Its enough to make we want to pirate the ******* thing

[Markbnj]

i actually worked for a CAD company making a commercial product, and while i never worked on the installer, it always seemed to be such a pain in the ass for the guys to create. i don't understand why it's so difficult.

Windows installer is god-awful to use and maintain. It's just horrible. WiX makes it easier to define dependencies and keep track of things, but it is still horrible. I've never used any of the other competing tools.

 

[IronWing]

You seriously don't know what an AutoDesk is?

It's not a manual desk, duh!

If one really wants to experience a desk job then a manual desk is essential. Auto desks are a crutch for people for just want to get from 9 to 5 without really learning to manage their desk.

 

[Phoenix86]

"You're saying that it would cost your company hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in labor to switch your models to a competitor's CAD package?

Come on, tell us you love us. And at least take the time to learn to grovel properly next time."


Won't this all become even more fun as more software moves to a yearly subscription model?




PTC (Pro/Engineer) has a lot of their support on lockdown, even the user forums. Forums, FAQs, and anything that isn't part of a sales pitch. If you're not fully paid up every year, you're locked out. At least the software doesn't have a built-in killswitch.

Holy shit I have never run into a less competent support staff. I had one guy email me a PDF with steps to solve some performance issues. It was the manual. :|

That and windchill is a steaming pile of shit.

 

[Phoenix86]

You seriously don't know what an AutoDesk is?

It's not a manual desk, duh!

 

[rudder]

Infraction issued for advocating piracy.

Spank him hard mom.

 

[Bateluer]

Infraction issued for advocating piracy.

With Net Neutrality scrapped and control of the Internet moving into corporate hands, even alluding to piracy could get you banned for life from the Internet in a couple years.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Funny part is, using the crack is probably easier than doing things legally. This applies to lot of things.

Companies need to stop making it complicated to activate (heck get rid of that crap altogether and go back to a standard serial number) and for the love of God DRM has to DIE. Sadly it's never going to happen though.

 

[sa7an1]

one thing i can give to Autodesk is they give their software to students for free

 

[Phoenix86]

one thing i can give to Autodesk is they give their software to students for free

Students will go work eventually. Since they know ACAD they will likely take jobs running ACAD.

Had a request to get some simulation software from one of our wet behind the ears, fresh out of college engineers. They had it in college and it was neat, did all sorts of tests (non linear stress, heat, fluid dynamics, etc). The full package they were using costs in the $100K range. lolno.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I always wondered why there is not a lower cost competitor to autodesk products. Do they hold patents in CAD stopping other people from doing it? I can't see it being that complicated for someone good at programming GUI apps. Lot of math involved though.

 

[Phoenix86]

I always wondered why there is not a lower cost competitor to autodesk products. Do they hold patents in CAD stopping other people from doing it? I can't see it being that complicated for someone good at programming GUI apps. Lot of math involved though.

If you need cad products you are generally manufacturing something and making tons of money off of the product. Company I work for sells machine in the $400K-$1.5MM range. They want their slice of the pie.

In general they are very complex programs that merge with larger system, document warehousing, ERP, etc. So it's not something you could whip up.

Legacy drawings. Gonna convert all those old drawings? Ever try converting cad files? It's a nightmare.

 

[Jeff7]

Another good error: I had some card fraud recently, and contacted PNC through their online form. (Someone in another state bought a few hundred dollars of shoes using my bank info. Unfortunately, it's still illegal to hire a hitman for that sort of thing. And that might be a bit Draconian.)

In their online form though, because they can't be bothered to properly sanitize their text inputs, they state "Message may not contain any of the following characters: < > \ ' " % ; ( ) & +". (This of course is only stated after you submit the form.)

It doesn't tell you where in the message they are though.

So if it's a detailed message and uses really crazy things like contractions or percentages, I guess your best bet is to copy/paste it into Notepad and do a search that way.
I'm just glad they didn't include a dollar sign in that list.


Another one: StateFarm's login required a password change today.
I changed my old password by one letter.
"New password contains invalid characters."

That form has different requirements than the in-account form.
I changed the password to something stupid and simple, logged in, and then used the original password I'd wanted to use. That page allowed it.
Then I completely randomized it and used a different one anyway.



And finally, some of my timeless favorite oddities:

Pro-E's confirmation of...something:

Choose wisely.



CADSoft's EAGLE circuitboard layout program:

That's a good thing then, right?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

My final project for Drafting 2 Architecture.

I hate the teacher, he's an asshole.

Edit: Yes, its a shitty house and it's very rectangular, only because we have to build a scale model.

 

[MongGrel]

I remember those

Wish I still had one for messing around actually.

 

[MongGrel]

You seriously don't know what an AutoDesk is?

It's not a manual desk, duh!

was J/K

()

 

[MongGrel]

Students will go work eventually. Since they know ACAD they will likely take jobs running ACAD.

Had a request to get some simulation software from one of our wet behind the ears, fresh out of college engineers. They had it in college and it was neat, did all sorts of tests (non linear stress, heat, fluid dynamics, etc). The full package they were using costs in the $100K range. lolno.

My main problem these days is I'm working at a place that has fresh out of college engineers and they all wat to draw things and make tolerances on all their work +/- .001 and I'm a toolmaker with 30 years experience and do my own programming in the shop.

I usually nail it, but these young twerps need to come in and actually try doing that on a regular basis, they sure as hell couldn't.

We in the process at the moment in the place trying to get them straightened out a bit for the ISO thing.

I miss working with older established engineers a lot, but seems one of the Corporations I used to work for didn't feel in house Tool and Diemakers were worth having around anymore.

*Cough, Honeywell, Cough, F#ck you*

 

[Bubbleawsome]

When I encounter difficult software or games (origin. :|) I do pirate it to use the dang thing. I have the legit copy though.

 

[master_shake_]

"its" ...

i actually worked for a CAD company making a commercial product, and while i never worked on the installer, it always seemed to be such a pain in the ass for the guys to create. i don't understand why it's so difficult.

and the activation/licensing stuff was pretty intense. again, i never worked on it, but i do remember it was pretty difficult for the guys to implement. it has to be pretty intricate because the software is so expensive and a pirated copy can be a lot of "lost" money. granted, as a software dev, i don't think the people pirating are using it for business reasons for the most part. it's just people using it casually.

casual use is just the beginning...

soon people will download cars and start stealing arenas and robbing cruise ships.

we see it all the time in the news, and you say it's just casual...its just a taste.