I have no idea how in the world to get my full paid version of QCAD/CAM back. I purchased QCAD/CAM on 2024-02-17 (Order #284246), but I can no longer access the paid version and don’t recall receiving a serial number. Could you please help me restore my license or provide a new download link?
Once this is resolved, I’m planning to upgrade to the newest version, but I’d like to ensure I can still access the software I originally purchased. Thank you for your assistance.
Hi,
Once installed, QCAD CE, QCAD Pro or QCAD/CAM doesn’t expires.
At best you have backed up a copy of the installation package …
… Without that might become a problem.
You might attempt to reset the QCAD configuration: Tutorial.
That may already solve the problem.
If configured use your OS Back-Up system or attempt to re-install QCAD from scratch.
Note that this last doesn’t affect the configuration file.
Also see QCAD License page on the RibbonSoft site and the QCAD - FAQ page.
You never receive a serial number as it is based on a personal download area.
You may use QCAD or QCAD/CAM personally with a paid single user perpetual license.
A paid licence includes 1 year of updates.
This is also noted beside the item in the QCAD Shop.
It is the access to your personal download area with updates that expires (2025-02-17), not your licence. 
You probably also received a renewal mail with a deduction code before this date. 
Also note the necessary e-commerce provider service switch.
See post 48953 or this reply by Andrew: post 48204
In doubt you can best send an email to the mentioned address.
Regards,
CVH
I’ve tried reaching Andrew from QCAD several times about restoring my paid QCAD/CAM license, but unfortunately I haven’t received any response yet. I’m starting to worry that I may never be able to regain access to the software I purchased, and that’s been really discouraging.
With every other paid software I own, I’ve either had a serial number to keep on record or the developer has been able to quickly help when I’ve needed to recover my license. In this case, I seem to be stuck without a download or license, and without support to resolve it.
Because of this, I’m hesitant to purchase the latest version of QCAD. If I were to lose the installation again, I don’t feel confident that I’d be able to restore what I paid for. That’s not a great feeling as a customer.
What makes this especially disappointing is that the helpful support shown on the forums was one of the main reasons I chose to purchase QCAD/CAM in the first place. I really hope this can still be resolved, because I’ve always appreciated the software and just want to regain access to the product I previously bought.
At this time of the year it can take some time before someone answers.
Personally, I don’t do in holidays, vacations, travels or festivities but other people might.
Perhaps you are expecting something ‘common’ which is not the case.
Please explain: “If I were to lose the installation again”.
How did you lose your installation in the first place?
A paid for QCAD installation doesn’t expires on its own!
It is a perpetual license … For life …
… Also meaning: You never have to enter a licence key.
… Also meaning: It kinda runs on your PC as long as that PC keeps running and you don’t remove it.
Example 1:
I just deleted whole the QCAD installation folder under C:/Program Files/.
There are still desktop icons but QCAD is no longer functional.
I can now undo this deletion but that would be too easy.
Assume I really deleted it and not simply put it in the trashcan.
Looked up the msi installer that I downloaded as licencee from my personal download page in 2022: QCAD v3.27.6.0.
Ran that and QCAD is back up … 
… I can do the same with an msi installer from 2015: QCAD v3.12.4.0.
… But I have no intentions to downgrade from version 27.6
Example 2:
Uninstalled QCAD altogether with the Windows Uninstaller.
I can throttle that backwards and undo the ‘un-installation’.
Or I redo the installation with an available msi installer.
Example 3:
Suppose my PC crashed and things went missing, registry became corrupt or whatever.
Then use for example your OS Backup and Restore functionality if that was active.
Perhaps loosing a few very recent things but my system would be healthy again.
If QCAD still fails … Re-install it but then deleting the config first is on the save side.
QCAD may stop working if something really weird happened.
Then I would attempt to delete/rename the config file.
After that … Re-installing is the only option.
If you have lost the installation package that might become a problem.
But losing that doesn’t corrupt QCAD.
You can no longer restore QCAD with the lost package … That’s all.
Because your access to your personal download area has expired (2024-02-17 to 2025-02-17) …
… Renew your licence with buying QCAD in the shop …
… Use the deduction code form the mail …
… And regain access to your dedicated download area for another year.
Preserve a copy of the installation package somewhere really safe.
Must you update QCAD on a regular base and/or renew your licence every year?
If it is functional and it suites you as it is … No, not necessarily and in the first place never mandatory.
But you might consider this if a bug that is problematic for you has been fixed or if new functionality has been added.
