@Neil Thanks, Neil! BTW, my son is an IDer and so is our Part and Sheetmetal product manager. There is always more work than time and people but I can say these ID requests are not falling on deaf ears.
@Burhop – What’s an “Exploited assemblies”? I see that on all but the basic package. First guess is Exploded Assemblies, but that may just be because the two words sound alike.
I think the SE folk actually deserve some applause for getting out and doing this.
They are engaging with users to find out what they want from their future CAD, are offering convenient trials of their products, are open to honest feedback, have a 2 for1 deal going to make a transition easier, and now are putting up alternative purchase plans that are attractive.
What’s not to like about that effort…well done!
Beyond that its actually nice to write some complements and be optimistic and even enthused again.
Really hoping SE will announce something ID friendly, like a SurfaceEdge, in due course even if it takes a couple of years to arrive 😉
@Kevin Quigley
Kevin, surely that is only true if you plan to use SE every month for those 3 years though? I am assuming the target market for this is people who may only need to use the software for say 2 months for a single project, in which case they are only $600 out of pocket, rather than $5k + subs.
Or the other case that I was just talking to my boss about this morning, is the small business who lands a big contract, and needs to hire 3 or 4 extra designers on a short term basis to get the job done. No one wants to fork out 15 or 20k for extra seats that will just sit idle once that particular job is finished. Monthly subs would be ideal for adding short term extra design capacity (although only in general, not in this particular case where commercial use appears to be excluded)
@Neil Service Packs are included.
Not sure. I guess they mean hobby type use but that’s kind of odd considering the 5 levels. Don’t think many hobbyists would pay $3600/yr for the everything deal. Does this LocalMotors SE have a different file format perhaps….
@Neil
Got it, I missed that before. What’s the definition of a “personal design”? IMHO all my designs are my “personal designs” i.e. my patent US 2004/0210285 A1
If you click on any of the red ‘learn more and subscribe’ buttons its on the bottom right above the price.
Devon it is on every page linked to from the red buttons…
Maybe I’m not getting this, but I assume SolidEdge is what $5000 in the USA (it starts at £5000 plus subs in the UK)….or $229 a month? So you rent it monthly and if you don’t pay you don’t get? Why not just take a 3 year lease or HP, include subs and with VAR discounts the monthly cost will likely be less…..and you can use it for what you like.
So in this context what’s the great deal about this?
@TOP
Thanks for that info, I didn’t see that, do you have a link to that statement?
Devon
That small caveat is what got me. I can see that for the basic edition, but for the higher priced ones I would expect more use cases. I find it funny how they show a model of a boat with some transparent parts for the highest priced option, but it’s still only for personal use and local motors stuff.
A small caveat:
Terms of Use: This software may be used for personal designs and Local Motors’ contests and projects.
$20 is the basic edition, probably similar to the free solidworks express or how was it called (no std. parts, basic modelling & asm only).
sw express was free back then.. (or was it a 180 day temp license, i don’t rememeber anymore)
..interesting. I wonder if they’ll include the Catia translator for a reasonable monthly fee,.. that could be a good way to migrate even more disgruntled Solidworks/ Dassault clients,…..hmm?…
Woooo, DS have their pants taken down, again.
Its probably more of a controlled experiment than anything ATM but it could spread further…
How do service packs fit in to this business model? Perhaps its like SW student – just sp5 of the previous release?
Hmmm I cant find any of the fine print there. Perhaps you need to sign up to see that..
The prices & terms look simple and affordable. This is just what I need in these slow times. I’m excited about this and I look forward to using it. More to come.
Devon Sowell