Thoughts on building a post processor database?

[g-coder05]

In the past few weeks if had some calls from old clients that I vouched for Powershape and Featurecam needing post. Normally the maintenance would cover this but with all that’s going on at Autodesk (and most other Cam developers) not many are drinking the cool aid anymore.
Apparently AD is back to charging a grand for an off the shelf post and they know the user has to suck it up or try and make mods to a distributed post.

And I finally realized why they are making post very difficult to backdate. All it takes is open the post with a newer version and it is useless if you go back, such as @B&A Bill had with his VERY custom post. Thanks to a savvy member here he was able to recover. If he would have had to call AD I’m sure that would have been an expensive process.

So, what I’m thinking about is adding a new page here that requires a person to log in with their member ID and ether upload post they have or have access to post people have uploaded. It’s not illegal or unethical as far as I see it, but them charging a grand or more for a post they were paid to build already is pure greed.

I know there will be people grabbing post that have pirated CAM ware but that’s just the nature of the programming world I guess. We could moderate it and ask for proof of ownership before allowing a download to start but I’m to the point anymore these CAM companies brought it on themselves.

 

[Oldwrench]

these CAM companies brought it on themselves

Absolutely. I wouldn't ask for proof of ownership, as in the software world that's now a theoretical construct. True "ownership" consists of possession of the installation disks and a dongle. If you are renting the software and it shuts you down when you stop paying maintenance, you don't own shit. One might even argue that when they deny you access to your files they are committing theft of intellectual property. Nobody has the means to contest it, so the individual entrepreneur may be forced to engage in asymmetrical warfare in order to survive.

Asymmetrical warfare might consist of, say, having a copy of your software burned by someone in a country where it's either not illegal or not enforced, thus rendering you immune to interruption or denial of service for something for which you have already paid an exorbitant fee and should own.

 

[DavidScott]

Ownership of software?? You only have a license at best, there is no ownership. Fusion posts are free, but often need a bunch of work. I have two that may be useful.

 

[Oldwrench]

Ownership of software?? You only have a license at best, there is no ownership

Uhh, yes, that was precisely my point.

If your use of, and access to, the software can be suspended for any reason, then you do not own it.

Ownership boils down to the dictum that "Possession is nine-tenths of the law."

If you have in your possession the means to reproduce it, transfer it, and use it indefinitely without fear, then as a practical matter you own it.

Once you own it you really don't need to buy it again, because most annual upgrades don't improve the function, they just change and/or rearrange the icons. That is why they quit providing the actual disks, dongles and other enabling hardware, and why today your access is controlled via an internet connection, which can be cut off without recourse.

No, I don't use pirated software, but I am much less unsympathetic to those among us who do. It's about on the level of running a machine shop in your basement in contravention of the local zoning code. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.