No more service packs coming out

[Jeremy Grigsby Excelsior Marking]

Roger Martin from CNC Software replied to a message and said there will only be MR's. Is everyone satisfied with normal usage of the product to not need anything else fixed?

[Bill]

I would assume the MR will have some of the fixes that didn't make it into sp1.

 

Can't wait for some of the new toolpaths in MR1 (? 1 ?)release. I heard November/December release date.

[?Mark]

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there will only be MR's.

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I seriously doubt it Jeremy.

He was either misunderstood or didn't mean that.

CNC Software is quite flexible and I'm sure will do what's necessary to fix what needs to be fixed...

Otherwise there will be hell raised here

 

Mark

[Jeremy Grigsby Excelsior Marking]

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This is scheduled to be addressed in MR1

BTW, There are no more SP's scheduled for X.

They will be MR's (MR = Maintenance Release)

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This is what he said. I really wasn't anticiptaing waiting until December to be able to use the engraving toolpath in the first place let alone not be able to use it unless we keep maintenance. I guess it is a good way to force people to sign up for another year. Some people just got it to get X, and maybe thats not what they intended people to do.

[?Mark]

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There are no more SP's scheduled for X

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wow

 

What about:

"If you're running Mill Level 2,some options were somehow left out of the menu." with sp1?

 

I still think/hope there will be some small sp's released when needed.

I'm in good shape as we have maintenace here...

 

Mark

[Storkman]

Just cause there are no more service packs, doesn't mean that patches won't be available. One of the CNCSoftware gurus referred to patches in a thread. (I believe it was Mick.)

[Doug Nemeth CNC Software Sales]

Hi Jeremy-

 

It's not our policy to try to force a customer into purchaing a maintenance contract by withholding bug fixes. That being said, maintenance is the best way to make sure you are receiving the most up to date software you can.

 

SPs are and will continue to be free to all current Mastercam users. The problem is that SPs won't always address every issue of every user that we have. And if something doesn't make it into a SP, but does a make it into a MR, then the customer not on maintenance will miss these fixes until they update to the next major release.

 

There is not a lot of time in between the SP1 that's now available and the MR1 that's coming out, so the chances of an SP2 in between are slim. It's just a scheduling thing. We're already running daily versions of MR1 internally and many bugs have already been addressed for the MR1 release, as well as some really high-end high-speed toolpaths that we're releasing.

 

Still, it's ultimately the customer's choice.

[gcode]

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as well as some really high-end high-speed toolpaths that we're releasing.

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[Tim Johnson]

Why do you need a MR when we have the update button? Could you not send mini upgrades as they're available to the maintenance subscribers instead of waiting for a MR release?

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

My guess as to the reason for the wait is to make sure that as they fix one thing they want to make sure they don't break or affect someting else, in other words... testing.

[Bullines]

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make sure that as they fix one thing they want to make sure they don't break or affect someting els

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AKA: regresssion testing (testing for bugs that surface after adding new features or fixing other bugs)

[Tim Johnson]

I would think that an MR would contain several tested upgrades. Why not send each tested upgrade as they're available?

[Jeremy Grigsby Excelsior Marking]

we have currnet maintenance too, but i also think the update button should be used in this way too. I just need the engraving toolpath fixed for sure and i can wait on other stuff. I guess I am being selfish.

[bryan314]

I have echo Tims comment, we have an update feature now why aren't we seeing small (weekly?) bug fix upgrades? Seems like this would cause fewer regressions. If a weekly patch contains 10 bug fixes and something goes buggy it'd be easier to find the regression than say a SP 4 months from now fixing 200 things.

 

Leave the maintenance releases for what they are for. Feature enhancements not bug fixes.

 

just my 2cents.

 

Bryan

[Jeremy Grigsby Excelsior Marking]

make it 4 cents

[Doug Nemeth CNC Software Sales]

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I guess I am being selfish.

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Nah, you're not being selfish Jeremy. If it were my problem, I'm sure I'd feel the same way .

