I just downloaded Shapr3D a couple weeks ago and explored a bit on my own. (MacBook)
I am prepared to purchase a CAD application for freelance design projects. I’ve been a mechanical designer for decades, Unigraphics, SolidEdge, SolidWorks, AutoCAD and a few more obscure systems as well. But there’s no way I can afford these to start a part time business.
I’m using the free version so I can get the basics before starting the 14 day trial which is ridiculously short by the way for those of us with jobs and families.
Also, I see the trial automatically rolls into a purchase by default, requiring a user to opt-out to avoid being charged is ridiculous.
I do however find Shapr3D very interesting to work with, and it looks like it might be the answer for my business.
Now I start trying the tutorials at the beginning (sketches) only to find the user interface being demonstrated is significantly different than mine. I’m guessing since I just installed the software, mine is more up-to-date. Yes, I’ll be able to work through it, but that’s not the point. I expect that kind of thing from freeware, but you want me to pay for this.
It’s not clear but, from your pricing schedule at least, it looks like I can’t buy a license once and upgrade if I need to, it looks like this is an automatic ongoing subscription requiring me to opt-out rather than approving charges to renew?
I find this highly unethical and it may become a deal breaker for this potential customer. I am a advocate for ethical corporate behavior and this is the exact kind of thing I fight against.
Hi @ThresholdEngineering, I understand that you don’t like subscriptions. Our business model is based on recurring payments at an affordable price point, which guarantees that we can continuously add new features and functionalities, and provide critical updates in a sustainable way. You can cancel your subscription anytime with a single click and reactivate it whenever you need it, and we don’t lock in your data: if you cancel your subscription and reach out to us, we’ll provide a way to export all your data even if you don’t have an active subscription.
We might have some obsolete tutorials - can you provide a link to the obsolete ones? We are working on updating our learning materials.
@ThresholdEngineering How is that unethical. You use big words, but I don’t think they apply to S3D subscription. It is clear upfront to what you are subscribing, so to me that cannot be called unethical.
I know, many of us are used for workstation based software to buy the license and renew as needed, however in software land, on almost all platforms the usage rights are based on subscriptions. Complex software for pc or mac is increasingly based on subscriptions.
In your case, you should be happy because you now have the option to get this application at a reasonable price per month instead of a huge amount upfront (what seems to be prohibitive in your case).
While some of the tutorials are dated, I still found them of value at the beginning. I wouldn’t think it a good idea to delete them yet until more new ones are up there on YouTube.