The business model for all CAD software companies inevitably trends toward stagnation and lock-in, because CAD software companies don't use CAD software -- they

The business model for all CAD software companies inevitably trends toward stagnation and lock-in, because CAD software companies don't use CAD software -- they just develop it. The motivations are self-defeating. Typical CAD companies can only ever try to keep up with user demands and keep them from leaving to greener pastures, while squeezing customers for profit. Examples: Dassault Solidworks (stagnant), PTC ProE/Creo (dying), OnShape (bought by PTC, on the road to death), Autodesk AutoCAD (stagnant), Inventor (stagnant), Fusion (new, cloud-based, pay-to-use vending machine). The only commercial exception to this is CAD software from Siemens, which is forty years old and continues to get better. Siemens is an infrastructure company [0], not a CAD software company. They use the software they develop to do the things their company does. Their CAD products -- NX (top-tier) and Solid Edge (mid-tier) -- are used by Siemens to design the hardware (motors, turbines, and so on) that make up their core business (trains, generators, etc.). Revenue from selling CAD software is just a side-effect. Improvement and maintenance of NX & Solid Edge serves to improve the product for its users, who are also its owners. They are not motivated simply to find new ways to increase profitability by squeezing out recurring revenue from their CAD customers. This is why Siemens can license the Parasolid kernel to other CAD vendors -- because the others will will never catch up. For years, Siemens barely marketed Solid Edge at all -- they are that good. (Apple is another example of a company that uses the tools and products they sell to develop the tools and products they sell; Steve Jobs may not have been a programmer, but dropping acid probably helped him to understand recursion.) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens#Products,_services_and_contribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens#Products,_services_and...