Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

[mattpeneguy]

So no one want to take up his offer on a biweekly meeting?

I volunteer @DennisD.

Kidding aside, @Frederick_Law I think that ship has sailed for the people that they got involved in the transition. They didn't do a single thing that was suggested. So, why would anyone want to put their effort into fixing something when the people claiming to do the fixing aren't able or willing to implement those fixes?
They may find some people, but their pool of old forum users that are willing to help them has significantly reduced. I know I'm not interested in sinking any time into fixing their platform. I'll help out here because this is a forum, and fixes happen if possible and appropriate. The layout and search of this place makes it a hell of a lot easier to find and post things relevant to their respective subjects. So, this is just a more appropriate place to post and retrieve SW and now other CAD related information.

[zwei]

I guess a lot of the folks here had really lost their interest in the 3DSWYMP as well as their drive... so....

Also what's the biweekly meeting about? Trying to convert you into 3DExperience cult?

[Roasted By John]

So no one want to take up his offer on a biweekly meeting?

I talked to Suchit Jain for about 45 minutes last week, unfortunately for them DSS is a huge corporation and the wheels turn slow, they realize that they should have done the migration months ago, however they would just ask Jive for another month, till Jive said "No More" the hard cutoff date was April 2nd. As you mentioned, they know that having the forum down hurts them big time and they are committed to make it work as easy or easier then the old Forum. So we will see.....

[Frederick_Law]

I posed the question of "Link the longest thread here" over there a while ago.

https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... k_NWuOyepA

[zwei]

I posed the question of "Link the longest thread here" over there a while ago.

https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... k_NWuOyepA

Ok...
This is just... not good...

[Frederick_Law]

I will say they got a really good team on data transfer/translate.
Only if they can work on SW setting from version to version.
And files from version to version.
They might find a way to make it backward compatible.

[zxys001]

Is today really his last day?

Yeah

yeah, not at all surprised...

[kawuser]

I have say they got a really good team on data transfer/translate.
Only if they can work on SW setting from version to version.
And files from version to version.
They might find a way to make it backward compatible.

They would loose subscriptions, the desire to upgrade if they would make it backward compatible and they know that.

[AlexLachance]

I have say they got a really good team on data transfer/translate.
Only if they can work on SW setting from version to version.
And files from version to version.
They might find a way to make it backward compatible.

They would loose subscriptions, the desire to upgrade if they would make it backward compatible and they know that.

I think that's thinking backwards.

More people would want to use SolidWorks if it was backwards compatible, so that's more subs not less. Also, why would you lose the desire to upgrade? I mean, you go to 2021 and it sucks @$$ and it's riddled with bugs? Go back to 2020, wouldn't that be great? Unlike right now where you're stuck hoping you get a stable version when you do decide to upgrade.

You lose the desire to upgrade because of the lack of backward compatibility, not the other way around.

[kawuser]

I have say they got a really good team on data transfer/translate.
Only if they can work on SW setting from version to version.
And files from version to version.
They might find a way to make it backward compatible.

They would loose subscriptions, the desire to upgrade if they would make it backward compatible and they know that.

I think that's thinking backwards.

More people would want to use SolidWorks if it was backwards compatible, so that's more subs not less. Also, why would you lose the desire to upgrade? I mean, you go to 2021 and it sucks @$$ and it's riddled with bugs? Go back to 2020, wouldn't that be great? Unlike right now where you're stuck hoping you get a stable version when you do decide to upgrade.

You lose the desire to upgrade because of the lack of backward compatibility, not the other way around.

I am sorry to disagree. They get 40K from our company every year. They would not be getting that if was backward compatible. We would just sit on on older version for years.

[AlexLachance]

They would loose subscriptions, the desire to upgrade if they would make it backward compatible and they know that.

I think that's thinking backwards.

More people would want to use SolidWorks if it was backwards compatible, so that's more subs not less. Also, why would you lose the desire to upgrade? I mean, you go to 2021 and it sucks @$$ and it's riddled with bugs? Go back to 2020, wouldn't that be great? Unlike right now where you're stuck hoping you get a stable version when you do decide to upgrade.

You lose the desire to upgrade because of the lack of backward compatibility, not the other way around.

I am sorry to disagree. They get 40K from our company every year. They would not be getting that if was backward compatible. We would just sit on on older version for years.

