Currently running 2024 SP5. Typically I have just upgraded only once the SP5 is available, sometimes running a couple years before upgrading. And I haven’t used training or very little tech support or any other bells and whistles they offer. My maintenance is up for renewal so I’m debating whether to renew or not. Just by the numbers it looks like in 3.5 years I could afford to buy SW outright for no more cost than renewal.
Currently our VAR is GoEngineer and quote 1687 for 1 year.
But my 2024 seems to crash more than older versions…I could upgrade to 2025 SP2, maybe 3 will come out before our maintenance expires…
I currently swap license between 2 computers, not sure if that will continue or not.
Any thots on Maintenance?
Any pointers on what version to have before letting it lapse?
If I had the last word, we wouldn’t be on subscription and would let the VAR entice us with rebates to get us back. There really isn’t much of a gain in being on subscription, when it comes to support you’re just as much left to yourself in the end. They’ll help you with certain issues but if you’re a little bit autonomous then you’ll most likely be able to get the same answers they’ll provide you on forums like this one.
The one thing they do have, is a direct line to Dassault, though in the end it doesn’t seem to have much weight.
Welcome to Solidworks Roulette. I wish I were still on 2022, but I made the mistake of upgrading to 2023, which had issues so I upgraded to 2024, which has more issues. I’m going to take a chance on 2025 when SP5 comes out, but it is truly a coin toss whether it will be an improvement or not.
If 2025 is a step in the right direction, I will probably go off subscription at that point. As Alex said, DSS has the VAR’s hands tied to the point that the support they provide isn’t any better than a good internet search.
Remind them that you don’t call in or need most of their other services. Offer them the $687 or what you think it is worth to keep up to date with subscription. Don’t forget to ask for every discount that you can get from senior, veteran, or CSWE.
I know that’s often true from seeing reports on the forums, but I would like to say that GoEngineer tech support is very good.
Where I am MLC has been better that GoE. If you don’t think you are getting help fast enough when you send in a ticket they have a link to the supper visor that you can get a hold of.
it depends on your business, it infrastructure and size. with PDM being very “microsoft sensitive” I am quite concerned to leave maintenance.
We are in a middle of a train wreck and honestly 2022 was stable, but it had some big flaw, 2023 solved some of 2022, but broke other stuff, 2024 changed the legacy hole wizard workflow and broke other stuff while solving some.
pdm already broke once with win11 update of explorer. since it is explorer based if it blows in our face we risk to be left without PDM with an out of maintenance version.
To the OP;
You can’t just buy a seat of SolidWorks anymore. You have to buy a seat and 2 years subscription.
The number I’ve seen thrown around for that is ~$9k.
So, factor that into your calcs.
I was much like you. In the numerous years I was on subscription, I never really had a need for them other than login/activation issues.
The last year I was on sub, I filed 4 support requests. One got resolved, and it was a password issue with the portal.
The rest, I either figured out myself, or they never bothered to respond.
I let my sub lapse last year. I’m running v2023 SP5.
Good luck in your decision process.
It seems like there is a pattern with DSS. The quality of the product slips. The users start screaming “one and two”. DSS puts emphasis on fixing bugs for a release or two. Then they go back to their normal ways and the quality drops off.
Unfortunately, given the new “platform” and everything that comes with it, I think the days of shouting “one and two” forcing DSS to improve are over.
Our maint contract is up end of June. We just got the auto-quotes from VAR, it’s a 27% increase since our last subscription price three years ago, I’m told that’s 8.36% annual rate of increase. All I know at this point is that I’m clueless what’s best course of action. Which is a big improvement from when we started with DSS; at that time I was unaware that I was clueless.
well to me the only thing with SW2025 worth while is the ability to save back to SW2024 and 2023. it saved our butts when a student came in with SW 2025 and edu seat are at SW 2024,
yes i’m edu so i don’t have to pay for anything, but I do have my own seat of SW 2024 and left it there as I don’t see any new things I would need fo my stuff.
If you’re interested our local VAR is promoting SolidWorks Premium at 50% off for a limited time.
As for release 2024 SP5, it is a lot less stable when compared to 2022 SP5. Hopefully 2025 SP5 will be a steadier.
Be aware that save back functionality only works if you are on subscription.
this is more or less what I am feeling right now.
2022 was stable, 2023 crashes without reason and bugs requiring hotfixes, 2024 is bug galore for the small testing I did, things like the basic UI falling apart for no reason, while the were fine the previous release and apparently untouched.
I think DSS has two concurrent teams working on different SW branches: the normal bugged branch and the uber bugged branch…
We were with MLC Cad for a few years before switching to GoEngineer. They were good also, but I don’t see how the responses I’ve gotten from GoEngineer could improve. I have been very happy with them.
sounds like they’ve taken a leaf out of the “Call of Duty: Warzone” programmers guide.
Yeah I know lucky I have SW2025 research here at ASU same as commercial so I can use that if needed, we are on maintenance\subscription every year.
Once upon a time I was a VAR.
In the “good old days” there were two releases/year.
e.g. v2009 and v2009+
In those days, we would frequently see regressions in code behavior. For instance, stuff “fixed” in v2009 was no longer fixed in v2009+.
I asked my contact about it and yes, there were two different develop teams. And sometimes all the “fixes” didn’t get cut over to the newest version.
It would shock me if there weren’t still 2 development teams.
cheers
jokes aside that is want I was thinking about and probably it is pretty normal with big software development.
Thank you for the insight!
Indeed. I don’t know if it still is that way but it used to be that each SP was worked on by different teams at the same time.