vectorworks 12.5 still available?

[mralistair]

The UK resellers seem to have stopped listing VW12.5 in their product line-ups.

We need to add another desk but don't want to upgrade the whole office yet... how do we get hold of one?

[mralistair]

I've been told by my supplier that "they have a couple of copies left"

Does this mean we are soon going to be forced to upgrade the whole firm to 2008 if we get 1 extra person?

[Ray Libby]

I can't think of any software that sells older versions after a new release. Why not start upgrading to VW2008 with one license?

[mralistair]

because then they'll be opening and saving the same drawings on VW12.5 and VW2008, which i am assuming are not entirely compatible.

seems like a recipe for curruptions at any rate. plus in terms of staff being able to use 1 consistent cad systme no matter which machine they are at.

I don't see why they don't still sell it, you can still buy copies of windows xp for the very same reason.

Edited October 5, 2007 by mralistair

[jan15]

I'm not saying I like this policy, but it definitely is standard in the software industry, especially CAD software, to continually produce new versions that aren't compatible with the old, and to stop selling copies of the old. I think it's an important factor in sales.

It's like the auto industry's annual model change, which inspired the term "planned obsolescence." Once they've re-tooled the factory to make copies of the new installation CD, they would have no way to make another copy of the old one, would they? And who would buy a software product without the printed manuals and decorative box? (just kidding)

[mralistair]

ha! yeah it would be a disaster.

TBH, the ideal situation for us would be that we can buy a license for 2008, but have the option of installing it as 12.5 now. so that when we do upgrade (once they have bugs sorted out and I've caught my boss on a good day when he's feeling flush) we don't have to pay the upgrade fee.

[mralistair]

should have said:

I don't see how this will affect sales, we are going to buy as many copies as we need but we need a few new copies now.

[jan15]

Actually, I thought they do that when you buy a new seat -- give you a free copy of the last version if you ask for it. Maybe that's no longer true, or not in the UK. Have you asked?

[Keith Hadland]

Just out of interest, is the installation media specific to a particular license key or is there just a software check that the dongle matches the license key? If it's the latter than there's no real difference between issuing a dongle & key for 12.5 or 2008, and for an extra seat you've already got the installation media so there's no need to re-issue an old version.

Being a sole trader I've never had a chance to experiment with swapping CDs & dongles.

Edited October 5, 2007 by Keith Hadland

[cbaarch]

Windows XP is still available even though Vista is out

and I usually pick up older releases of software I know I will have limited use of from retailers that still have them on the shelf.

[mralistair]

is there no official word from NNA about this? we'd rather not have to pay twice for 2008 but don't want to upgrade right now.

[mclaugh]

Once they've re-tooled the factory to make copies of the new installation CD, they would have no way to make another copy of the old one, would they?

Yeah, those DVD-Rs and burners are just SOOOO d4mn expensive.