And lose your right to use it for your work.
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Right! I forgot you do this for work! I just play …
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I am pretty amazed that so many of you (in this thread) seem to pick an every day design tool based on, well … other facts than the richness of features and ease of use that a product brings you (= joy).
Bringing in Blender as an alternative really, I cannot other than interprete this as cost being the biggest factor of choice. And what cost are we talking about in a SketchUp subscription anyway, 25$ a month?
There is SketchUp Free for non-commercial use.
I believe in Subscription as a clear and healthy business model. Because, how perpetual is perpetual in the end?
Let your Maintenance lapse for 3 years and you are in the same boat as what this thread started about. Have an old AutoCAD ‘perpetual’ license? Sorry, no longer able to activate. Upgraded your OS? Sorry, current version incompatible (and take note: application vendor is not to blame for this yet it will 100% be your future).
So yes, you better stay up to date and supported. Subscription is a good model to give you exactly this. In the longer end, yes it is more expensive. But for the sake of credibility I do hope that $300/yr stays $300, for a long time.
You want to stay with a perpetual? That’s fine but don’t change anything about your then-current system.
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It is a gamble. Stop paying the subscription fee (~$300/year), and you lose the ability to run SketchUp Pro within one year (annual subscription period, if I recall correctly). With the Classic perpetual license, stop paying for Maintenance & Support (~$120/year) and you might lose the ability to run SketchUp Pro (due to O/S compatibility) in a few years? 5? 10?
Granted that the more-expensive subscription plan provides access to more software features (viewer and such, if I recall correctly). If you need those features, then perhaps the 2.5X cost of the subscription plan is worth it, despite the quicker “death” when you stop paying.
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Actually I am still using my License from AutoDesk 2018. Just upgraded my system and reinstalled it on windows 10, First time I’ve used 10, and it works fine. You have to remember to transfer your license out of the program with the License Manager before you fuss with it, but if you still have your authorization Autodesk will still help you reinstall it if you forgot. You just have to find a phone number! THAT is almost impossible. Had the same experience with my SketchUp. Just unathorize the computer you are no longer using BEFORE you try and do an install on the new computer. I don’t know Jack about MAC because I’ve NEVER felt the need for a MAC, but that is a different argument.
You are wrong about Autodesk, mine still works fine and I stopped my subscription three years ago! As for not paying for support for three years then expecting it to come right back… Why would you expect any company to support you if you stop paying them? I think Autodesk gives you a month or two to catch up, but years? No one does that. I’m just worried that they will stop the whole Maintenance program altogether. I can not and will not pay 2.5X what I pay now for the program.
I stay far away from AutoDesk so I don’t know the details, maybe it is 5 years. But at some point you are going to be disappointed.
There is not really something like ‘stop paying them’ in a perpetual license: you already did. The problem is that any fixes wil only be done in the latest versions, so unless you can live with the glitches, you better stay up to date.
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So, for those of us who have a classic license and renew annually their M+S, it’s a price rise…
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If you only use it to draw, yes. If you want to take advantage of further developments and all ready included stuff like Trimble Connect and Viewers, first year no, second year, same (as subscribers, now)
Best strategy (IMO): let the M&S expire, then go with Sub.
Your Classic will not expire and will continue you to help you draw.
Thinking that I might renew M+S before 4 Nov 2020 to get SU2021… that is if they release 2021 before 3 Nov 2021…!
Sometimes there are things coming up that we can’t talk about until it happens. This topic is one example. As Mike (who must have been constantly refreshing the blog page) shows, today is that day.
The article is also a forum post, and that could be a good place to continue the discussion:
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I wonder how many of us need XR viewers…?
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A question I’ve asked in the past but have been flogged for it.
I just received email from SketchUp stating the following:
Same SketchUp you love, new way to buy.
The SketchUp community deserves an affordable and ever-improving product. We’re moving to subscription-only and welcoming you with a 60% discount.
Oh well. 
Now I’ll have to decide whether to subscribe or not. Thanks for the one-time discount, I suppose.
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This change challenges us to earn your business every single day by constantly improving the tools you need and love throughout each year. Challenge: Accepted.
…
Subscription demands constant improvement of our product and enables us to make SketchUp better for you — faster.
That is not true, in fact the inverse is true. If you want to have people keep on coming back you deliver. You develop, you make sure you earn them. When anyone is tied into a subscription they are locked in, if they want to work using the software (having access to your old work, your asset library, etc.) they’re locked in and have to keep on paying the subscription even if there is zero development.
Our subscriptions include more features, products, and services than the Classic Perpetual License can offer.
That is not true, that is by design. The subscription and perpetual licence started off offering virtually the same, in fact the subscription offered less as initially it was online only and thus not able to run extensions, the online version is still not able to run extensions.
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They quit selling M+S after that date, so technically you could renew M+S before that date and still be eligible for SU2021. Or am I wrong?
The pandemic has shown, if anything, that if you don’t own your software as in a perpetual licence, you very well may have fracked yourself. You’ll not be able to control / curb any spending in this area if you’re on a subscription plan.
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Read this part in the FAQ: Can I renew my Classic Perpetual Maintenance and Support early?
You can only renew support that is due to be renewed by November 4th, but you can do that early if you want. You can’t renew something that is due to be renewed later than that, even if you try to renew on Nov 3rd.
I think you’re right as it says in the FAQ:
If they were being nasty they’d release SketchUp 2021 on 5th Nov 2021. Even if they don’t, I bet that 2022 isn’t released before that day.
I’ll probably renew maintenance one more time, hoping to get one more version of SketchUp. The worst that could happen would be I get a buggy 2021 and the bugs are fixed after my maintenance runs out so I’d have to back to 2020 which is working fine at the moment.
So I read it wrong…?
My M+S expires in Spring 2021, so:
- I won’t be able to renew my M+S before Nov 2020? and
- My current M+S will expire in Nov 2020 and I won’t be eligible for SU 2021?