 

I'm not exacly sure of the reason we don't have weekly or bi-weekly updates as they become available. But my guess would be that it would be difficult to QC these at such a high frequency. I'll look into this question and see if I can get a good answer.

[bryan314]

Thanks doug.

 

Bryan

[Roger Martin from CNC Software]

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Leave the maintenance releases for what they are for. Feature enhancements not bug fixes.

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You don't want any bugs fixed in an MR release? j/k!

 

MRs will contain both: enhancements & fixes.

 

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Why not send each tested upgrade as they're available?

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tested is the word key here.

Testing is much more time consuming than most people realize.

 

My mention about no SP2 was only any attempt to set the naming of the next release straight. The next planned release is called MR1.

 

I apologize for any confusion!

 

Questions? Please read Doug's post above...

[bryan314]

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You don't want any bugs fixed in an MR release?

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Bug fixes for maintenance items in a MR make sense.

Bug fixes for non-maintenance items that affect maintenance modules in a MR make sense.

Bug fixes for non-maintenance items rolled up into a MR so there aren't a ton of update files for maintenance people make sense.

Bug fixes for non-maintenance items only being release for maintenance doesn't and goes back to

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It's not our policy to try to force a customer into purchaing a maintenance contract by withholding bug fixes.

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Since a bug fix for a non-maintenance item has to be applied to both code bases (m and non-m) I don't see a problem with it included in a MR. But at every MR release shouldn't there be at least a bug fix release for non-m?

 

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Testing is much more time consuming than most people realize.

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Smaller release cycles make for easier beta testing.

 

Bryan

[P_Scott]

All,

 

Doug said it best with this statement.

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But my guess would be that it would be difficult to QC these at such a high frequency.

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As an employee of a reseller I often provide tech support to companies and users who haven't updated their computers for a very long time. Many issues with software are fixed with frequent updates. Some of our customers don't even have internet access. Some users, who would benefit most from frequent updates, aren't aware of updates, or not allowed to download and install new software updates. Can you imagine the nightmare of having to ask every user who calls for tech support what update they're using? That was bad enough in V9 after the introduction of the Maintenance program. "Are you using SP1, SP2, MR 0304, MR 0105?" Not to mention that MR 0904 didn't even change the title bar. There was a separate download to test whether or not the MR had been installed properly. What would happen if there were twice as many updates within the same time frame?

[Jeremy Grigsby Excelsior Marking]

I would think that the 'update mastercam" button would look to see what updates had already been applied like windows update does and some other software packages. If you son't have internet access, maybe you do have to wait. What percentage of people who use the forum have internet access? 100%? how else would you log on to post. And it has a way of installing on computers that dont have mastercam access by downloading it. Besides, the people that don't have internet access wouldn't even know about updates until their reseller sent them a disk.

[Doug Nemeth CNC Software Sales]

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I would think that the 'update mastercam" button would look to see what updates had already been applied like windows update does and some other software packages.

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Yes, this is correct. But Peter's point was that, from a tech support standpoint having, say, 10 small updates per year would be a nightmare. Resellers would have to have all 10 versions running to be able to trouble shoot potential customer's problems.

 

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What percentage of people who use the forum have internet access? 100%?

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On this forum, yes. But the unfortunate fact is that not all of our users have internet access, at least not from the machines that are running Mastercam. This forum only represents a small (but very important ) cross section of our user base. On a global scale, having this many small releases would be a big logistical problem for us.

[Jeremy Grigsby Excelsior Marking]

I could wait till the next version comes out, and then use x

[Todd Tracey from Fastech]

Jeremy, When referring to the Engraving you are talking about, are you referring to the Tire C-Hook? If so, Mastercam has nothing to do with that. Bob had that written for us.

[Müřlıń®]

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as well as some really high-end high-speed toolpaths that we're releasing.

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****raised eyebrows****

 

 

Are these HSM paths going to be included in X Maintence or they part of Cimco??