CompuServe Thread

#WCEDIT

5 messages in this thread
#33631From: Jim LailFeb 18, 1992 9:11 PM
To start off on a bad note, Anyone who thinks that an average user of ANY program can evaluate a supplemental program that has approximately 30 pages of documentation, in eight (8) minutes or 1,000 keystrokes is not living in the real world, nor is he/she adhearing to the "Shareware concept". I, like most other users of a program need sufficient time to Totally evaluate a program to decide if it meets my needs and current applications, check for possible bugs with my current configuration, network integration or other possible problems. The days of single systems with a 20 Meg Hard Drive are over. My personal system has a 778 Meg hard drive and the company computer has a 2 Gigabyte drive for our Engineering section. My current employer has a work force of over 7,800 personnel and 147 AutoCAD work stations. The number of AutoCad work stations is expected to be over 200 by the end of the year, and possibly double by the end of 1993. KOHLER, CO. of Kohler, Wisconsin is one of four authorized AutoCAD training Centers in Wisconsin, the other three are University of Wisconsin facilities. I have discussed the time requirements of your WCEDIT Program with the instructors and they totally agree that only a person who has been using a previous version of the program for a great deal of time could gain anything from the time restriction you have placed on the program. Further consideration for evaluation will be based on your willingness to provide a full working version of your program with a minimum of four (4) hours of testing per session. If you would prefer to contact the AutoCad instructors directly and provide them with the full program for evaluation, you may dos so. AutoCAD instructors at Kohler CO. Todd S. Grube Shaun Brockman 444 Highland Drive M/S 202 Kohler, WIS 53044 To contact me directly, leave a message in the AUTODESK forum or write James Lail 3917B Country Place Sheboygan, WI 53081 P.S. I hope you will take the time to consider joining the Association of Shareware Professionals. They do not allow crippled software.
#33686From: Larry Beck [Windows TM]Feb 19, 1992 10:20 AM
Jim: To be honest, Walt makes it clear that WCEDIT is not shareware, and that the demo copy on the forum is just that – a demo. Have you ever considered asking nicely? <g> Larry
#34249From: Generic CADDFeb 23, 1992 3:46 AM
Jim (James), Forgive me if this sounds like a sales pitch. I'm not in sales, I'm in support. If I was in sales I could probably manage to make this more subtle and/or compelling. I loved your message re proper time to evaluate programs (re wcedit) in the AutoCAD forum. I myself feel the same way (and apprently so does my division of Autodesk as we offer a 60 day moneyback satisfaction warranty on most of our products). I read with interest your description of your (un-named) employer. I say this because your type of company are the type of people that we at the Retail Products division are looking for. You already know the benefits of working with a great CAD program. Yet apparently only a small number of people in your office are currently using CAD, and that in short is the reason for this message. I wonder if your company might be able to benefit from our Low Cost CADD programs such as Generic CADD. As you probably know our latest version can read ACAD .DWG files. Of course I am not suggesting you even begin to consider replacing AutoCAD, but rather supplementing it with Generic CADD where appropriate. I am sure that within your company there are those employees who could use a good CADD program, or may need to look at DWG files created by your drafting professionals. I'm sure you know of co-workers who could benefit from having a CADD program for part-time use for whom you cannot justify the expense (and learning curve) of AutoCAD, perhaps people who need to reline ACAD files, or do conceptual work that is later passed to the drafting department for finishing. We see the relationship between AutoCAD and Generic CADD much like the difference between a professional accounting system (which is used by one department of your company) and a spreadsheet package (which is used by many other people in other positions who also need to deal with numbers, but for whom the accounting system would be overkill). If this concept interests you, and if you think that there is a basis for someone from our company to talk with someone from your company I would be
#34261From: JAMES LUNDYFeb 23, 1992 6:18 AM
The company I work for is Airgrove Investments Limited in which I am the Computer Consultant in charge of the company. The division I work for is called James Lundy, computer consultant. There is no other divisions. At the present time I use AUTOCAD v11 Through Seneca College as a continuing education student, I am trying to learn how to use cadd packages as an opportunity to expand my horizons above programming. At home I have this SHARP laptop computer which is only 286 with 640kram NO math co-processor. The computer parts to upgrade the computer (install a co-processor, upgrade to memory) are way overpriced. Purchasing a new computer is not within my (company's) budget. Since I am the sole owner of the company, any decision of software purchase will be done by me…….my father knows nothing about computers and he owns the parent company (LUNDY and LUNDY). [aside, interesting the choice of the words parent company. "parent" apparently being owned by my father the parent. [A] At the present time, the company is only a freelance business used to put me through school. [the company pays my tuition] Obviously, as I begin to get more clients it may be within my budget to purchase a bigger and better computer. as it is I have to log in to compuserve using procomm plus because I cannot load in the CIM file into memory. thanks, james lundy computer consultant a division of airgrove investments limited operating under parent company LUNDY and LUNDY at 16 colleen st., basement apartment room 2 thornhill, ontario l4j 5h1 canada
#34268From: Mark PaulsonFeb 23, 1992 10:44 AM
Jim, Unless I misread the info on WCEDIT I believe that walt specifically stated that the program is a timed demo. I downloaded the program and played with it enough in the demo mode to decide to purchase one of the earlier versions. Furthermore, before I purchased the program I called Walt Craig on the phone and he helped me with my problems and has continued to help me with modifications and other lisp functions that I continue to add. Before you go bashing someone on the forum you might give them the oportunity to answer youroff questions or concerns first. Mark P.