Quote Originally Posted by steve_g View Post
Joe

Where do you plan to go with this? It's apparent that you're targeting the ShopBot market, but when you buy a ShopBot it comes with a really comprehensive program. If you're planning to eventually offer features not available in current offerings you better pique my interest now! It would also seem imperative that you would want to know what it is that would interest us to take our time to alpha test.

just my thoughts...

Steve
Steve,

I have used PartWorks and its a decent program, but from a personal preference I dislike the user interface and its help integration is lacking. The user interface for Techne is based on the Microsoft RibbonBar (the toolbar you see in their office line of software). Either you will hate it or love it. I spent alot of effort creating a dynamic help system for Techne, which displays changing help information based on whatever the user is trying to do at a given time. These two things the fundamental difference between how Techne approaches things versus other CAD programs. It never hurts to have an alternative.

I realize it seems counterintuitive for me to ask for testing but not want suggestions. Its simply I know my own working style and I will get distracted considering new features at the expence of not making the core functionality of Techne rock solid. I have designed the architecture of the software so that adding features is not a big effort as long as the basic capabilities have a stable design. The biggest area where I need help testing is with toolpaths, which is why I am seeking feedback in that area or where there are serious bugs.

Software design goes through 3 phases, Alpha, Beta and Final release. Alpha is unfinished and kinda raw. The ShopBot users who are willing to experiment with alpha are just the kindof people who like to poke around with new things. Either experimenting with an alpha level program appeals to you or it doesn't; I'm grateful for anyone who is willing to try but I don't want to twist arms or mislead about how the process will work.

So let me suggest this. Download the software and play with it for 5 minutes. Now uninstall it. If your interest was piqued, keep an eye out for when Techne reaches Beta level. I will be begging for feature requests by then. If Techne leaves you unimpressed, thanks for at least considering it and you'll know that whatever you are currently using best suits your needs.

Joe