maintenance agreement coming to Mastercam

[Brendan P]

I'm staying out of this one!

[Lathe-Mill]

COME ON IN BUCKET

 

remember this is just different points of view, the article does not said, if it is gonna happened or not, we just opinionating here, expeculating. no hard feelings.

we are all friends here, right guys?.

that is how i feel

[Scott Bond]

T@T@LO this happened.

quote:

---

I received a PDF quote for a level one last week for 25% of what the software costs.

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[Lathe-Mill]

ok, lets pretend:

i know for a fact, this company is not going to espend more money on another version of mastercam.

version ten or X comes out, i do have some bugs on v9 sp2, version 10 or X, has the same bug.

you just upgradeed to version 10 or X, pay some amount of money, to find out the same bug you had on ver.9 sp2. what would you do?.

 

"more money espend, same bug, who knows, may be more bugs."

[cadcam]

quote:

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CNC Software is working towards announcing an

optional

annual maintenance program in the next few months

---

Notice the BOLD letters..

 

So if you do not want it do not get it.

[Lathe-Mill]

Carlos,

The problem you are having is due to the tplane and cplane.  There is an odd thing that happens with our defined back plane.  What you have to do is to create a new tool plane that has the correct orientation when the back plane gets rotated up to the top view.  The easiest way is to go to the back plane, create a rectangle, and then create a tool plane from that rectangle.  Select a the upper long leg then the vertical right leg.  You may have to hit next a couple of times to get the Z pointing out towards you.  That is the orientation that will give you the correct rotation when brought to the top. "It is an ongoing problem in our software with the back plane." 

 

Regards, 

 

Tech Support

 

CNC Software, Inc.

[mayday]

quote:

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I'm staying out of this one!

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not a bad idea bucket

[Lathe-Mill]

please notice :

 

"It is an ongoing problem in our software with the back plane."

 

that is what i am talking about, should i pay for that?

[mayday]

quote:

---

back plane."

---

elaborate on this

[Lathe-Mill]

cad-cam, i notice the letters in bold.

 

but, someone takes the option and pays, someone does not, will they have the same tech support you think?

[robk]

quote:

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will they have the same tech support you think?

---

No concerns here... This website is the best support anyone could have

 

Rob

[Lathe-Mill]

i had a problem with a program, on the back plane, and that was the response from cnc

[Lathe-Mill]

quote:

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No concerns here... This website is the best support anyone could have

---

that i think is the answer for my question,

 

my question was, someone pay for the option,someone did not pay.

will they have the same tech support?

 

from here i do know, excelent support.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I believe this would be damaging to the smaller customer (i.e. 1-2 seat job shops that can barely afford the software). A mid-size company like the one I currently work at could afford to do it, but would they? I don't know. We as programmers have kicked it around a bit and they pretty much buy what we can justify...

 

I'm going to reserve judgement for now and hope that CNC does the right thing for itself AND it's customers small and large. I do realize that they need to create/cultivate a steady revenue stream but they also need to consider the long term rammifications of this. CNC is (to the best of my knowledge) the only Top 15 CAM company that does not have a maintenance (optional or otherwise) agreement/program. But if it will give us better, more frequent updates/bug fixes...

[Scott Reiner]

Update is the next or latest version of the software.

 

Upgrade would be the next level of a product ie Mill Level 1 to Mill Level 2.

 

The maintenance includes updates, no upgrades.

 

Maintenance makes sense for companies large & small that want to alway's keep up to date with the latest available functionality. It also make's sense for employees as they won't have to go back to their employer when a release is available, to get money to update to it, if it ($) is not already in a budjet.

 

The maintenance is available as well as the old update policy with some twists.

 

Ready or not here is comes.

 

For me, as an owner of a seat of V8 Mill, it would make sense to me to get the discounted update to V9 and get the maintenance which includes version X when it is released.

 

The fact that there is now a yearly maintenance available will force a release of good quality functionality on a more regular basis. Would this not be worthwhile to the masses? To have more better toolpaths etc updated more often & regularly?

 

Change is difficult, my 2 cents...

[Lathe-Mill]

+100 James

that sounds more like the answer to my question, ufff..

