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Lark - the reason some of us tend to harp on the upgrade is that most of the issues that everyone has is that the version they are using (like you with V10) are moving up to an OS (whether you wanted to or not) that your Dcad version was never meant to work with. The fact that Dcad has worked so well for so long on so many (newer) iterations of Windoze says a TON for Dave G's coding and loyalty to we users.

You also mention that some cannot afford (and probably wouldn't use) the upgrade. This is very true - my wife and I were among the many that lost our jobs, couldn't find any other jobs and lost our house that we had scrimped and saved for. Was it a struggle to pay the upgrade price? Yes. Was it worth it for the new features? Yes - but I don't use some of the new "whiz-bang" features; I do use the basic productivity enhancements that have made my job easier along the way. Could I have made do without the upgrades? Probably, but at some point DC LLC would have to cease to exist if we all assumed that stance - and what good would that do? I've got quite a few legacy files from other programs that I used to use that no longer exist - and all of the info within them are now lost. I REALLY don't want that to happen with my DC files!

Maybe a better way to look at this (for everyone) is that Dcad is a tool, just like a hammer or saw or drill. If one of your tools breaks you have two choices - do without it, or bite the bullet and buy a new one. And that new one may have more goodies on it than you need or want, and may cost WAY more than you'd like to spend on it - but it's an issue of can you be as productive without it just because the old one (that you now can't use) did everything you needed.

So here's the question for ALL of us: Do we continue to bitch and moan that our perfectly good (outdated) software doesn't work with the new whiz-bang OS's that we're forced (at some point) to upgrade to, and then punish the (outdated software) developer who had nothing to do with the OS upgrade (other than having to update THEIR software to work with the new OS) by refusing to upgrade, or do we bite the bullet and upgrade our perfectly good software so that 1) we CAN continue to work and 2) the software developer can continue to support us with the functionality we love?

Sorry for the long-winded reply, and this isn't directed specifically at you, Lark - but we can either support DC LLC (upgrading our licenses) so that they can continue, or we can support another cadd developer because our beloved DC LLC can't continue due to lack of users upgrading.

To add to Alan's excellent comments, I can't think of any 11 year old software package that would even offer an opportunity to post the question, let alone offer a solution other than to upgrade. (The last update to DataCAD 10 was posted on 06/30/2003). For me it's a case of not even knowing the answer to the question or a solution to the problem. The suggestion to upgrade is not meant to be disrespectful, but as a simple and immediate solution to your problem.

Years ago I invested about $1,700.00 in Autodesk Viz to generate photo realistic renderings from my DataCAD models. Like you, I spent quite a bit of time learning how to use the program before I was finally able to produce suitable results. I certainly didn't use many of the features, but it served my requirements for quite some time and didn't have any need to pay Autodesk's exorbitant update prices.

When Windows 7 came along, Viz wouldn't install and I went through the painful process of setting up XP Mode to try to run the program with limited and unusable results. I decided to look into an upgrade and Viz was no longer offered. Instead I could spend $3,600 for 3d Studio Max. The good news would be that I could grow hair on our buildings and then set fire to them with very convincing results. Obviously, that was not going to happen, so I moved on to Sketchup which has turned out to be a more than suitable substitute for a much more reasonable investment.

The point of course is that sometimes the old car just needs to be upgraded to a newer model. At least it will only cost $495.00 instead of 3 or 4 times that much for any comparable drafting package and there's no learning curve.

No matter what your reason for not wanting to upgrade, if you don't plan to ever upgrade from Datacad 10, then you really should stock pile some XP computers/hardware, make sure and keep backup copies of the Datacad updates and hardlock drivers and pray your hardlock doesn't die someday. I would only plug/unplug the hardlock with the system power off to avoid any chance of killing it. Make sure to keep that Datacad XP box off the internet to avoid getting hacked after April 8th when XP's support ends. The experts I listen to online suspect that there are exploits that the hackers are holding on to until support officially ends and then are going to start releasing into the wild all kinds of goodies. Do your surfing on a new secure box. As for the respect comment, no disrespect is intended from myself and the others, but respect is earned. Those who upgrade and support the software that allows me to feed my family get more from me than those who don't.

I agree with all three of the three previous posts. Well said, all!

I'll just mention that until last Friday, I was self-employed for about the last 8 years. Which means I was working less than half of that time. So, I had to make my upgrade purchase at a time when I could afford it. I fully understand the question of upgrading, or not. I'm just urging us all not to take anything for granted.