Same profession, and same feeling. I actually *almost* worked for AutoDesk once, and I know a fair number of people that have done so. It is a quality organization, and I have a lot of respect for their development team. Management? Not so much so. That includes product management too. As an industry trend, I completely understand why companies *want* subscriptions. Let us not forget, however, that there are two sides to the equation with customers being the balancing half. And, yes, even though we haven't been paying for the product, we are *absolutely* customers. I've sat in enough meetings to know that (plus, it is just common sense).
So, yes, I agree.... I would rather learn to use a lower cost alternative that I can *own* than a really cool product (that has tons of features I really don't need but are super neat) that I *lease*. As I said before, I (personally) don't lease cars. If I can't afford it, I don't buy it (and I've halted a lot of 'purchases' for just that reason). To that end, I am shopping for a new CAD/CAM solution. CamBam is probably at the top of my list. F360 is quickly becoming irrelevant to me the same way AutoCAD did when their updates became so expensive (transferred my *legal* copy and have never looked back...)
Thank you for the feedback on CamBam, Oliver. And, based on your last sentence, it sounds like CamBam does have lathe support. I've never really understood why CAM vendors charge so much for that. For simple (non live tooling) lathe CAM, it always struck me as super simple versus the 5 axis mill. Yet vendors charge a boatload for lathe CAM... but, I'm an engineer, not a sales guy (and like most engineers, I don't have a whole lot of love for sales people... probably shouldn't stir that pot though).