And why is that? Why would they lose your subscription?

Let's speak just for the sake of speaking.

So, they find a way of making SolidWorks backwards compatible, and change nothing else. That means if you're subscribed, you pay a yearly fee. If you're not subscribed, you'll have to pay a fee to cover the years you weren't subscribed.

Now, explain to me why you would remain on an older version rather then upgrade if that was the case?
Also, explain to me, why do you keep on upgrading? To fix issues? What if those issues aren't fixed and more issues arise? Backward compatibility would save you there. Right now you're stuck hoping for the lottery.

[bnemec]

I think that's thinking backwards.

More people would want to use SolidWorks if it was backwards compatible, so that's more subs not less. Also, why would you lose the desire to upgrade? I mean, you go to 2021 and it sucks @$$ and it's riddled with bugs? Go back to 2020, wouldn't that be great? Unlike right now where you're stuck hoping you get a stable version when you do decide to upgrade.

You lose the desire to upgrade because of the lack of backward compatibility, not the other way around.

I am sorry to disagree. They get 40K from our company every year. They would not be getting that if was backward compatible. We would just sit on on older version for years.

And why is that? Why would they lose your subscription?

Let's speak just for the sake of speaking.

So, they find a way of making SolidWorks backwards compatible, and change nothing else. That means if you're subscribed, you pay a yearly fee. If you're not subscribed, you'll have to pay a fee to cover the years you weren't subscribed.

Now, explain to me why you would remain on an older version rather then upgrade if that was the case?
Also, explain to me, why do you keep on upgrading? To fix issues? What if those issues aren't fixed and more issues arise? Backward compatibility would save you there. Right now you're stuck hoping for the lottery.

[Frederick_Law]

I am sorry to disagree. They get 40K from our company every year. They would not be getting that if was backward compatible. We would just sit on on older version for years.

Many companies doing that already. Avoiding update afraid they can't go back.

[Frederick_Law]

AutoCAD had been backward compatible for ages.
MS Office too.
As long as new incompatible feature is not used, file should be backward compatible.

[DennisD]

So no one want to take up his offer on a biweekly meeting?

I volunteer @DennisD.

Kidding aside, @Frederick_Law I think that ship has sailed for the people that they got involved in the transition. They didn't do a single thing that was suggested. So, why would anyone want to put their effort into fixing something when the people claiming to do the fixing aren't able or willing to implement those fixes?
They may find some people, but their pool of old forum users that are willing to help them has significantly reduced. I know I'm not interested in sinking any time into fixing their platform. I'll help out here because this is a forum, and fixes happen if possible and appropriate. The layout and search of this place makes it a hell of a lot easier to find and post things relevant to their respective subjects. So, this is just a more appropriate place to post and retrieve SW and now other CAD related information.

I am already involved in that focus group. In the last meeting I changed my name to "Dennis, aka Bad Cop". I told Suchit, Manish, and Hubert (from DSS in France) that they screwed up, that their new forum is a miserable failure. Here is a direct quote from the transcription of that meeting:
Dennis, aka Bad Cop (to Everyone): DSS has a LONNNGGG way to go to earn back some trust! You guys need to implement big fixes fast! Every day that goes by without significant changes becomes another distance between you and the users that are most passionate and vocal.
+++Another User+++ (to Everyone): Old forum was for the most part, intuitive and easy to navigate and use, without special training. New Forum is a pain to even get into let alone the absolute horrible navigation, searching .....

Suchit and Manish tried to explain how they had built the platform around team collaboration tools that they had found very useful, so that was what they concentrated on delivering. One of the other guys basically said (and I am paraphrasing here) "WTF?! You concentrated on giving us something we didn't ask for and don't know that we need, and you did NOT give us the basic functionality that brings us to the forum in the first place!"

Keep in mind this was a web meeting so there were a lot of things said and are not in the chat, but we have gotten better about adding comments in the chat. Here is a list of a lot of those comments. Understand that some of these comments were made in response to something that had just been spoken so they might not have all the context to make them clear. However, I think you will see that we were clearly telling the DSS bigshots what we thought. We were ALSO telling them just what we wanted, and how to fix it. You will see plenty of our snark as well.

Ryann Priddy was unfortunately the messenger in all of this. I think everyone has been adult enough to not blame him directly. He did a fantastic job in a very difficult situation. That same attitude carries on through these meetings. We can be very direct, even uncomfortably so for those on the receiving end (that's too bad for them), but we have always been respectful and not making any personal attacks.