See QCAD Changelog (Goes back to 1999/09/24)
In any case, you can renew your licence to support further development.
Regards,
CVH
While the license itself may be “perpetual,” the practical ability to reinstall the software clearly is not, because it depends on continued access to the download package. If the installer is lost and the download portal access expires, the user is effectively blocked from restoring the product they already paid for. That’s my core concern here, not whether QCAD stops running spontaneously, but whether a paying customer can recover it if something uncontrollable happens. Also, crappy situations do happen in our lives. Hardrives fail, systems crash, backups don’t always exist or restore cleanly, and not every user knows they must archive installation packages FOREVER! Suggesting that losing the installer is simply the user’s problem doesn’t really address the reasonable expectation that a paid customer should always have a way to download the product they purchased. Especially when no serial or activation key exists. So, while I respect your perspective and experience, I don’t think it’s fair to imply this concern is unusual or unfounded. Wanting reliable, long term access to purchased software, without needing to re-purchase or hope old files still exist, to me, is a very reasonable expectation. I do hope there is something that can be done to remedy my issue. I will be patient and wait for the holidays to be over and I shall perhaps receive a helpful reply that I’m sure will help, not just me, but others that might have this same problem.
Here lies your problem:
-
Your personal download area only includes packages of the current stable release and intermediate ‘Snapshots’.
The list would be about endless otherwise. -
You bought a licence knowing that the access to that download area expires.
-
You expect RibbonSoft to provide in a perpetual access to … Older releases.
Or at least to keep track of whatever outdated installation package(s) you might have downloaded.
In a broader perspective it is not so ‘common’ after all.
I have dozens of paid for applications installed that I can no longer get copies of.
Let alone get support for. And that includes my operating system itself.
As just a simple QCAD user I can only refer you to the last paragraph of Accessing Downloads / Updates
RibbonSoft policy, I rest my case.
CVH
I strongly disagree with the idea that it’s acceptable for a perpetual license product to become unusable simply because the download access expires. A perpetual license is only meaningful if the customer can actually reinstall the software they purchased. If the installer is no longer accessible, then in practice the license is not really perpetual, regardless of how it’s described on paper. Expecting customers to personally archive installers forever and then blaming them if something goes wrong is not a reasonable or customer focused position.
And no, this isn’t about lifetime updates or ongoing support. It’s simply about the basic ability to reinstall what was legally purchased after a hardware failure, OS reinstall, or other data loss. If RibbonSoft has chosen a policy where legitimate paying customers may permanently lose access to their purchased software, that’s their decision, but it’s also completely fair for customers to see that as a serious drawback and to question future purchases because of it. A perpetual license without dependable access to the installer is perpetual in name only! I don’t accept that this concern is unreasonable or “uncommon.” It’s a valid issue in my opinion and it deserves to be acknowledged as such. Anyways, I do appreciate your input, even though I don’t agree with you. For anyone thinking about purchasing Qcad, I really hope you find this post first and learn from my mistake. Perhaps the creator may still be able to help? 
Please don’t state things that aren’t true.
QCAD Pro nor QCAD/CAM become unusable after the access expires.
More specific: Your version of QCAD/CAM 3.31.0 did not expire or became unusable after 2025-02-17
Nor does QCAD Pro 3.27.6 in my case … I am personally allowed to use that forever since 2022.
I am also not forced to renew or update what I purchased.
Alone that is a major difference with other software I allegedly own.
Yes, support for QCAD/CAM 3.31.0 has been discontinued, current state is 3.32.5
And so is the ability to re-install my paid for version of Windows 7 now that the CD has become unreadable.
I can understand your frustration about a potential data loss, but don’t blame RibbonSoft or the world for that.
Regards,
CVH
Honestly, I don’t feel like I’m asking for anything impossible. It’s quite a reasonable and simple request. I think you are comparing apples to oranges.
Honestly, I don’t feel like I’m asking for anything impossible. It’s quite a reasonable and simple request. I think you are comparing apples to oranges. I shall wait and see if Andrew may offer a reasonable solution. Otherwise, I will not be supporting Qcad anymore and I would highly suggest anyone else reading this thread to do the same if no solution is offered. I Will update this thread if this issue has been resolved or not.
Honestly, I don’t feel like I’m asking for anything impossible. It’s quite a reasonable and simple request. I think you are comparing apples to oranges. I shall wait and see if Andrew may offer a reasonable solution. Otherwise, I will not be supporting Qcad anymore and I would highly suggest anyone else reading this thread to do the same if no solution is offered. I Will update this thread if this issue has been resolved or not.