 

please remember, this is just a discusion about something that still not set yet, i hope i have not ofended anyone, but that is why we have intelect and voice, so we just use them.

[gcode]

I own my own seat of Mastercam L3 with solids

so this topic is near and dear to my heart (and wallet).

There is someting much worse than paying a maintenance fee.

That's getting a letter like Smartcam users got.

(No more Smartcam, no more upgrades, no more

customer support..... ever)

[CAM-mando]

Time will tell what this really means, but I will say that my CAD key anual update contract got me practically zilch for 3 years while CK did exactly what CNC is doing... developed a new application from the grouind up. The AUC monies went to fund the new version development which was years over schedule.

 

As far as budgetting, I dont get it. I just figure in 10% of the seat cost each year to cover update cost. Now its in the budget ?????

 

I like the pay as you go model because it does encourage CNC to put out worthwhile releases. Under Software maintenence, its money in the bank so the financial reaction to poor releases tends to be delayed a year or so.

 

Me likes it the way it is (Option).

 

CAM teh inertia

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

To quote myself (I forget to finish the sentence)

 

quote:

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...But if it (a maintenance agreement) will give us better, more frequent updates/bug fixes...

---

Then I believe it would be in our own best interests as users to support it.

 

JM2C

[Tom Vanderbilt]

Scott Reiner said:

// The fact that there is now a yearly maintenance available will force a release of good quality functionality on a more regular basis. //

 

Scott, The key word in the above is "good quality". The problem that I often hear from the AutoDesk community concerning its subscription practices, is that Autodesk gets to thinking - Ok - we're getting their money we have GOT to get "something" out to them before the Annual renewal is due to make them think they are getting their money's worth. In doing so they get the same results - hurried, unproven code.

 

[ 09-19-2003, 03:50 PM: Message edited by: Tom Vanderbilt ]

[Bullines]

quote:

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Scott, The key word in the above is "good quality". The problem that I often hear from the AutoDesk community concerning its subscription practices, is that Autodesk gets to thinking - Ok - we're getting their money we have GOT to get "something" out to them before the Annual renewal is due to make them think they are getting their money's worth. In doing so they get the same results - hurried, unproven code.

---

If software companies waited until the very last bug was squashed to release their products, it would all be vaporware. The open source model works well in this instance, but then there have to be services to generate income for that model or else there's no feasable way to continue development. Commercial software vs open source software is a very heated debate in some circles, like Coke vs Pepsi.

 

In terms of "quality" I don't think you would consider Mastercam as bad software. If you did, you probably wouldn't be part of this forum to begin with. Don't think of Mastercam as "good quality" before a maintenance agreement and "bad quality" after the maintenance agreement.

[robk]

quote:

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Don't think of Mastercam as "good quality" before a maintenance agreement and "bad quality" after the maintenance agreement.

---

+1

 

That is perfect

 

Rob

[SledGeek]

quote:

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For me, as an owner of a seat of V8 Mill, it would make sense to me to get the discounted update to V9 and get the maintenance which includes version X when it is released.

---

If this :

quote:

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[update is the next or latest version of the software

---

And this:

quote:

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Upgrade would be the next level of a product ie Mill Level 1 to Mill Level 2.

---

are true , and maintenance only include updates, no upgrades, then how do you get v10 with maint. agreement ?

Not being a smartars but am I missing something or is this just an "introductory type thing".Just curious.

 

Quite honestly I doubt CNC is going to do anything to disrupt a good thing.Options are like lawyers, their good if you need em" !

[tmachine]

The "no forced maintainance" was a selling point used by Mastercam when comparing to other systems. It was also a buying point for me.

 

As long as it is optional I don't care. But I would hate to be forced to pay for an upgrade every year.

 

my .02

[Lathe-Mill]

+1 tmachine.

 

i just want to know if the support it's going to be equal for the buyers of the maintenance and the non-buyers.

 

and this is a very good idea.

 

"I like the pay as you go model because it does encourage CNC to put out worthwhile releases. Under Software maintenence, its money in the bank so the financial reaction to poor releases tends to be delayed a year or so."