So here is a collection of the comments from the chat log. I have removed the names of the others since I do not have their permission to identify them. I am posting these comments because of the movement we have seen from Suchit in particular to improve the transparency of communications.

https://www.cadforum.net/ Is a lot easier to navigate. And feels a lot closer to the original forums.

solution should not be worse than the problem

Long discussion over the last COUPLE of months!? We've been on this focus group since last November!!!

We were speaking back in Nov but there was not true listening and understanding.

Part of the problem is that the New Forums was forced onto the 3D Exp platform even though it was never made just for that purpose. Should have been on a grass roots development that was as good or better than the old forums. Not just settling so that it can be inside of 3D Exp.

Comments are running 10:1 against the New Forums on 3D Exp

you might not get a next time

This is more than the 2nd time already

We understand and the value of owning your own system vs. another Jive. We get it. But you have the responsibility to do it right.

I agree with +++ that you had the wrong priorities to make the private network first.

Can we start by making the New Forums as easy to use as the Old Forums?

Yes, Suchit! Share with us your plan. Share it with the forum. That would be a very good step.

Feels like we have to struggle just to get back to what we already had.

Agree with +++, we would like to be able to see the plan and discuss and adjust or prioritize.

I would also like to know what restrictions or roadblocks we face and then we can work together with you to find solutions. We are Designers and Engineers whose primary job is evaluating issues and finding solutions.

Agree with +++. We have been trying to help fix this. Let us help. Listen and respond to us.

I think there was a poor understanding of how users were utilizing the old forums to help them solve problems and communicate. Need to walk a mile in another person's shoes sometimes.

The new DS forum was definitely NOT done by a forum user.

The new 3DSwym is just way too complicated. We need to simplify like the old forum. Clear, easy and intuitive - even for new users.

Taking +++'s discussion points one step further - It should be possible to have 4-6 "buckets" for ideas, and it should be relatively easy to drop ideas into the proper bucket.

This would allow a quick update - to let the user know where the idea stands. With a little bit of tweaking to the existing idea concept on the platform, it would be really easy to see the status of an idea.

Buckets based on speed/ease of achievability as well as "must do", "nice to do", "Might be nice to do", "Maybe do", "Don't want to do", and "NO F***** way"

Separate Forums app in 3D Exp

The new forum needs more than a few tweaks. I agree with Kam that a real forum is needed, perhaps go through 3DSwym to get there.

One of the big problems was no external users to identify all of the issues early. That is crucial!

Manish, spend some time looking at the alternative forums!!

Have seen zero DA people on the alternate forums

For the Forum, only the center third of the 3DSwym screen should be showing, the rest should be accessed by another tab or area (the way the old forum did). I liked the ability to have posts (as a subject list) by subject, author, certain keywords, tags...., I like to have the ability for listed by people I follow or subjects rather than every post made jumps to the top - I want some selection to restrict that.

If you look at the screen right now, on the left there are about 10 communities that we might never visit - this used to be all of the areas (sheet metal, weldments, drawings, certification, etc) the middle of the screen has TWO posts, this is usually about 20 posts.

Dennis, aka Bad Cop (to Everyone): Please, I beg you Manish, Suchit, Hubert, please spend some time YOURSELVES on other CAD forums. Navigate it and use it as we would. See for yourself things that the DS forum does not do.

We shouldn't have to learn to navigate for find things, it should be intuitive. and not all of us grew up with smart phones and similar, many many of us were lucky to have a computer by the time we got to college. Us older people want intuitive abilities (that even the new people can follow) rather than latest tech savvy users are used to.

https://www.cadforum.net/ Please check it out. It is much easier to access information and communicate with other CAD users. We should be at least as good as this.

It's like we lost our favorite restaurant because everything on the menu changed looks, taste, and servers are not the same

I usually find a different restaurant at that point.

Another good food analogy.

I'm just hungry all the time and it fits...

Competition is always good for the consumer. We have legs and know how to walk.

[Glenn Schroeder]

I haven't even posted anything there, and it still logged me in just fine.

[Frank_Oostendorp]

Is today really his last day?

Yeah

yeah, not at all surprised...

