Autodesk is evolving its business model to achieve a stronger and ongoing relationship with its customers, offering perpetual software licenses with Subscription and Desktop Subscriptions (software rental) as the primary purchasing options.
Marketing puke like this is pathetic.
"Autodesk wants more of your money, and since all of your models and drawings are in our proprietary format, you'd be screwed once we switch to a payment model where your software will stop working if you stop paying the subscription fee. But it's for your own good."
subs require machines to be internet-connected, at least whenever it checks for a valid license. What if you or your business cannot have it connected for whatever valid reason?
I think there are "phone" options and doesn't this lead to easy cracks?
Or the impossible happens: The internet connection goes down.
"Sorry, Internet's offline. Everyone go home.
Oh, wait, nevermind. The parking gates are connected to the Cloud-based parking space counting system, and they won't open unless they have an Internet connection to ensure that the management software's subscription is all paid up."
In some ways this change will create more innovations and demand for free, open-source software. so...
Or go back to more reasonable usage rules.
The layout software I use at work is nice: It allows multiple instances on one machine. So while one instance is busy processing something, I can open another one. Or I can open several instances just to be able to easily copy/paste between others.
Other software says "Nope, you've got one instance open already, and you only have one license. PIRATE!" So if I'm in the middle of a step that I can't switch out of, and I need to reference another component, I need to either half-ass the last part of that step so I can exit out of it, or else cancel it, reference the other part, and start over.
Kisslicer is a usable piece of independent software for 3d printers. "Usable" because the interface is a bit wonky, but it gets the job done. The software that came with the consumer-grade 3d printer that I use at work is really pretty pathetic. It is very sluggish, and offers only very basic control over the machine.
Kisslicer will use all 4 Hyperthreaded cores to do its job, and even on one core it's fast. It also offers advanced control over many aspects of the printer.
There's a limited free version, or a $35 version.
License:
"MAY be used for commercial applications
MAY be installed on multiple personal computers
MAY be backed up
The PRO Key MUST NOT be shared
MUST NOT be reverse engineered"
Commercial, individual, whatever, don't care.
But the larger companies would prefer to assume that you are a thief, and then have a tap put into an artery to siphon off a bit of blood now and then.
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