New Laptop

[carvertim]

I finally replaced my old clunker of a laptop. From what I've read on the forum I have to talk to Carvewright to get them to release one of the two licenses from my old computer. I have been calling them leaving messages for three days now with no call back. What does it take to get this done? Any ideas? Do they only work certain days? My new laptop is a screaming machine but I am cut off from my machine.

Carvertim

[Steven Alford]

Wow, three days and no call back!!
I find no excuse for that, especially if you plan on staying in business. Unless of course that is NOT their plan!
Can you imagine what is going to happen to us when they stop answering their phones completely?? Then where do we get parts for a proprietary machine like the CW??

If the owner cared about us he would be at the office returning calls and answering the phone after hours.

[chebytrk]

Wow, three days and no call back!!
I find no excuse for that, especially if you plan on staying in business. Unless of course that is NOT their plan!
Can you imagine what is going to happen to us when they stop answering their phones completely?? Then where do we get parts for a proprietary machine like the CW??

If the owner cared about us he would be at the office returning calls and answering the phone after hours.

I placed a call for the same reason on Monday. I left a voice mail explaining what I wanted done (deactivate 1 licensense since I now have a new desktop). I received a call back a couple of hours later letting me know that it had been done. I told them in the voice mail which particular computer license (name) I wanted deactivated. All worked good for me. :D

[dbfletcher]

I could be wrong, but I could swear you can do this yourself... if you log in to the carvewright site...

http://www.carvewright.com/register

Doug Fletcher

[Jeff_Birt]

Silly question: are you leaving a good number for them to call back? Don't rely on caller ID. Do you have an answering machine on that number?

[chebytrk]

I could be wrong, but I could swear you can do this yourself... if you log in to the carvewright site...

http://www.carvewright.com/register

Doug Fletcher

I wish we could do this ourselves instead of relying on someone at LHR to do it. After all, we're logging on with our own login and password to our own secure site. The only thing you can edit is the name of the computer that your license is on. Would be just as easy to add a "remove license" button for either one of the PCs that's allowed. Guess that's just too easy.

[HighTechOkie]

Yes a "remove license" button is easy to add. The code to make that work may not be so easy. This means the web server then has to talk to the license server. This connection has to be established through the firewall so someone can't hack it and maliciously remove licenses from other users or try to gain access to the license server and add licenses that were not paid for. If LHR is using commercial software for the license management, the APIs may not exist (or are prohibitively expensive) to do this.

I believe if it where so simple to do, they would have done it already as it would help reduce calls. Unfortunately, this would only reduce a small number of calls as many users are not even aware of how to get to the customer support section, so they still have to walk the customer through how to get there let alone make any changes.

Rob

[dbfletcher]

Well, I will agree this is a very slim outside chance that there may be an Add license API without a corresponding remove license API (most likely all in the same api).. but as a software developer/systems analyst for over 20 years that would be very unlikely indeed. And if you really think about it... the add license would/should be more difficult and secure than the remove lisense. The account login/password is the security they have implemented on the website.

I doubt there thought process whas "well.. if an account gets hacked.. we dont want him to remove the legit owners computer and add his own.. not sure how that would be all that useful anyways.

To me it seems much more likly to fall under the lhr "control" issues that they seem to have about much of there software/hardware.

As far as i'm concerned.. I think of the carvewright machine itself as a "dongle". It really isnt all that useful to have the software without a machine... and with the 30 day trial... u can (with a little work) install it on as many machines as you like anyways.

I dont mean to make this sound like a lhr bashing message.. becuase it isnt really. But simple functions should be just that... simple.

Doug Fletcher

[www.go3d.us]

Wow, three days and no call back!!
I find no excuse for that, especially if you plan on staying in business. Unless of course that is NOT their plan!
Can you imagine what is going to happen to us when they stop answering their phones completely?? Then where do we get parts for a proprietary machine like the CW??

If the owner cared about us he would be at the office returning calls and answering the phone after hours.

Well if one day they don't answer their phone and register server not working (due to bankruptcy or whatever reason)....you and I are stuck with a useless piece of equipment that is fully paid for :rolleyes: But I'm sure there is another way round when that day comes. :rolleyes:

[Jeff_Birt]

I guess I am a bit confused about all the grumbling. I deal with all sorts of software with different licensing schemes. The system that CW uses is pretty typical, in that you get X number of seats and need to place a call to a support center if you do a reinstall. If the users to negate a license then what would stop one from installing/licensing it on 100 machines one by one.

In fact I think it has taken me longer to write this than I spent on the phone with CW the few times I have upgraded computers over the last couple of years.

[dbfletcher]

I guess my only point was.. how useful is the software really without a carvewright machine? This is a hobbiest system right? If I have 5 pc's in my house (which by the way would be low... I have 12 but only use 5-7 of them on a daily basis), is there really a big deal of me having the software on all 12? I only have one carvewright so its not like I can be creating 12 proejcts then turn around and run them all at the same time?

