Mastercam maintenance costs

[richg]

I was just interested in knowing what kind of percentage increases each year some of you have seen when paying your maintenance bills.
Oddly, for us, some seats like 3d have gone up 5% and the 2d seats have gone up 25% in one year?

 

[CAMasochism]

I was just interested in knowing what kind of percentage increases each year some of you have seen when paying your maintenance bills.
Oddly, for us, some seats like 3d have gone up 5% and the 2d seats have gone up 25% in one year?

Well it's not Mastercam, but our NX extortion fee is going up 10% if you switch to their subscription model, and 15% if you stick with a perpetual license. Seems all the big companies are out to gouge their customers for all they think they can get away with.

I just can not understate my dislike of software companies. They are the pioneers for all of the worst business practices that other companies are going to.

 

[Volitan]

I was just interested in knowing what kind of percentage increases each year some of you have seen when paying your maintenance bills.
Oddly, for us, some seats like 3d have gone up 5% and the 2d seats have gone up 25% in one year?

I don't know what the percentage was for us, we have 1 multi axis, 2 3d's, one with wire and another 2-1/2D or whatever they call it.
One of the VP's here took advantage of our reseller offering 2 years at the old price before it went up.
In 2024 when that comes due we're seriously considering dropping support.

 

[implmex]

Hi All:
I dropped support for all my CADCAM software ages ago.
All predicted gloom, doom, and sudden messy death.
I'm still alive.

Cheers

Marcus
www.implant-mechanix.com
www.vancouverwireedm.com

 

[Volitan]

Hi All:
I dropped support for all my CADCAM software ages ago.
All predicted gloom, doom, and sudden messy death.
I'm still alive.

Cheers

Marcus
www.implant-mechanix.com
www.vancouverwireedm.com

The dynamic milling was a game changer. I would say even if someone is doing 2d work, and they're before 2017(whenever they offered it..) It would be worth it to re-up for a year to get that.
The other small stuff they add is nice but that's really the only must IMO

 

[OVodov]

There is always game changer coming out once in while.
Supporting circle segment tools came after Dynamic Milling and it's coinvent not only for 5 axis.

 

[Marvel]

Seems as all CAM software saw an increase recently, I've heard it from multiple users of different CAM companies. I saw an increase with CAMWorks during my last renewal, last November. I took advantage of a 3 year discount.

 

[???]

Like Marcus I dropped support for my software years ago. At the time they changed to subscription I asked their senior support person what was likely to improve, they said in their opinion nothing other than aesthetics. Doesn't seem to have held me back, obviously big organizations have issues around OS security etc especially if doing government work. I do feel for people that don't have the perpetual licence option and have to subscribe from the get go.

 

[604Pook]

Like Marcus I dropped support for my software years ago. At the time they changed to subscription I asked their senior support person what was likely to improve, they said in their opinion nothing other than aesthetics. Doesn't seem to have held me back, obviously big organizations have issues around OS security etc especially if doing government work. I do feel for people that don't have the perpetual licence option and have to subscribe from the get go.

This where I am at, between Solidworks and Camworks, the yearly extortion fees for maintenance, and the updates that I rarely see any improvement in my workflow, is getting expensive. Especially since you have already paid the $$$ to get the programs in the first place. The push to everything being cloud based, will have me likely quitting the updates and subscriptions and taking my cad/cam work to an offline only computer. I already do this with an older PC I run Mastercam x2 on for a specific family of work I do.

 

[Mtndew]

Seems as all CAM software saw an increase recently,

Probably because a lot of them have been acquired by larger companies. Like Mastercam being purchased by Sandvik.

 

[Marvel]

Probably because a lot of them have been acquired by larger companies. Like Mastercam being purchased by Sandvik.

What other CAM was acquired by larger companies other than Gibbs and MasterCam?

 

[jaguar36]

What other CAM was acquired by larger companies other than Gibbs and MasterCam?

HSMWorks was aquired by Autodesk, Esprit was aquired by Hexagon

 

[Marvel]

HSMWorks was aquired by Autodesk, Esprit was aquired by Hexagon

AD acquired HSMWorks 10 years ago now and Esprit has been a few years. I thought @Mtndew was implying more were acquired in the last year or so by larger companies and that's the reason for increases we are all seeing this year.

 

[Mtndew]

AD acquired HSMWorks 10 years ago now and Esprit has been a few years. I thought @Mtndew was implying more were acquired in the last year or so by larger companies and that's the reason for increases we are all seeing this year.

No, I wasn't implying anything really, just tossing out possible reasons as to why prices went up.

 

[OVodov]

Maybe ModuleWorks raised prizes for it's modules, so all others CAM had to raise too?

 

[Marvel]

Maybe ModuleWorks raised prizes for it's modules, so all others CAM had to raise too?

I saw a bigger increase on the CAD side with SolidWorks than I did with my CAM side with CAMWorks.

 

[mhajicek]

IIRC, Partmaker was also acquired by AD.

 

[Areo Defense]

IIRC, Partmaker was also acquired by AD.

Wasn't Partmaker tied to PowerMill a while ago? I see Powermill, Powershape and PowerInspect are now on the Autodesk site too.