I got an email from Mastercam Marketing this afternoon

[CNCAppsJames]

Objectively speaking, I can see a SaaS "option" being helpful. Say you're a company that has a short term project and what to hire a temp/contractor amd want to keep everything in-house. But other than that it's trash and whomever the schmuck that thought of the SaaS scheme needs to be tarred, feathered, and boiled in oil.

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[Newbeeee™]

I believe the shortest period available is 6 months

Yeh that should be long enough to get it installed and set-up as you'd want it

[gcode]

Say you're a company that has a short term project and what to hire a temp/contractor amd want to keep everything in-house.

This is a valid reason  for SaaS and it makes perfect sense.
However, if you're a contractor or a small business, SaaS has the potential to be suicide.
The rent ( SaaS payment) is due, you've had a couple of bad months or a customer is stiffing you on a large invoice.
Cash is tight and you can't pay the rent.... you are out of business.
With a perpetual license, you still have CAD/CAM software even if you can't install the next release.

[gcode]

Yeh that should be long enough to get it installed and set-up as you'd want it

or decide this was a really bad idea and move on to Brand B

[TSmcam]

Objectively speaking, I can see a SaaS "option" being helpful. Say you're a company that has a short term project and what to hire a temp/contractor amd want to keep everything in-house. But other than that it's trash and whomever the schmuck that thought of the SaaS scheme needs to be tarred, feathered, and boiled in oil.

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We've done exactly that. We have a historical product design to manufacture that we contracted out a few years ago (long running project). The contract company used Solidworks. Fast forward to earlier in the year, and the design company went bust. Thankfully we received all our project data. One of the designers employed the company offered to help complete it, so we took on a short term subscription for him to complete it.