I have a hobbist vinyl cutter (no.. not cricket), and when they first started out they had thier software tied to machines... eventually they also realized that with out the cutter, the software really isnt that valuable... and after enough complaints from the unser comunity, they changed it where the "machine" was the dongle. Obvioulsy I dont want to have to have the carvewright hooked up to a computer to be able to use it... but what super cool things are people doing with the software by itself without eventaully wanting to send it to a carvewright?

The computer embroidery machine I have also works in this fashion. Again.. the design software isnt really useful if you dont have the "hardware" that is actually going to use the design.

What am I missing? What can you really do with the designer program if you dont own a carvewright? The only thing I can think of is make some neat projects... that owuld make me say "hey... this is really cool stuff... i'm gonna have to go get me one of those carvewright machine so I can carve these project I just made."

Doug Fletcher

[www.go3d.us]

the design software isnt really useful if you dont have the "hardware" that is actually going to use the design.

What am I missing? What can you really do with the designer program if you dont own a carvewright? The only thing I can think of is make some neat projects... that owuld make me say "hey... this is really cool stuff... i'm gonna have to go get me one of those carvewright machine so I can carve these project I just made."

Doug Fletcher

You are absolutely right. also the machine is useless if you were unable to register the software.

[mca]

I believe licensing was setup this way because one long-term possibility is decoupling the software from the machine.

[dbfletcher]

I can see the logic in that if you are also planning on using a more universal format (g-code?) for your compiled projects... but it was my understanding this isn’t the case. So I guess I fail to see the appeal of a proprietary format from a proprietary piece of software for use on a proprietary machine. There doesn’t seem to be a logical “decoupling” point there.

But it is what it is… I do like the software and I think it does have lots of features/power. It just seems that there are a lot of underlying restrictions you would expect in a industrial/commercial setting but seem fairly out of place in a “hobbyist” world.

Thanks,

Doug Fletcher

[joesighting]

I saw this on my Yahoo page today. http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20090812/bs_prweb/prweb2721504_1

Seems CarveWright has bigger software ambitions.

"High consumer demand for the powerful but easy-to-use CarveWright software has led to the opening of discussions with ShopBot Tools, Inc., regarding ways to bring about an exciting new combination of CarveWright software with the ShopBot family of CNC machines."

[toothpicks]

I'm with you there. I am once again having to install my software after sending my PC in for warranty repairs.

Unable to continue now, message says License File Import Failed. Great. And it's the weekend.

Where's my "Unamused" smilie when I need it?

[Steven Alford]

I saw this on my Yahoo page today. http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20090812/bs_prweb/prweb2721504_1

Seems CarveWright has bigger software ambitions.

"High consumer demand for the powerful but easy-to-use CarveWright software has led to the opening of discussions with ShopBot Tools, Inc., regarding ways to bring about an exciting new combination of CarveWright software with the ShopBot family of CNC machines."

And then the article say's "With the goal to bring the art of woodworking into the next century, the company patented and distributed a revolutionary "quick changer" for handheld routers in 2003. The engineers used the same quick-changer concept to create the CarveWright Woodworking System. First introduced through Sears in November of 2006 as the CompuCarve Woodcarving System, it is driven by CarveWright software.

I would not have been in too big a hurry to put that statement in there!!!

[bwnichols]

Jeff B.,

The 'grumbling' I think is about an unenlightened software licencing policy (EULA). Granted, 'seat licencing' may be typical in the CAD world, but 'user' licencing is what I think would help LHR score a public-relations win with the customer cummunity, at essentially no cost.

Below is a partial example (click link for full EULA (https://www.ultraedit.com/pages.php?pageid=14)), from IDM Computer Solutions, publishers of UltraEdit (great text editor, BTW) of what I would call an 'enlightened EULA':

1. GRANT OF LICENSE. This License Agreement (License) permits you to use a single copy, or multiples copies if you are the only user of the software product identified above, which may include user documentation provided in on-line or electronic form (SOFTWARE). The SOFTWARE is licensed as a single product, to an individual user, or group of users for Multiple User Licenses and Site Licenses. This Agreement requires that each user of the SOFTWARE be Licensed, either individually, or as part of a group.

IDM's licence agreement allows me to keep individual copies of the software on my laptop, on my home workstation, and on my workstation at work. Since I can't use all three computers at once, it seems like a fair and reasonable policy. And that I think is 'what all the grumbling is about' -- for example, it's my lunch-hour now and I'm going to tweak a CarveWright drawing here at work...and then load it into the machine when I get home. Using 'Dropbox', any change I make to the CW drawing here at work is replicated to my home machine. But when the 30-day trial expires on my work machine, I'll no longer be able to do this.

If anyone from LHR is listening, in addition to dispensing with the QC adapter and including a RockChuck and rubberized belts as standard, please consider updating your software EULA to a 'user licencing' model.

Regards,
Brando