New puppet on a string already in place

[Frederick_Law]

@DennisD
LOL, I don't know why he want me in that group.
They haven't got enough yet?
Or they need more fire power to get to the top?

[DennisD]

image.png


I haven't even posted anything there, and it still logged me in just fine.

Glenn, that is part of their migration from the Jive forum. In addition to the threads they are migrating over they are automatically adding the users to their forum. In order for a person to post they have to be an author in that community so they are doing that for us instead of us having to ask for that status.

[Roasted By John]

image.png


I haven't even posted anything there, and it still logged me in just fine.

Glenn, that is part of their migration from the Jive forum. In addition to the threads they are migrating over they are automatically adding the users to their forum. In order for a person to post they have to be an author in that community so they are doing that for us instead of us having to ask for that status.

There is another reason, which has more to do with it then anything else "a Legal Responsibility", our comments are basically our property so to speak, so somewhere in the legal jargon they are forced to give us author rights on all the old stuff, which has to be made available for the new layout.

They ran themselves into a corner, pretty hard, the scars will take a long time to heal, they just need to be concerned about the scar tissue at this point..

[Roasted By John]

image.png


I haven't even posted anything there, and it still logged me in just fine.

Glenn, that is part of their migration from the Jive forum. In addition to the threads they are migrating over they are automatically adding the users to their forum. In order for a person to post they have to be an author in that community so they are doing that for us instead of us having to ask for that status.

There is another reason, which has more to do with it then anything else "a Legal Responsibility", our comments are basically our property so to speak, so somewhere in the legal jargon they are forced to give us author rights on all the old stuff, which has to be made available for the new layout.

They ran themselves into a corner, pretty hard, the scars will take a long time to heal, they just need to be concerned about the scar tissue at this point..

[kawuser]

I think that's thinking backwards.

More people would want to use SolidWorks if it was backwards compatible, so that's more subs not less. Also, why would you lose the desire to upgrade? I mean, you go to 2021 and it sucks @$$ and it's riddled with bugs? Go back to 2020, wouldn't that be great? Unlike right now where you're stuck hoping you get a stable version when you do decide to upgrade.

You lose the desire to upgrade because of the lack of backward compatibility, not the other way around.

I am sorry to disagree. They get 40K from our company every year. They would not be getting that if was backward compatible. We would just sit on on older version for years.

And why is that? Why would they lose your subscription?

Let's speak just for the sake of speaking.

So, they find a way of making SolidWorks backwards compatible, and change nothing else. That means if you're subscribed, you pay a yearly fee. If you're not subscribed, you'll have to pay a fee to cover the years you weren't subscribed.

Now, explain to me why you would remain on an older version rather then upgrade if that was the case?
Also, explain to me, why do you keep on upgrading? To fix issues? What if those issues aren't fixed and more issues arise? Backward compatibility would save you there. Right now you're stuck hoping for the lottery.

The reason we keep our subscription updated is because an outside tool house who makes the most of our tooling uses solidworks. So when they update to a new version we update so they can give use the solidworks files and we have no problem opening and editing them. They do tooling work for other companies as well as ours. We could sit on a old version but we would have to take there files in a different format but it would create extra work in our house with documentation changes. So if there was backward compatibility we would not upgrade when they did. That's one reason we would sit without updates.

[AlexLachance]

The explanation is simple, did you ever work for a large corporation?, if you did then you'll know what I mean when I say, "Somehow that person is running that department, without any knowledge of what's actually happening", all they do is read reports, set deadlines and product/;inventory baselines, their decisions are all based on that matrix, they could have no clue on the inner workings of the day to day operations on the floor. I really think that they setup Ryan Priddy as a puppet, his whole was constantly being moved by strings that other people had a hold of, its no wonder that today is his last day at SW..

I missed this post for some reason. I have to say it is a shame that Ryan's gone. Maybe there is something we're not seeing behind the scenes, but I feel the same way as you do.

[MJuric]

So no one want to take up his offer on a biweekly meeting?

I volunteer @DennisD.

So they have a focus group which essentially is giving them 100% negative feedback. Any other company would cry themselves to sleep every night if that happened to them. The idea that this forum is an abject failure is an understatement.

What's even more telling and disconcerting is that they had this same focus group essentially for the last two years when you look at the response to the TTL. Yet still they delivered the product. Stunning really. Can you imagine a company doing a focus group in a new product and have that group be nearly 100% negative. Then they come back and do another one a year later and it's nearly 100% negative. Then that company decides "Screw it we are producing this product anyway", that is what DSS has done here.

