Vectorworks upgrade

SteveB

Well-Known Member
I put this in Lighting as it's lighting software, but move it if needed and appropriate

Is upgrading cost effective ?.

I'm currently a heavy user of Vectorworks Spotlight Professional 2009 (as well as Lightwright 5), having upgraded in steps from v10 to v12 to 2009. In '08 or so, Nemetschek went to yearly upgrades as a purchase for the new version and they are now on 2012. I had used the Educational version of 10 & 12 when they charged for it, though it was roughly half the cost of buying a Pro version and I (meaning my place of work) was able to upgrade to 2009 Pro for $1100.

I had upgraded only when it appeared that I was "falling behind" in terms of not being able to open the occasional light plot and/or ground plan sent to us, as a result of users getting ahead, as well some of those users falsely assuming that everyone had the most recent, thus they send files in the most recent version. PITA.

Lately and with the advent of the free Educational version, many folks in educational environments are able to send in the most recent (2012) as there's no cost to upgrading and I now find myself seeing 2012 Educational versions that neither I nor the sender can port to 2009, as the Educational version only goes back 2 versions, Another PITA.

VW has sent me numerous semi-SPAM e-mails wanting me to go to 2012. So I e-mailed (as well as called) sales and was told essentially the following.

- Don't go with "Service Select" (which is the subscription version) for $1686 for the upgrade to 2012. One time only and another $1700 or so in 4 years to go to 2014 or whatever.

- Get the Service Select subscription for $1348 which upgrades to 2012 effective 11/1/11 and which gets me version 2013 next Sept. 2012 at no cost, BUT and they did not put this in the quote e-mail, we owe approx. $450 or so for a subscription renewal on 11/1/2012 and every year thereafter until we cancel the contract, which I assume cannot be done for at least 2 years, but again, all fine print that they don't tell you, or put in the e-mail so you have to know to ask.

My big issue is that there are not any huge benefits to the new version for a Spotlight user, at least as far as I can tell, with the comment that I do no 3D work.

As well, and I have confirmed this with VW tech support, every new version requires greater processing power in the computer, better video card, etc... so if I do the subscription, I will eventually find myself bogged down on a 4 year old Win XP Pro machine that can hardly run the software. Not a happy scenario, especially as 2009 already can run slow on occasion in certain easy processes such as refreshing a 300 unit plot.

So right now I'm not happy with Nemetshek about their policies and have come to realize that having the free educational version out there has trapped the professional users into having to upgrade whether they need to or want to. And the prices are getting expensive.

OTOH, it's good software and there is no way I can do what I do without it.

Any thoughts appreciated.
 
Last edited:
Keep an intern on staff so you can use their version? :) I don't use it so I don't really have a suggestion.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back