Alan Cooper Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Will there be a charge to users of 8 to upgrade to 8.5, and if so how much will it be please? Emails have been received about Family Plan upgrades, but hard to decide without this knowledge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMclean Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Agreed. That would be a very nice piece of information to have before the Family Plan offer times out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 I thought that whintin the same version number it would be possible to upgraded free. Version 6 / 7 / 8 and 8.5??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan303 Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Agree, I thought that this would just be an update especially since a lot of the improvements are in Layout and were supposed to work when version 8 came out in the first place! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cooper Posted June 23, 2015 Author Share Posted June 23, 2015 Well, according to this: http://www.formz.com/products/formz/formz8_Update_family_plan.html the impression is that 8.5 will have a cost applied for v8 users. Some clarity would be appreciated, although I will probably gather the pennies together for the family plan in anyway as the support is useful and strictly speaking it is restricted without Family Plan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wjo53 Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 From the email I got, yes, there is a charge - for maintenance. I tried the 'CLICK HERE' route to upgrade mine, but when I went through the process, it appears someone screw'd the pooch, and left Canada off the list of the world's countries. Nice guys always get left...well, you get the idea. Tried the webpage of the Canadian distributor, and they don't have the deal there. Will it be there before release? Or can CANADA join the list of all the other countries in the world? :-) John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AHTOH Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 I purchased family plan in order to cut some costs before FZ 8 was released. I was really pissed off when I realized that upgrade costs same $250 as Family Plan cost. Also 8.5 is mostly a fix to Layout in compare to major updates. Which I agree with Duncan303. Only a few minor tools are added (Scatter, Voronoi e. t. c.) So there will be kinda cheat from Autodessys if they would decide to charge us for that amount of major release. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Malinski Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 Basically my understanding is that if you purchased or upgraded to 8.0 within the last four months 8.5 is free. I upgraded in November, so I will have to pay. If its any more than about $80 I will likely not bother to upgrade to yet another 'full' beta product. I'm not happy with 8.5 being touted as an upgrade....it should be an update release. Of course the stock forum response....'We do not discuss product pricing'' applies to this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cooper Posted June 24, 2015 Author Share Posted June 24, 2015 I have now purchased another year of Family Plan on the basis that I want the continued fixes to existing tools, which will be implemented from now on only in 8.5 as well as continued support. The training session and some new features may be useful, but have not been the priority in my purchase decision as I have not found Layout useful yet. What I want is flawless operation to the core product and the User Interface and some little details which would make regular use easier and quicker, like, for example, not needing to zoom in to read a selected dimension in the model or to read the result of one which is being produced. The things which make every day modelling more efficient are more important than competing for latest sexy feature in the industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dworks Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 i am still using FZ as my main workhorse for 3d modeling, that's why i renewed my family plan membership, as it is a good way to support the ongoing development of this program and at the same time to get all updates and the best support services. but i would expect more from a .5 version to be honest. however, i hope and expect that this version will soon fix all the outstanding bugs in 8.0.2, especially the UI issues and adds a few of the so requested features still missing from previous FZ versions. cheers markus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMclean Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 From the email I got, yes, there is a charge - for maintenance. I tried the 'CLICK HERE' route to upgrade mine, but when I went through the process, it appears someone screw'd the pooch, and left Canada off the list of the world's countries. Nice guys always get left...well, you get the idea. Tried the webpage of the Canadian distributor, and they don't have the deal there. Will it be there before release? Or can CANADA join the list of all the other countries in the world? :-) John John, I just got an email from them today and Zolos, the Canadian distributor now has the deal listed, albeit at a slightly higher price reflecting the current state of our dollar... Doug Of course I'd still like to know what the upgrade price will be without the Family Plan accoutrements.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonmoore Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 I'm not a license holder myself but I advised a number of the studios I work with here in the UK to get on board with v8. I keep an eye on developments across the industry and have been both underwhelmed with v8.5 and disappointed by the number of existing issues that have still to be addressed (some of which go back to the beginning of the v7 life-cycle and before). I'm hopeful that v8.5 will not be a paid upgrade as there didn't seem to be a point version upgrade fee on v7. It seems to me that ADS are purposely not communicating whether v8.5 is a paid upgrade or not so as to sell a few more family plan subscriptions. This lack of transparency is at best unprofessional and at worst a devious sales tactic. Compared to the level of improvements you get in a package such as Modo as part of the yearly upgrade cycle ( https://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/modo/latest-version/new-features/) the$300 per annum family pack subscription fee seems a very high price to pay for a lacklustre set of new features and worse still, age old issues and bugs still not being squished. I believe software developers should be paid for their ongoing development but responsiveness is also an integral part aspect of support contracts and such like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wjo53 Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 John, I just got an email from them today and Zolos, the Canadian distributor now has the deal listed, albeit at a slightly higher price reflecting the current state of our dollar... Doug Of course