What is this SU Maintenance & Support?
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I keep getting emails that my SU Maintenance & Support is expiring. What is this? I have purchased every version of SU I've had. When a new version came out I upgraded to that. I appears Trimble wants me to pay $95 (the usual price for an upgrade)for "Support." does this mean they will NOT provide patches and fixes unless I pay this fee? Can anyone explain what benefits if any this offers?
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What if my upgrade, maintenance, and support program expires?
It’s important to note that your SketchUp Pro license will always work for the version of Pro that you paid for. SketchUp Pro licenses will not stop working when your upgrade, maintenance, and support program expires. For example, if you purchased a new license for SketchUp Pro 2013 on June 1st, 2013, you would get a perpetual Pro 2013 license that would not expire. You would also get upgrades, maintenance, and support until May 31st, 2014 (i.e. one year after the purchase). If you would like to join the maintenance and support plan after your plan has expired, there would be a $50 reinstatement fee, and you would start a new twelve-month support term.
To continually get the annual SketchUp Pro upgrades, maintenance, and support, year after year, you will need to renew the program again for $95 per year for single-user licenses and $150 per year per seat for network licenses. Don't worry, we'll let you know when you're nearing the end of your program so that you have time to renew if you choose to do so.
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There's the official blurb
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The rest of this fascinating article can be found here....
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Thanks for the link. I found this explaniation. "If you skip upgrading for one year, you would pay an upgrade cost of $95 for single-user license or $150 per seat for network license, plus a enrollment fee of $50. The total cost will be $145 and $200 respectively if upgrading after skipping the upgrade for one year or more."
If I understand this, basically Trimble is raising the price of SU $50 for those who have been satisfied and see no need to upgrade every year. Calling it "support" and "enrollment fee" is disingenuous to me. More like a penalty.
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That may be but I know of some packages that charge you the full price if you miss a year. And I can think of at least one software package that has an annual "subscription fee" of well over $1000. Compared to them, this is a pretty good deal even if you skip a year.
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Miss an ear? Wow!
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@calypsoart said:
...basically Trimble is raising the price of SU $50 for those who have been satisfied and see no need to upgrade every year. Calling it "support" and "enrollment fee" is disingenuous to me. More like a penalty.
By paying $95 a year you continue to be upgraded to the next Sketchup version. A new suit costs $590 so even if you only upgrade every 6 years you still make a profit.
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So, I got the company to buy SKP2015, do I get 2016 upgrade without additional payment and then I can just stick there or have I got to justify a subscription to the company. I'll probably just let it expire as 2015 is fine at the moment ??
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@congellous said:
So, I got the company to buy SKP2015, do I get 2016 upgrade without additional payment and then I can just stick there or have I got to justify a subscription to the company. I'll probably just let it expire as 2015 is fine at the moment ??
It is a yearly subscription and does not have to do with the version number. If your yearly subscription is still good when v.2016 comes out (it has so this is just an example), you can get v. 2016 under the subscription you already paid for. You can download and license any upgrade that comes along until you let your subscription lapse, as I understand it, so it's not a matter of "sticking here", though you may decide you do not like or trust the latest upgrade.
So I think the official blurb is misleading. Because if it were related to version number those who bought just before a version came out would be pissed.
If you want to use the software down the line, it's worth it. I hope you find it worth more than $95 for the work you get--or maybe you're not using it that much. Then you TELL the company they need to buy what you want if they want you to keep working for them (AND you require a longer vacation).
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I tried to upgrade and it took me to a pay page for an additional £90 or something which I then have to go through the ball ache of hassling a director with a credit card and all the blah you have to do when purchasing through a company.
This is aimed at making more money for trimble not making anyone else's life easier as with all the new subscription models - adobe etc
squeezing extra revenue is the game
My home set up I will probably upgrade but I'm just pointing out that it's more difficult in industry especially with sketchup being a secondary tool compared to the main CAD software
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I hate to bring up an old post, but I finally looked at what it would take to upgrade my 2017SU, and I guess after more than 10 years of using SUPro, I'll have to stop upgrading. For a non-commercial user as myself, $240 is more than I'm willing to fork over now, and with $120 a year in addition for annual upgrade and "support", SUPro has become too expensive for me. I have only ever used support once, and that was with a licensing issue, so having to pay for support I don't need doesn't wash with me.
I bought SUPro originally after I retired from a government IT job, and wanted a little more than SU to use to design my woodworking and renovation projects. I still use and will continue to use 2017SUPro in the shop (at least the renovations are finally over). I now also use it to design things for 3D printing, but Trimble can count me out of their of their income stream. End of rant...
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Dik, what is there to rant about? You aren't being forced into upgrading to SketchUp 2018. You can continue using SU2017 as long as you wish. If you wouldn't find the new features useful just continue on as you have been.
Do you rant at the car manufacturers when they release the next year's model and put a price on it? Or do you just keep driving the car you have? It comes down to the same thing.
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$0.33 a day ain’t too bad when you consider you’ve a support line and incremental updates.
Plus your investment creates employment and gives you a platform to request features and identify fixes.
But if you don’t like it think it’s worth it then don’t waste your money.
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@dik harrison said:
... but I finally looked at what it would take to upgrade my 2017SU, ...$240 is more than I'm willing to fork over now...
if an upgrade does cost U$ 240.- (= maintenance lapsed more than 1 year) you initially did not have bought 2017 but an older version and got one or two new major releases for free during the maintence period...
... be aware, that if the maintenance lapses more than 3 years no further upgrade will be possible, i.e. upgrading requires to buy a full new license.
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