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VectorWorks 10... part 2


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In order to pay its employees, NNA must sell products. Management sees a bunch of v8 copies sold, then the demand diminishes. Solution? Make another product so that they can get more money. This creates a vicious cycle, as we all know well; updates to an existing product to not generate revenue, yet consume resources.

I must agree with the ghost, though. If more time was devoted to fixing existing things (not just the slap-in-the-face OSX glitches), and less time to introducing 'revolutionary' or 'innovative' features, less time would need to be spent on tech support. User confidence would increase, morale would grow, and the sky would shine. Pointy hair gets in the way of logic like that, though

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I don't have exact numbers, but there were alot of bug fixes between 9.5.2 and 10.0.0 not to mention a slew of new features. I think our engineers worked pretty daggone hard between 9.0 and 10.0 fixing bugs, addressing the apple 'surprises" and getting updates out in timely fashions. Most software companies are on 18-22 month turn arounds for major releases. Alot of work goes on between those releases. We have teh same set of engineers working on all given versions at any given time. I'm sure not every feature every single person wants was addressed. I don't know of any software company that has done that between a single interval of major releases.

I agree with you on your point though. I've been saying that since I started here. Keep in mind too, we only have 5 people in tech support. 1 manager, 2 full steam techs, 1 that is still in training a little and one that leaves this Friday. It takes about 2-3 months to be fully knowledged in all of our products, os, printers, and all the other workarounds we've developed over the years. I think we do a good job at helping folks out given the resources we have to work with. Especially on this message board. This is something we don't have to do, yet one of us is here M-F addressing issues that haven't been answered by other users and often times beating other user's to the answer. Often times we are stabbed at, some folks make rude comments, others complain that we don't fix the problem immediately for them when it's out of our power, etc. Yet, we still come back and help. That should say something alone.

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The splash screen tells you who worked on the application for crediting purposes.

VW 9 just go to About VectorWorks. VW 10 you need to go to Credits in the About VW splash screen.

I am assuming you can count ... so you should be able to figure it out.

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Oh yeah .. I noticed I hit 998 earlier. I kept posting until I made it to 1000.

It's kind of like watching the odemeter roll over on your car every wierd number combination. I'm waiting for 123456.78 next... oooh

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We may not have 1000 engineers working here, but they work extremely hard (from what I can tell). If we need to go to them for better explainations, or workaround possibilities, they are there letting us know the good stuff to pass on to the customer. If they can't tell me, they'll find out from someone else and tell me.

That's just my opinion. Unfortunately, all the customer sees is the final product. They don't see all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. There's alot of hard work and effor that goes into designing an application especially something as complex as ours and on just about all Opearating Systems within our control.

That's just my two cents.

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Three months ago I was using a product that hadn't been upgraded for even bugs in 2 years. A post on the forum would get either no response or a sarcastic response from another user like "don't hold your breath while you're waiting." Queries about OSX support, the next version, or bug fixes would get, "We don't discuss unannounced products," which was their shorthand for, "We're gonna squeeze as many sales as we can out of this without telling you it's a dead product." Love the ethics of that one.

After a long hard search, I found VW. I had phone support the first day. Found this board the second day, and y'all know how active it is. There are updaters posted. There's a major upgrade within 60 days of my purchase. They have ways to model a torus with fluctuating radii on the cross-sections. They added weather effects just be/c I asked for them, for gosh sakes! (OK, they were already done before I even bought VW, but I choose to believe it was be/c of me anyway <G>)

I owned a Mac software company for many years and know what it's like on the support side of the phone, and Matthew and Katie have been giving world-class service. And I know too what it's like to be on the bleeding-edge of Apple Technology as a developer (first third party app to support Apple Script), and really empathize with the development staff over issues like they encountered with 10.2. Read the MacWorld or .mac forums if you want a taste of how many other products have suffered through Apple's growing pains.

On features, VW covers a wide variety of users. While some shops need const drawing features more than 3D, I couldn't survive without the zoomie stuff. And the more the better. I make so many sales because the renderings, and nurbs, and solar animations, and such provide sizzle for the prospective client....and none of my competitors seem to be offering it. We certainly need the means to do drawings efficiently, but that's not what the clients notice, so the efforts in the more visual areas are by no means wasted.

So, good job by all.

[is that enough sucking up to get QTVR and better ellipsoid support?]

[ 10-02-2002, 07:09 PM: Message edited by: Cloud Hidden ]

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The NNA Tech Board and Tech Support is the best in the business.

It needs to be the best, since in the previous year, our office has upgraded from VW8.5 to VW9.5 to VW10 all in the effort to stay current and fix the bugs/limitations which were having a negative impact on our production. We may have upgraded too early, and maybe we should have skipped 9 altogether....we'll know once we get into 10. (These difficulties, coupled with Apple's, have turned us into software junkies....)

We still need simple & powerful 2D production tools available with other software packages; i.e., more advanced class/layer management, workgroup referencing tools, etc.

3D stuff may tally higher on voter wish lists (VectorWorker), but we have yet to issue Construction Documents in 3D.

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Huh? I missed something there. Do I really need a smilie for it to be clear that that sucking up line was all in good fun?

For any literalists, I mean only to compliment Nemetschek on their development efforts and tech support. My context is having spent years using a different product that offered neither, and years before that on the bleeding edge of Apple's new technologies.

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Boy, the economy must be slowing down with chatter like this. My biggest challenge is continuing to learn a software package while still making daily deadlines.. Don't all of your clients still give you deadlines?? Do you guys have clients??

Just kidding, but things do get off on tanget here at times. Personally, I think VW's support is top notch. It certainly is far more responsive than A***desk.

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Richard:

Find a good grammar checker. Check your ego while you're at it.

KT:

I know how hard you guys work. The work demanded, though, in creating an app inherently more complex than AutoCAD, is more than one can *reasonably* expect from a smallish team such as yours. You're doing an excellent job for such a large task.

Software credits sometimes list all contributors, but that's not always the case. Ask some database management developers.

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TS, neat response, sounds alot like a foreigner, I can diagram that sentense for you in king's english...you missed the gist of my comment regarding the foolishness of the subject, your comment posted on starting a new thread, and the spelling of words. The reality is that all we have out there is A'desk or something else, why can we not admit, accept, appreciate, and pay for a product that does try to continue to open the possibilty that we don't have to go there. I, for one, will pay the company that provides the software that enables me to work in my reality (OS) whatever it takes, be it MAC OS or WINDOWS, anything but A'desk.

It's simply a better world.

TRUE BELIEVER, ME

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well i tried to keep to myself but.......as a carpenter when i buy a tool, i choose it, over other products. nobody made me buy it. if i've done any homework at all, i have reasonable expectations of it's ability to perform the tasks i need it to. i also am aware of what it won't do.and they cost a LOT of money [read $1000s]and only do specific tasks. and there certainly isn't any "support". you live with the choices. it's aggrevating as hell when it fails, but it is the one i choose. handle it.

when i need help from the supplier i treat them with respect,i sit on my frustrations to "get" the most out of them.

[ 10-05-2002, 08:31 PM: Message edited by: whitecap ]

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