Thoughts on Autodesk Flex

I have been trying to wrap my head around the Autodesk announcement of their new pay-as-you-go model Flex that they just announced. The idea seems to be is that users can pay for the software when needed benefiting infrequent users.

Now I should admit that my first impression of the tweet I saw was, well panic, do I have to swipe my credit card even to open a copy of 3Ds Max, every single day? What about indie licenses?

Well seeing their website, they do have a section that compares Subscription model to Flex stating that Subscription model continues to be best for frequent users. So I guess it is here to stay at least a while.

What I think is good about this is that tokens are universal and can be used to unlock different software. In their site they say that 1000 tokens (Around 3USD per token) are enough for 100 days of Revit, 125 days of Inventor or 166 days of 3ds Max.

Yeah I have to admit this sounds handy. I do need Revit every now and then for occasional file conversion (which is around where my understanding of this particular software ends, as I am not architect), and Inventor as well.

They also say that we can assign as many users as we want for Flex. If I would hire Inventor guy to work in my team I could then give him access to Inventor, and his tokens would then be deducted automatically. This could make sense for small companies.

Although it is unlikely that perpetual licenses return to Autodesk site, I think it is safe to assume that yearly subscriptions will still continue to be a thing. I hope this would also be the case for the indie licenses.

Now we can’t just buy 10 tokens for couple of day’s use of 3ds Max. The lowest option is 500 tokens for 1500 dollars.

This seems to be somewhat comparable cost to the full license of 3ds Max and such. Those eligible, indie licenses continue to be a great value.