I'd still like to know what the upgrade price will be without the Family Plan accoutrements.. Thanks. Got renewed when I saw they'd updated the deal for form'Zed'ers. :-) John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 Jonmoore, While I understand peoples frustration with upgrade pricing not being announced, I choose to give Autodesys the benefit of the doubt before thinking their behavior unprofessional or devious. Regarding the Family Plan, as a Family Plan member you can call Autodessys and get phone support. While their online help is excellent, as a professional having direct, immediate access to excellent support is more than worth the $ to me. Tack the free updates and upgrades onto the Family Plan and it is one of the best expenses I have in my business. Regards, Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonmoore Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 While I understand peoples frustration with upgrade pricing not being announced, I choose to give Autodesys the benefit of the doubt before thinking their behavior unprofessional or devious. Gary I fully accept my comments sound harsh but it does seem to me to be unprofessional to attempt to get people to take out a subscription plan on the back of the forthcoming v8.5 release, without also providing the details of comparative upgrade pricing alone (or even if this point version upgrade will require an upgrade fee at all). IMHO transparency is key for these kinds of purchasing decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cooper Posted June 26, 2015 Author Share Posted June 26, 2015 Jon, the smoke and mirrors approach in this case does not seem characteristic, I have lots of respect for the company so can only assume they are not fully decided yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gumby_Doyen Posted June 27, 2015 Share Posted June 27, 2015 I've a been a form•Z for many years, and AutoDesSys has behaved decently, maintaining a good customer/ client relationship. If they suddenly decide to become greedy or not share information with their client base, it will only have a negative impact. I am watching it happen with another well known software company recently, and it's not pretty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shibui Design Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 If we want AutoDesSys to keep developing solid tools from which we earn our living, we must also expect to compensate them for the value they deliver to us. What is the value of the tools they deliver to us versus the price you pay for them? I think the return on investment is a good one. Consider the other options in the marketplace and you will likely agree the cost/benefit works in our favor! "Free" comes at a price! Realizing this, I just signed up for the upgrade and family plan option. I hope others will do the same... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cooper Posted June 29, 2015 Author Share Posted June 29, 2015 If we want AutoDesSys to keep developing solid tools from which we earn our living, we must also expect to compensate them for the value they deliver to us. What is the value of the tools they deliver to us versus the price you pay for them? I think the return on investment is a good one. Consider the other options in the marketplace and you will likely agree the cost/benefit works in our favor! "Free" comes at a price! Realizing this, I just signed up for the upgrade and family plan option. I hope others will do the same... Agreed, envdesign, provided that the developments are those which we most want.....and of course we will always want different features, tweaks or priorities for fixes. However if more people would vote for the features in the wish-lists, it would give Autodessys a clue as to those things which are in greatest demand. This forum is great because a user-community helps us to share ideas, and gives a chance to search for an answer already given, without bothering Tech. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Sorry for the delay in responding. Yes, generally we do not discuss pricing on the forum, but we will make an exception in this case. We have finalized the price of the formZ 8.5 update at $125. The Family Plan is generally a great value as it not only includes the costs of all updates that are released during the year, it also offers priority technical support, and a free training class. Often times the Family Plan pays for itself based on the upgrade costs alone, and at the current special discounted price, this is an even better value. We might note that we are not forcing anyone into a subscription plan (as is becoming common these days), so each user may decide for themselves which they prefer, but the current deal on the Family Plan is a very good option to consider.We will also be releasing an 8.1 update that includes many of the corrections (but not new features) found in 8.5 that do not require certain internal architectural changes found in 8.5. This will be released as a free patch around the same time as the release of 8.5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonmoore Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 We will also be releasing an 8.1 update that includes many of the corrections (but not new features) found in 8.5 that do not require certain internal architectural changes found in 8.5. This will be released as a free patch around the same time as the release of 8.5 This all sounds very fair. To be clear, any criticisms I had was not regarding the value of the Family Plan (or subscriptions in general) but was more with regard to the lack of clarity as to the available options. This has now been remedied and it's great that you're providing a 'bug fix' path for those that are less interested in the updated layout functionality at no extra cost. All three options offer great value and provide excellent flexibility for the varying needs of your customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cooper Posted June 30, 2015 Author Share Posted June 30, 2015 Yes, fair, right and pretty well as expected, and feeling good about the Family Plan already ordered. Bravo AutoDessys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Malinski Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Thanks for confirming there will be a 8.1 update. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbuxton Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 I took out the family plan before the price of upgrading was announced, effectively paying double what I needed to. The free training would be useful if I was a new user or just upgraded from v6.7.3. Perhaps the family plan is ok if v9 is released within the next 12 months. Confusion and lack of clarity is never good when making purchasing decisions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 Hi Brian, The Family Plan includes the 8.5 update for free, and there will very likely be another more expensive update also included with that price, in addition to the training and support... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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