QCAD and QCAD/CAM ownership is as simple and natural as buying a T-Shirt:
- you pay for it
- you get it
- you keep it for as long as you want (or you throw it away or lose it)
Having said that, I will upload your old version later today and send you a temporary download link as a one time courtesy. If you really feel that it is somehow not possible for you to keep that file safe (despite cheaply available external drives, writable DVDs, USB drives and free cloud storage available from Google, OneDrive, iCloud, Dropbox, etc.), then QCAD or QCAD/CAM perhaps really is not for you.
I don’t agree that a serial number is in any way better as you then would need to keep both the downloaded file (to make sure you can re-install the exact version you payed for) and, in addition, also the serial number.
We offer software with a perpetual license at a very affordable price and would like to continue to do so. All we ask from you, is to actually go ahead and keep the thing that you bought. I hope that is not unreasonable. Of course, we could offer eternal support and eternal access to downloads but this costs us money, so we’re definitely looking at a subscription service and not a perpetual license. In other words: if you purchase an update every year, you get exactly that. I hope that makes sense.
Thank you for the reply Andrew and for offering to provide the download link. I REALLY do sincerely appreciate that.<3 For this reason, I have purchased the latest version as a thank you and for continued development of a great piece of CAD/CAM software.
I completely understand the business reasons behind limiting long term download access, and I also agree that users should make reasonable efforts to back up what they have purchased. My concern isn’t about wanting “eternal support,” but rather about making sure that a purchased license remains practically recoverable in situations where a user loses data despite good faith efforts, which can and does happen. To say QCAD may not be for me because of the possibility of losing the software is kinda harsh. It can happen to anyone, even you. Life can hand us a curveball. WE as humans simply can’t always be in control of all of life’s circumstances. Shit happens.
Which is why many software vendors help solve this by providing at least:
• A way to redownload the version that was purchased on the website, by Hosting the installer on other websites such as filehippo, softonic, majorgeeks, etc… Which is a good idea, because the software developer may also run into the same issue of recovering installation files, or in the worst case scenario, the developer dies and customers need a way to recover the software. Having the installer on multiple websites, helps keep the software alive.
• A license key system so ownership can be verified and can be inserted into the software after downloading the installer from any legitimate website hosting the installer.
I’d have to respectfully disagree with the idea that a serial number doesn’t add value. A serial number (or license key tied to a customer account) is a widely used and reliable way of proving ownership. If the installer is ever lost, damaged, or forgotten over time, the serial number still allows the customer to verify that they purchased the product. Customers should ideally keep both the installer and the key, but in practice, a serial number can often be recovered more easily than an installation file, whether through email history, a piece of paper you wrote the serial number on, an account portal, or the vendor’s records. That layer of redundancy protects both the user and the company by making ownership traceable. So while it doesn’t remove the need to keep the installer, a license key system greatly reduces the risk that a legitimate customer permanently loses access to something they paid for.
I don’t think this will be an ongoing support burden, but as a baseline consumer protection measure. It helps give customers peace of mind that their purchase isn’t fragile or dependent on an installation file that may be lost years later due to hardware failure, theft, accidental deletion,cloud service malfunction, viruses, etc. Again, thank you for helping me regain access, it genuinely means a lot! I just wanted to explain why I feel this is an area where the policy could maybe evolve a bit in the future in a way that protects both the business and customers. I hope everyone had a happy New Year!
For the record:
Please read the note included in red at the top of your download page carefully.
An example can be found here:
Where do I download development snapshot releases? by user nicod.
Regards,
CVH
=> “I have no idea how in the world to get my full paid version of QCAD/CAM back. I purchased QCAD/CAM on 2024-02-17 (Order #284246), but I can no longer access the paid version and don’t recall receiving a serial number. Could you please help me restore my license or provide a new download link?”
Really?!
It seems to me that the maintenance of your computers and software is up to you. QCAD’s user terms and conditions are simple and crystal clear; you anly have to read them. Saving and backing up your downloaded software is certainly not a task for any software supplier.
Chapeau, how Andrew and CVH have used their precious time to resolve your request.
For other users reading this thread:
We have now an automated Installer Recovery service at:
This does not mean that you no longer have to backup your installer. Please keep and backup all downloaded full versions for future use.
Thank you Andrew for providing an Automated Installer Recovery Service, you are a kind soul. Have a blessed day. 