SMA FOR WHAT

[Quality4you2]

I would like to take a poll on who many pepole keep there SMA'S current
and how many use tech support on a regular basis

Because We as a group have the power to put a stop to the high price SMA
price for no whorthwhile Versions put out in 4 years and tech support
that you have to be lucjy enough to find the right person to help you or your toast

sorry for the long post but need to vent about high price SMA's

[#2#]

We actually do pay the for the SMA. My predecessor did not and was still using v3.2. I had no CMM experience when I started and got training on v3.7 so it was worth it for us to upgrade to the version I was trained on rather than me try to figure out how to "downgrade" my training to 3.2

BTW you can add a poll to the thread to get a nice bar graph with %'s.

[Devaney]

We keep our maintenance agreements up to date.

I called tech support twice many moons ago and will never call again. Noooo help whatsoever! I apparently was not lucky enough to get the person you're talking about.

This forum is my tech support. I try to give back when I can.

[Wes Cisco]

I have complained plenty about SMA and junk versions, but I must say that 3.7MR3 is graphically a much nicer version than 3.2063, and it is stable and reasonably bugfree. I also feel it is much easier for new people to understand because you can see individual hits and vectors in the graphics window.

[Quality4you2]

How do I add the poll for graphs

[Quality4you2]

Got it All of you vote now

[Quality4you2]

If we all as a group told Hexagon that we are not going to pay your extorsion
fee's any more unless you develop a better product and lower the price
we could make it happen
the only problem is trying to get every one on the same page at the same date and time

[Don Meredith]

Have been using v3.2063MR3 for some time now. Just downloaded v3.7MR3 from Wilcox website yesterday (took over three HOURS!!) and plan to look at it today. Maybe I'll have to bug the ********* for training.

[bw_bob]

We keep the 3 CMM's updated. My offline is 3.2063

[Andrew Gardner]

No SMA here - stuck at 3.206. Not really a bad thing, but I want to upgrade to at least where I was at my last shop - 3.7

[\v/inston]

i think they should increase the price of the sma, that way they can hire some better software engineers and maybe release a superoir product.

[JamesMannes]

We are a subsidiary of a larger corporation. Combined, we have approximately 30 CMM's. With that kind of fire power we only pay about $1,000 a year for each of our 4 CMM's. It is in your best interest, whether you use Tech Support or not, to keep that SMA current. If you lag behind you will only hurt yourself in the long run. The next generation of software (4.0 and above), I think will pay homage to what the users have been complaining about for the last few years. Now, don't get me wrong, 3.7mr3 is a very nice version. But (I hope), the 4.1 and above is looking pretty sweet. The 4.1 version gives the programmer some really nice tools. Right now I am programming in a 4.1 Beta Release Candidate and it really has solid foundation. You can tell this just by the way the graphic screen renders and moves the model around. The reason I make these comments is because if you (your company), wants to play in the big boy world, and utilize PC-DMIS, the path only leads to newer and newer versions. Do you want to be on the cutting edge? Or do you want to have your thumb out waiting for a ride? I can see a day when PC-DMIS/Hexagon, will be eating Perceptron (can you say Laser?), when that happens, the CMM world as far as PC-DMIS is concerned (insert here monopoly), will change dramatically. This, as far I have heard, is already happening. The world of metrology is ever expanding (as far as CAD modeling and clouds of points is concerned). So again it is in you best interest to keep your SMA up to date.


*I remove myself from the soapbox and turn it over to the next yahoo.*

[craiger_ny]

i think they should increase the price of the sma, that way they can hire some better software engineers and maybe release a superoir product.

Absolutely. We do not renew it because it is so inexpensive. I explained to my organization that anything that can be obtained with such a miniscule amount of money is cheap junk not worth buying any way. If B&S and Wilcox increased the price by maybe double or more I'd think about it. You are right Winston with the extra money they could hire more engineers and then they could come out with a new version every week or so with two or three maintenance releases in between. I will not renew until the price goes up. I feel bad that B&S and Wilcox are not getting my money though so I might send them a thank-you card with a couple of grand in it so the senior executives can buy something to eat. Those guys must be starving with no margins on their product and such a paltry priced SMA.

Craig

[bw_bob]

We went the corporate route too. We have 21 machines throughout the country and paid 31 grand for all.

[Paul Sarrach]

We went the corporate route too. We have 21 machines throughout the country and paid 31 grand for all.

Thats why it will never be lowered. They have the Big three, and all the other big boys out there paying it, and they dont know, dont care, what their paying for, its just something they know they have to pay. While we are the heart of PCDMIS, we ares small in numbers and do not effect there bottum line. We are the PCDMIS Ghetto Boys. I wonder do they will foodstamps