CompuServe Messages

Roger, Hi, I work for an authorized Autodesk multimedia dealer near Seattle, Wa. I just wanted to comment on a couple of things: You are not limited to the dealer you first bought your 3D Studio from. I bought mine (long ago!) from another dealer. I was disatisfied with the support, called Autodesk for a dealer listing and recieved other dealer names. I upgraded to 2.0 from the new dealer, used the new 90 days of free support to get up and running. I graduated about that time, and now work for the dealer. I'm always interested to hear what dissatisfied people would rather have in the place of dealers. Do you not agree that Microsoft is an anomaly in its ability to afford huge numbers of support "engineers"? If 3D Studio were available in Egghead, a large portion of them would be returned because 3DS is a complex tool that requires a knowledge investment to setup/tech/use, that's not what Egghead is about. Idealy, a 3DS sale would include full support for a long time. That is exactly how we used to sell it, and that's how Autodesk would love to see it sold. However, then reality and the market step in. People vote with their pocketbook. No one likes to admit "I will need help in setting up and using this product. So, the price wars start. Now no one except the rogue salesmen (not dealers) are happy. I don't want to open an old can of worms, but you've touched on another hot subject: Advertising. Basically, the cheaper the product, the more outlandish the claims. We have people in all the time for demos who bring some ad copy for some $400 product and attempt to judge 3DS vs. their interpretation (sp?) of what the ad is claiming. However, I must agree with you again on the subject of DXF import. The importation ability of 2.0 is much better than 1.0. But average Autocad file sizes have jumped from 1 meg being large, to 5-8 meg being the average size, far larger than predicted, I would guess. What part of the country are you from? Don