[Frederick_Law]

You and me should join.

[jcapriotti]

@DennisD I'm not sure I believe their comments. They have programmers and engineers on staff working on this stuff and none of them haunt programming / engineering forums out there on the web? Also, the comment about them wanting to create their own forum instead of paying Jive doesn't hold water. I'm sure they bought Microsoft Office and have no plans to create a Word Processor or spreadsheet program. You stick to what you're good at and buy the rest to support it.

Bottom line IMO, they were 'forced' from up high to shoehorn this into their product in an attempt to get users "acclimated to the 3dx environment to upsell us. They should just be honest and admit it. At least then we can say "You tried, you made a mistake, now move on". There are dozens of forums software they could buy and easily customize with far less effort.

[MJuric]

Bottom line IMO, they were 'forced' from up high to shoehorn this into their product in an attempt to get users "acclimated to the 3dx environment to upsell us. They should just be honest and admit it. At least then we can say "You tried, you made a mistake, now move on". There are dozens of forums software they could buy and easily customize with far less effort.

Essentially what I've been saying since they decided to put TTL on the Sywm platform. Any person that has spent more than a few hours searching for technical answers on the internet understands what a forum is, how it functions and why it functions that way. Anyone with a lick of sense could easier understand why a "Social platform" can not operate as a public technical forum. There is no rational explanation for any professional person who's job it is to provide such a forum to choose a "Social platform" over a plethora of other options that are much less expensive, far easier to implement and far better suited to the function if the decision was purely based on those criteria.

This leaves you with some other possibility and the most rational choice of the "Other possibilities" is that it was never about providing the best public forum, but about slowly heating the water around the frog.

[AlexLachance]

Anyone know what these are supposed to represent?

image.png (16.31 KiB) Viewed 9280 times

[dave.laban]

No-one knows; https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... lIRCi8hZew

[mattpeneguy]

Also, what does this check mark mean?

image.png (15.99 KiB) Viewed 9216 times

Hey @matt can we have check marks in our avatars?

[jmongi]

They have programmers and engineers on staff working on this stuff and none of them haunt programming / engineering forums out there on the web?

Given the overall design of 3Dex? I'd believe it.

Lost in the fray of how bad 3Dex is as a user forum is the fact that the OVERALL implementation is a hot mess. The tools within the 3Dex environment seem to be possibly very powerful, but whomever is in charge of UI...woah man it's bad. Never underestimate managements inability to understand technology outside of their area of expertise.

From 1996-1998 I worked for Goodyear Tire & Rubber in their mold design department. I saw two things that still make me shake my head to this day.

1. The department manager was unable/unwilling to send his own e-mails. This despite the fact that the entire companies communication platform at the time was Lotus Notes. Literally asked one of his assistant managers EVERY TIME he needed to send an e-mail.

2. They were in the middle of creating an internal website for storing and retrieving all of the "tribal knowledge" inherent in any massive design/production environment. A good and needed goal. They hired a "web developer" to create this internal web site. This developer was paid real developer money to use Microsoft Frontpage and to claim certain UI improvements were "not possible." I discovered myself at my next job that they weren't impossible, just not implemented in Frontpage. Some relatively minor tweaks to the underlying HTML and I could do the IMPOSSIBLE!

So, potentially good ideas (let's create a collaborative development platform; let's migrate our user base to this platform) is undone by sloppy execution.

[AlexLachance]

Also, what does this check mark mean?
image.png
Hey @matt can we have check marks in our avatars?

That means the user is online, or the green does and the checkmark means you got them in your network?

Something like that

[Frederick_Law]

Most likely online.
Definitely not "in Network".

[Frederick_Law]

BTW
All old forum bookmarks should be working.
Don't need to login to read.

[matt]

Also, what does this check mark mean?
image.png
Hey @matt can we have check marks in our avatars?

Better than checkmarks, I can give gold stars!!!! And everybody gets a trophy. Hey, I need a couple hours to go get some more purple ink. We're running through it faster than I thought.

[mattpeneguy]

Also, what does this check mark mean?
image.png
Hey @matt can we have check marks in our avatars?

