You’re absolutely right Paul, and if I had more time I would probably consider the matter more extensively. Unfortunately though I’m a ‘one man band’ and can only devote so much time to what I suppose are business decisions.
I will definitely re-evaluate near the end of the 2 year subscription I’ve now paid for, though I’m not sure in which direction I would go. I’m not willing to learn anything too diverse, though as I already use Cad, I might give the 3D function another spin - last time I tried it wasn’t very pleasant. I found sketchup to make an otherwise technical job, quite enjoyable - however if they drop the ball and fail to provide any reasonable updates and improvements, I may even farm out my 3D work if needed.
Thanks for the information, my mistake then, it was nearly 20 years ago when I started using it and I thought the free version was available earlier. I remember now that they offered a free trial version, which I downloaded and tried, saw the potential it had, bought the Professional version personally and a number more seats for my company over the years, and kept everything paid up and on maintenance to keep it all up-to-date. I fail to see why Trimble cannot offer those of us who have been with the company so long a reasonable increase to our maintenance agreement so we may stay current with our software and perpetual licenses. I had planed to keep paying until I fully retired, which may be 2 to 5 years or so and I still think that what they are doing to us is pretty disgusting.