Maintenance - +1 Year, No Deliverables

[McRae]

Anybody else disappointed with the Maintenance Program?

 

Sept/Oct 03

The sell was "Buy now, get version 10 for free..."

 

Sept 04

The sell now "Buy now, still wait and we might just ship it to you when we are good and ready."

 

From my perspective, I will renew when I get the deliverable from the last version. What are the thoughts of the greater community?

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

[canofworms]......

[mayday]

do I hear free extended service plan.

mayday teh agreeing with Andrew

[Brendan P]

It is a little frustrating.

I have to commend you for openly stating how you feel on the subject.

I think sometimes people may not be happy with certain things but are afraid to say it here.

We do not live in a perfect world and things don't always go as planned and it is a good thing to say it.

 

IMO,this is how products become better.

If we always say that everything is great,then there is no 'drive' to keep people happy.

 

I thought you were all done mastercamming??

[Mike Mattera - TFM]

The improvments that Mastercam has made within the last year would be considered a new version in any other package. And I'm not just talking about fixes. The FZT toolpaths are a big time saver.

 

There's a lot of Cam packeges that just re-arrange the menus and call it an update. Mastercam has delivered a lot of new stuff in the past year. And you will get X even if you dont renew. But if you let your maintenance drop, there is a re-instatment fee to get back on. The extension is for people who were early adopters of the maintenance plan. I think it's very fair deal. Besides you didn't really want "X" before it was finished did you?

 

Mike Mattera

[tom@daumtooling]

I was just thinking about when X is being released. Mike could you elaborate on the FZT toolpaths? From what I heard X is supposed to be very windows oriented and a complete new platform. Does that mean we can import data from say Excel to plot coordinates? Or is that possible in 9.1?

[Guest]

We purchased the maintanance last year. With a written promise of X. I still have the carbon of the the original signed PO. I am not enthused about having to purchase the plan again this year, with the same promise, it would seenm. Still, I did go ahead and take care of it.

 

So even though I am learning UG now too. I am after all, still learning many new things with MC.

 

I anxiously look forward to seeing the new toys they are going to provide us with.

[Mick from CNC Software Inc.]

tom said:

"Does that mean we can import data from say Excel to plot coordinates? Or is that possible in 9.1?"

 

We can do this already in v9.1 using VBScript to query an Excel spreadsheet. I do believe that there is such an example in your VB folder.

[jackn]

im still waiting on my 3 days training way back in version 7....lol

[Charles Davis]

FZT and MR0304, along with constant updates of data translators and more. It's not like you have to wait for the number of Mastercam to change to get value from your software maintenance.

 

As far as X, I'm willing to wait a little while to make sure it's tight.

[Allan Brown]

quote:

---

I will renew when I get the deliverable from the last version.

---

Isn't MR0304 sitting on your desk?

[McRae]

Excerpt from the 03-Quote

 

Mastercam Maintenance for SIM# XXXXX, XXXXX, XXXXX(already at v9)

- Includes Mastercam X when released for 1 seat of Mill L3, Mill L2, Mill L1, 3 seats of

lathe, 2 seats of Solids and Pro-E translator (guaranteed, value of $XXXX)

 

Implied that the term will cover the release of the next version.

[Toolfab]

From Mattera,

 

And you will get X even if you dont renew

 

You still will get the next release when it is available.

[Allan Brown]

Your Maintenance still includes X when released. "...guaranteed" is a guarantee of product, not of timeline.

 

Your sentiments are of course valid. I'm just pointing out that the guarantees are still in place.

[Lathe-Mill]

the sale should of started by summer, not last winter.

[Mike Mattera - TFM]

Thanks Paul and Dave. I thought I was going to have to write it in crayon.

 

These follow up remarks prove the point. You have been getting LOTS of enhancments. FZT is in V9.1 MR0304. Excel SS import is there. You should look through the Chook folder (or Help - Chooks - Chooks included with Mastercam) and look at the VERY Cool VB routines. There are a TON of enhancments. You should look at the "What's new" file.

 

I get calls all the time, "I wish Mastercam did bla-bla-bla". Easily 95% of the time the answer is "We already do that".

 

If you bought Maintenance, Your going to get "X". But dont tell me they have not improved the product in the past year. I know better.

 

Mike Mattera

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

quote:

---

...Excel SS import...

---

Where is this???

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

My bad, this is a VB Script. I forgot about this one.

[Smit]

quote:

---

I get calls all the time, "I wish Mastercam did bla-bla-bla".

---

MIke, could you post your phone number? I've got a list of things I'd like you to work on...

 

Seriously though, the maintenance helps me budget for new releases and enhancements. Compared to many other softwares such as UG, Pro-e and Vericut it's pretty reasonable.

[Gail Plush / Amcast Automotive]

If you compare your maintenance costs to a full upgrade every five years, the cost becomes peanuts..

[Gary Hargreaves CNC]

Hi all,

 

Our goal has always been to develop and deliver a high quality product. The changes to X have also meant changes to testing and lots of usability testing which has stretched out the timeline. But we refuse to deliver a product that is not up to, or beyond, our standard of quality. We have promised maintenance customers the release, and that is still the promise even if your maintenance has expired. In the maintenance releases, we have put in a feature or two that was slated for X providing more value. The performance enhancements in some of the multisurface toolpaths are the best example. The time saved on larger toolpaths alone justifies the cost if you were to do an ROI. For a list of what we have delivered, check out www.mastercam.com/value. Maintenance is, and will continue to be, the better deal with respect to waiting for an update. If you are in competition with another Mastercam customer, the customer with maintenance will have the more advanced software. When we set the pricing it was purposely kept below, or the same, as the numbers we found. We felt we needed to deliver more than your moneys worth. Keeping the pricing on the low side helps to do that.

We know there would be some complaints, and as hard as it is to hear complaints, we do need to hear them. It keeps us balanced and on our toes. We’re busting our butts back here to give you some real value. Everyone is putting in extra time so we can deliver a quality product to you as quickly as we can.

 

Thanks for listening,

 

gary

 

[ 09-07-2004, 09:12 AM: Message edited by: Dave Thomson ]

[gcode]

quote:

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We’re busting our butts back here to give you some real value

---

As a beta site I can confirm that.

There is a LOT of stuff going on right now.

[Mike Mattera - TFM]

Thanks Gary.

 

The period in the link above was a problem.

http://www.mastercam.com/value/

 

Mike Mattera

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

+1 to gcode!

 

I'll vouch for that as well. Lots of new and exciting stuff.