Topic Title

Hi Mark

I checked for updates from the Program's help menu and it updated from 13.05.01.06 to Version: 13.06.01.03 (H)

When I click "Check for Updates" it says there's a new version. Version 13-13.06.00

shoud I continue and update again?

[Mark F. Madura]

Thanks for the quick response Mark.

Been on the road for the past 3 days - it has been SO nice just booting up the laptop, starting DC and not having to dig out the dongle to plug it in before starting DC!

I have a question regarding privacy. How much data is Datacad storying and or mining. Too many online companies are doing this to their customers, just think google. We are being followed around the web constantly and I am very tired of it, so much so that I'm thinking of just disconnecting from the internet. Now, Datacad is telling me....NO you must stay connected to the internet. For me and others who are thinking of leaving or never are connected, how does this help.

DC isn't saying that you have to be connected all of the time - just once every 45 days for it to verify that you are running a legit copy. I've used Vectorworks in the past that DID require you to be constantly watched by them (not really an issue unless you were trying to run two copies of the same license at the same time).

As I understand...if I've been using Datacad at the office and later that night decide to work on Datacad at home on my laptop, I have to log-out (deactivate) the office PC before I go home in-order to work on Datacad later that night? I like the idea of not needing the dongle to use my laptop at home in the evenings...it doesn't have a USB port to spare. But having to log-out of Datacad every afternoon just in case I might want to work that evening at home sounds like a pain. And if I forget to "deactivate" the laptop and I go back into the office the next morning I'm locked-out? ...Or am I not understanding the logistics? I gave up using Datacad at home on my old laptop since physically-removing the Ver-11 Printer-port hardware key and carrying it around was too-cumbersome. Maybe I'm better-off just buying a 2nd-seat license?


I'm going to take on-faith that Datacad will not "go evil" down the road like Autodesk and Google and use the 45-day internal clock as a means to force users to purchase expensive up-grades on a regular basis, or suddenly go to an arbitrary, unilateral subscription-model like Autocad. "...Up-grade within 45-days or your software will stop working FOREVER...Bwahhahahahah."

It's already enough of a problem with Autodesk's threat/promise to take the .DWG-format proprietary and lock many of us out of work where .DWG is contractually-mandated. The State of New Jersey now requires and accepts .Pdf-format submissions-only for reviews and approvals...even if the originals are hand-drawn.

Having to log out of your computer at work and then log in with your computer at home or on the road is really no different than having to remember to take your dongle with you. You either have the dongle or you don't in which case you might have to go get it or not work at home. With the softlock Mark has shown on another thread a couple of ways to remotely log out and not have to go back to the office. So in that case the softlock is better. Now I don't 'THINK' Datacad would "go evil" on us but you never know. The worse case scenario would be that if Datacad, God forbid, would have to close their doors for whatever reason, whether economic or natural disaster, then we would all be screwed after 45 days. With the hardlock you may not get any updates but you could at least continue working. Hopefully that will never come to pass but it is the one major concern I have with the softlock.

One other thing on this issue. I have 2 personal copies of v.12 one of which I have upgraded to X3 although we are still using v.12 at the office. I plan to keep the dongle on that copy, but I am going to upgrade the second one to a softlock for my laptop.

One idea might be to have the future upgrades to use the original X3 dongle and not have to keep sending out new dongles with every new version. You still would be able to use only one at a time and that would seem to me to be better than sending out a new dongle each time. It would be cheaper and it would eliminate the ability for two people to be working on the same license at the same time just different versions and saving back and forth.