forum.datacad.com

Looking at the Sketchup site, it appears that a classic (perpetual) license is only available until November 2020 on the basic version only ...and not for Sketchup Pro anymore. SU Pro 2020 is now only available for a $299. annual subscription. ...Yikes.

Their Sketchup Studio is $1199/year, which to me is incomprehensible!

I believe you can stick with your classic license and not upgrade to a subscription.

I believe Bob is correct, but only for 2020. The scuttlebutt I've heard/read is that after SU 2020 it will all go to subscription - but I don't know if that's fact or conjecture.

I am going to sleep with my Sketchup Version 8 CD tonight. It might not do everything that the newer versions will, but it won't go dark between now and tomorrow.
If I was using the latest versions of Revit, Autocad, Sketchup and Microsoft office, I'd be coughing up subscription expenses that are more than I grossed during a couple of really bad years.
I love my DataCAD V. 21, Sketchup 8 and Office 97.

Open Office and Draftsight round out my list of supplemental programs that are useful once in a very great while.

My 86 Dad taught me the best lesson years ago: "Ya gotta spend money to make money".
Software developers have to eat also

Robert:
I believe that you're absolutely correct in your assessment of spending money to make money. I have no problem with the concept, but the reality was that during those bad years for me, I had no money to invest. It was as if every potential client had disappeared or had put everything on hold.
As for development and support for software (or any other kind of work/value), I agree there too. I bought my first copy of DataCAD in 1987 and have updated with every version since then. More than once, I have thought that I was getting far more value for my money than it cost.