CompuServe Messages

>>SoftImage charges up to around $80,000. for their software, plus around $6000-$8000 for "software maintenance (upgrades), and you'd think that for that price you'd get everything ever written for SoftImage, but no, they have a huge list of add-ons you can buy for between a couple thousand and ten thousand dollars, some things are pretty simple, like "weld"(!), others like "Lockdown" (which I would like to see in 3DS) are more complex, but no less basic in their usefulness. The above two examples are two of 42 different routines made by Minerva software for use with SoftImage. SoftImage bought the rights to the whole lot and now offers them as one package for around $10k (as of just before MicroSoft's purchase of SoftImage). Because of the enormous value of these routines and their quantity, I feel that the price is proportionate and therefore acceptable, and that is going to be the test for Autodesk, is it proportionate value? In SoftImage's case, they're charging approximately the same as they charge for their annual software maintenance, and you're getting 42 terrific options, which is maybe more than the number of additions to the new version of the main program. In 3DS's case, I paid a little more than the cost of an upgrade to get 12 routines, 3 of which I use all the time (Deform, Slice, and Skin). Obviously this isn't as good a deal as in the SoftImage example, and I sure as hell didn't like paying it (as proof, I only upgraded and got those disks two weeks ago), but after all, the Yost group is independent and can charge whatever they want. << It may be true that as a proportion of the 3DS upgrade cost, the Yost Group' IPAS add-ons are more expensive than SoftImage's Minerva add-ons. However at $300 each they are one hell of a bargain! That is less than sales tax on $10,000! Terry Gilbert Forcade & Associates