Dealing with different PCB/EDA/CAD programs

[b_force]

So I work on freelance projects every now and than for companies or institutions (universities).

Naturally everyone has his favorite piece of equipment to work with.
Unfortunately this is not always in line with what the customer uses.
(plus I really hate certain software programs, just can't work with it)

So my questions are how you deal with these situation?
Are you simply selling you product as a finished project, were you only have the rights to make changes?
What do you do in situations when the customer needs to make changes by themselves?
And if so, do you have licenses for various software programs, or do you expect that the customer will share a key?

Just very curious how you deal with this!

[nctnico]

I use the software that I use and if they want something different then they have to settle for importing or go somewhere else. I never lost a client or a project because of this. The reason a project gets outsourced is because they don't have the time or knowledge to do it theirselves and that doesn't change when the project needs to be altered.

[Fgrir]

When this has come up for me I give the customer two estimates - one using my software and another using theirs.  Of course the one using theirs has added hours for the learning curve and requires that they provide me a software seat on their package.  My attitude is that if they are willing to pay for it I am happy to spend my time learning a new program.

Usually they will go for the first option, but I have had one customer who felt strongly enough about it to go with the second.  They were big enough that they did have the knowledge to do it themselves, just not the resources to work on it right now.