It makes it sound like the subscription is what I want. So it'll basically be sitting on the shelf so to speak until I need it. What does that mean? I might only use this software like a few times a year. With a PTC Subscription, you eliminate costly and wasteful software licenses that sit unused on the shelf. If I bought a subscription and immediately cancelled the auto-renewal what happens? Will it just lock me out after a year? What I believe I'm looking for is a perpetual license, but I don't see that? In the 'Why Subscription' it says: I've searched for a while, but I'm kind of confused. In the key features it has mechanism design which I want and tons of things I'll never use. So immediately I found this store page on PTC's site.

(That and I work in software and am very against piracy). Also I want to publish parts/assemblies for others as original CAD files or as STL so I need to be legit. I've used it successfully for a few ideas and it's given me a lot of insight in making changes and improvements I wouldn't have gotten without visually seeing it all moving with constraints. His copy is obviously handled by his work, so I'm kind of on my own figuring this out.įor some background, I'd use free CAD products, but I kind of like the 'mechanism design'/simulation feature for working with gears, slides, and various other mechanical movements. I like it a lot and would like to purchase a copy for myself and figured it would be a few thousand, but honestly I don't understand what I'm buying. My friend is an engineer and let me use his laptop to make a number of personal things for a while using PTC Creo. I'm not an engineer, but I've used 3D modeling and CAD software quite a bit over the years.

Ptc creo free version