Well, @matt your response time this morning is a little slow...it's been like 15 minutes already and you haven't fixed my avatar...So, I fixed it for you:

Swym3.gif (4.23 KiB) Viewed 9254 times

[DanPihlaja]

BTW
All old forum bookmarks should be working.
Don't need to login to read.

What are you talking about?

Here is where I am brought with a link to one of my original posts on the Solidworks Forum:

[Frederick_Law]

Go tell them:
https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... PWhzcDyOrQ

https://forum.solidworks.com/thread/221366

https://forum.solidworks.com/thread/7300

[Jaylin Hochstetler]

Also, what does this check mark mean?
image.png
Hey @matt can we have check marks in our avatars?

The ProSilver theme has a green dot if someone's online.

2021-04-14 09_14_33-Window.jpg (5.98 KiB) Viewed 9233 times

[MJuric]

So this thread https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... 5aRnlu4akQ

has 1414 views, 30 comments and four likes....three out of the four likes are from DSS employees. Hmmm...maybe people think your platform sucks.

[jmongi]

The sheer level of denial is....I'm not usually at a loss for words, but, I can't find the right words to accurately describe my wonderment, annoyance, anger, laughter at the denial. Hey, companies make dumb decisions, even colossally dumb decisions, but it takes real...something...to look at this scenario and not see it for what it is.

It seems there are a few flickers of understanding. But, that's being followed by a bunch of hand-wringing when the broad conceptual solutions have already been relayed. I separate the conceptual from the implementation. For example:

Problem: "The current platform does not adequately support a user forum that functions as a technical knowledge database."
Question: "How can we appropriately support this user case?"
Solutions:
-Brainstorm solutions based on the problem/question.
-Analyze the technical feasability, cost, time frame of each solution.
-Choose one and implement it.

You'll notice that we are JUST getting to the realization of point 1 which is leading to point 2. That doesn't make it any less frustrating that they've had the user feedback for many months to years and just now figured it out.

The forum thread migration is one example of an apparent massive lack of planning. Regardless of our personal feelings, they knew they were planning on forcing us to 3Dex. Why did the migration only start AFTER the forum was shut down? That makes NO SENSE! There was no reason they couldn't both be operational concurrently....gah. Anyway, I think I've wasted enough emotion on it now.

My VAR reached out with a survey that smelled like DS market speak. I wonder if they'll like my responses

[Shaun]

BTW
All old forum bookmarks should be working.
Don't need to login to read.

What are you talking about?

Here is where I am brought with a link to one of my original posts on the Solidworks Forum:
image.png

It does work for me, see below

I admit I didn't expect it to.

[Frederick_Law]

My VAR reached out with a survey that smelled like DS market speak.

We all filled out similar survey.
Haven't seen any after that

I'm thinking about contacting Suchit JAIN.
Ask him what he expect from me when he already got more of the top forum leader in his review meeting group.
Maybe he wants someone that sounds stupid in the group to proof that the community is wrong

[bnemec]

Also, what does this check mark mean?
image.png
Hey @matt can we have check marks in our avatars?

Well, @matt your response time this morning is a little slow...it's been like 15 minutes already and you haven't fixed my avatar...So, I fixed it for you:
Swym3.gif

I like a star better.

[AlexLachance]

Can someone point me to the post where they say there's 500 dedicated experts to answer our questions? I'm looking at their platform and I'm not seeing any expert answer any question.

[Merovingien]

maybe they miswrite the word :

500 dedicated Bugsperts

[Frederick_Law]

00 in R&D to work on the problem.
After someone report to them.
You should be able to find it with 6WTF tag
It is from Manish KUMAR.
Found it: https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... -utdlgw_ow

[Frederick_Law]

Call now. We have 500 operators ready to take your first born.

[AlexLachance]

00 in R&D to work on the problem.
After someone report to them.
You should be able to find it with 6WTF tag
It is from Manish KUMAR.
Found it: https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... -utdlgw_ow

Thanks Fred, Manish is the person I am discussing with. I'll bring it up with him and see his explanation, maybe I misinterpreted it and it is as you said, 500 in R&D to work on the problem and not 500 to answer question. Though, in the post it does say that they are there to answer questions that would have been answered on the previous forum.

The Draftsight section is a good example, there is so many unattended topics it's kind of embarassing.

[Frederick_Law]

Draftsight is the most active part of the SwYmP already.
Everyday, this doesn't work, license problem, install problem.