done pointed out that they never have sales . its just a sales tactic . they always have a sale . black friday is just about 5% off what there sales are all year ....
check out the wayback machine on google if you dont believe .
you know most software comes with the first year of updates Free with the purchase cost .
not here .
basically they tell you its on sale from 999$ for 799 or 750$ then add on another 350$ for 1 year updates
and guess what . your still paying what they called the regular cost plus some .
cause if it was 999$ plus maintenance no one would buy there software at all except big business .
so effectively they never have a sale and convince you that its on a huge sale .....
then charge you a 200$ punishment for not upgrading every year ....
and you have to pay 250$ more for a cam software and im sure it has maintenance also .
and if you want to make a nice photo with rendering you have to buy something else . and pay updates for that .
so as for the cost being affordable . that in the eyes of the beholder .
no pun intended .
just stating what i see
I think that what
@BobSchaefer was pointing out is that just as Alibre has regular (maybe perpetual) sales, they also periodically waive that $200 "punishment" and so you can purchase the software once,
not pay maintenance unless it's for something you really need/want, and then go on maintenance (essentially paying for the upgrade) only when you need it without the $200 fee if you can wait for one of the sales (which you keep mentioning happen very often).
What seems clear from the discussion here is that with AD, you
can purchase the software once and not have to pay again unless there's a new feature you feel is worthwhile. That's quite different from subscription products like F360 where you pay every year no matter what. That's one of big selling points for Alibre. We've heard this stated quite clearly in this thread both from Alibre staff and from many of their experienced users, so unless you have evidence otherwise, I think it's unreasonable to keep asserting that maintenance is required; it's clearly not.
With respect to pricing for commercial use, the math also seems pretty clear; let's say you want AD Pro + CAM = $800 + $250 = $1050. Compare that With F360 at $495/year, and after ~2 years, you're better off with AD. Even if you buy maintenance every few years to get new features, you're still better off with AD. Those prices are not high for any business, even small ones; I have been running small businesses for the last 15 years and am happy to pay $1-2K for a tool that I use regularly and can make me significantly more productive. Eagle CAD was one of the best purchases I ever made; I hope AD will be too.
OTOH, if you are strictly a hobby user, AD is a tough sell. It's impossible for a paid product to compete with good and free (which F360 is for hobby use). As I've said here, I would love for Alibre to find a way to reach the hobby and educational markets because I think it's necessary for their long-term health. I'm pretty sure Atom3D is not the answer.
In my case, I decided that I don't want to invest my time learning a package that, will lock me in forever if I want to use it for work. I'd rather invest my time learning something that I can pay for ONCE and then own and use forever, buying upgrades only if and when I need them. I don't think there's a point in simply beating up on Alibre because you think their product is too expensive or you don't like how they've bundled or un-bundled features like CAM. CAD packages are not mass-market products, so they will never have the sales volume to allow making and maintaining a product like this for a one-time purchase of a few hundred dollars. One way or another, Alibre needs to make enough to pay their staff and some profit.