#very poor support
John,
I don't know where you ever got the idea I was complaining about Gary's
participation on the forum. He was the one and only reason I didn't put it in
a box and return it for not working as advertised. When I first bought
3DStudio it was primarily for rendering architectural models, and the program
would not import even the simplest .dxf files, despite their advertising. Now
I hope you are not telling me that you believe software companies should be
able to publish advertising, claiming features that do not work, and then once
you buy the product, claim they have no responsibility to own up to anything.
Then when you go back to the magazine that published this erroneous
information, they contact Autodesk, and lie to the editor about contacting you
to remedy the situation, and continue to give you the ever-famous Autodesk
phone system shuffle, and continue to ignore and not return phone calls. Now
if this is the kind of treatment we should all expect to become accustomed to
just cuz times were tough when I was a young'un, give me a break.
The corporation had certain responsibilities to supply what it promised. That's
only simple contract law. Autodesk seems to be under the mistaken belief that
its customers are its dealers, not its users, and the dealers don't want
end-users to go around them. So there is no support, other than if you're
lucky enough to have one of the exceptions to the norm, a dealer that's truly
interested in understanding 3DStudio, and not in just pushing boxes. Granted I
don't believe Autodesk has any responsibility in teaching people how to make a
pretty sunset, but as far as a responsibility to make the program operate as
advertised, i.e. drivers, features, etc., Autodesk does have a responsibility.
And to ignore that is indefensible.
Roger D.
P.S. I don't want anyone to get the wrong understanding. First of all, I do
not need a new dealer. Second, I do appreciate Gary and Jack's help and
participation (great docs, btw, Jack), as well as help from people like Martin,
Greg, and far too many to list in one message. I do like and enjoy the
software, and get particular pleasure out of being paid to model geometry for
Lightwave users.<g> I've just got a very bad taste in my mouth from how some
of the corporate types at Autodesk seem to feel they can treat their customers.