Upgrade price

Ian Johnson
edited October 2020 in BricsCAD BIM

Why is the upgrade price from V20 BIM to V21 BIM nearly the same price as buying it outright?

Last year I paid AUD $812 to upgrade from V19 Platinum to V20 BIM which is fair as I wanted the BIM module of Bricscad.

Now the price is AUD $1463 to go from V20 to V21 BIM (excluding the module upgrade).

That is nearly a %100 increase?

Regards Ian

Comments

  • The price will be whatever the market will pay. In general, I think BricsCAD has lost a lot of its pricing advantage.

    -Joe

  • Jason Bourhill
    edited October 2020

    @Ian Johnson said:
    Why is the upgrade price from V20 BIM to V21 BIM nearly the same price as buying it outright?

    Last year I paid AUD $812 to upgrade from V19 Platinum to V20 BIM which is fair as I wanted the BIM module of Bricscad.

    Now the price is AUD $1463 to go from V20 to V21 BIM (excluding the module upgrade).

    That is nearly a %100 increase?

    Regards Ian

    It's because maintenance is now mandatory with all upgrades. Essentially you are paying for an upgrade to V21 & V22 in one hit.

    You say you upgraded last year to V20 BIM? To do this you would of also paid for maintenance. I would check when this maintenance runs to. Possibly you are already entitled to a V21. V21 keys are being progressively rolled out to customers with a current maintenance agreement.

    Regards,
    Jason Bourhill
    BricsCAD V20 Ultimate
    CAD Concepts

  • Thanks for your reply Jason,

    Why is maintenance mandatory? I am sure there are users, like me, who are happy to pay the upgrade price without maintenance.

    Are you saying that if I pay the maintenance fee, then I will not have to pay for an upgrade next year? If so, why is it called a maintenance fee and not next years upgrade price?

    Also based on my last 10 years of upgrades which started at $180 in 2010 AUD, we have seen a rise in upgrade price of over 700% which also seems a lot to me.

    Granted, Bricscad has evolved into a first class product and I am more than happy with it, but it seems that the incentive to upgrade is disappearing.

    Thx Ian

  • @Jason Bourhill said:

    @Ian Johnson said:
    Why is the upgrade price from V20 BIM to V21 BIM nearly the same price as buying it outright?

    Last year I paid AUD $812 to upgrade from V19 Platinum to V20 BIM which is fair as I wanted the BIM module of Bricscad.

    Now the price is AUD $1463 to go from V20 to V21 BIM (excluding the module upgrade).

    That is nearly a %100 increase?

    Regards Ian

    It's because maintenance is now mandatory with all upgrades. Essentially you are paying for an upgrade to V21 & V22 in one hit.

    You say you upgraded last year to V20 BIM? To do this you would of also paid for maintenance. I would check when this maintenance runs to. Possibly you are already entitled to a V21. V21 keys are being progressively rolled out to customers with a current maintenance agreement.

    Regards,
    Jason Bourhill
    BricsCAD V20 Ultimate
    CAD Concepts

    Yes, you're right in Europe it's the same.
    Best to all

  • Well, after my free (paid in advance) upgrade to V21, I probably won't upgrade again for 5 years. Unless BricsCAD brings out something VERY compelling. But their last upgrade to V20 actually removed the standard components from my licence.

  • I believe the first version of Bricscad I purchased was V4. It was a personal purchase to allow me to work on my skills at home. When I got into a position of authority at the company I work in, I purchased licenses for the company to use instead of Autocad. I had been upgrading my personal license every year that I was employed and the company's licenses were upgraded. It was worth it to me to spend $200 so that I could work on my skills at home. (I know about the 2 installs but I needed the second one for when I traveled using a company laptop).
    Since Bricsys was purchased (or knew they were going to be purchased), they put upgrading my personal license out of reach. In our company the lack of history based modeling (like V13 was) means that engineers that we hire cannot easily adapt from being trained in Solidworks, so we are not upgrading those either.
    The company that purchased Bricsys must be getting enough revenue from whatever customer base they are taking care of. I will just have to keep using my old versions until either they stop working due to other factors (Windows 10 "upgrades") or when they decide that the perpetual license really isn't perpetual.
    Just another example of how all things eventually end.

  • Joe Dunfee
    edited October 2020

    While my company has not had a lot of extra money to spend, the de-featuring of my v14 Pro license, and the increased cost of the upgrades were certainly disincentives. For me, the parametric blocks is a feature that I really want to have. But, then I would have to upgrade to the mechanical version to keep some of the mechanical parts that I use.

    So, at this point, my BricsCAD seat is not worth much in terms of getting an upgrade. If the funds are available for the upgrade, they are likely also available for the more expensive SolidWorks.

    -Joe

  • So, at this point, my BricsCAD seat is not worth much in terms of getting an upgrade. If the funds are available for the upgrade, they are likely also available for the more expensive SolidWorks.

    Your reasoning doesn't make much sense to me. Even if you go with Solidworks, you will still have the same problem of costs to upgrade at a later time. Say you need to upgrade again in a few years. Spend X for Bricscad upgrade, or spend Y for something else, where Y is more expensive than X.

    Why is maintenance mandatory? I am sure there are users, like me, who are happy to pay the upgrade price without maintenance.

    I'm on the cusp of getting V21. Been keeping a close eye on Bricscad and waiting for it to develop to the point I can be comfortable using it with the features I need. For kicks and giggles I went through the steps of buying a perpetual license on their website. When I added V21 Ultimate to the cart, I have an option to uncheck the 1 year maintenance package, saving me $670 CAD. Was this changed from when V20 was the current package?

  • You are correct, price for the upgrade alone, is not a good argument .

    What I omitted to say was that I have used Solidworks extensively in the past. And it is a more developed parametric modeler. Also, it is much easier to hire an experienced Solidworks user. So as the price of a Bricscad upgrade increases, the motivation to stay with Bricscad decreases.

    -Joe
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