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Announcement concerning Discontinuation of Mechanical Desktop

92 REPLIES 92
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Message 1 of 93
sjbosley
2789 Views, 92 Replies

Announcement concerning Discontinuation of Mechanical Desktop

This is a copy of the annoucement sent to subscriptions customers earlier today:

Autodesk has terminated development of Autodesk® Mechanical Desktop® and will no longer release new versions of the product. This decision was made to allow Autodesk to focus on the development of the Autodesk® Inventor® and AutoCAD® Mechanical product lines.

As a result of this decision, Mechanical Desktop 2009 becomes the last version of the product to be made available.

Autodesk recognizes that our customers have created many Mechanical Desktop files containing their intellectual property. To protect this data, Autodesk is taking the following actions:


- In accordance with section 2.2.3 of the Subscription Terms and Conditions, Autodesk Support will continue to provide product support for Subscription customers for a period of no less than three years after the removal of Mechanical Desktop from the Inventor product line.

- Autodesk will continue to make Mechanical Desktop 2009 available for download with future releases of Inventor.

- Autodesk will continue to support the DWG Import wizard for Mechanical Desktop parts, assemblies and drawings.

- Despite anything to the contrary in our Subscription terms and conditions or our license agreement(s), Autodesk will allow customers the right to continue using earlier versions of Mechanical Desktop with Inventor releases.

For additional information, please contact your reseller.

Thank you for choosing Subscription for your Autodesk products.

Sincerely,

The Autodesk Subscription Team

Posted by Simon Bosley
Product Manager
Autodesk

92 REPLIES 92
Message 2 of 93
Anonymous
in reply to: sjbosley


Looks like it's time to step up to the dng
format.

 

Astala bye-bye

 

Aug
Message 3 of 93
anagnoa
in reply to: sjbosley

Aug,

I certainly understand your feelings on this matter and I want you to know that Autodesk did not make this decision lightly. We worked hard to support MDT well past the 4 releases we said we would when Inventor was first released in 1999; that's over 5 years beyond that commitment, and we did it for dedicated customers like you.

I certainly don't want you to pursue other options, but we are grateful for your business over these past years and we hope you'll consider continuing to work with Autodesk. Feel free to let us know what we might be able to do to ease any transition for you.

Regards,

Andrew Anagnost
Vice President, CAD/CAE Products
Manufacturing Solutions Division
Autodesk, Inc.
Message 4 of 93
Anonymous
in reply to: sjbosley


Would you be willing to sell the source code of MDT
so someone else can continue development?

There's only 6 or 7 of us around that are still
using it so it should go pretty cheap. eBay it maybe, I'll bid.

 


--

 

Jason Rhymes
3D Solid Power Toys
including Multi Solid Stretch

href="http://www.acadianagraphics.com">http://www.acadianagraphics.com

 


 

 


 


style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
Aug,
I certainly understand your feelings on this matter and I want you to know
that Autodesk did not make this decision lightly. We worked hard to support
MDT well past the 4 releases we said we would when Inventor was first released
in 1999; that's over 5 years beyond that commitment, and we did it for
dedicated customers like you. I certainly don't want you to pursue other
options, but we are grateful for your business over these past years and we
hope you'll consider continuing to work with Autodesk. Feel free to let us
know what we might be able to do to ease any transition for you. Regards,
Andrew Anagnost Vice President, CAD/CAE Products Manufacturing Solutions
Division Autodesk, Inc.
Message 5 of 93
Anonymous
in reply to: sjbosley


Anagnoa,

I appreciate you explanation but there are things
about IV that make it impossible for us to make the transition.

I've voiced these concerns since IV was introduced
and it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

 

1.We need to submit the total model and the drawing
package in a single file.

2. The model needs to be linked to the drawing
set.

 

These allow large project to be integrated together
into a master set. This is not an option for the contracts we work with. It
would mean the loss of that sector of our business. We like working with Uncle
Sam, he pays his bills but he will not accept IV files and a export to a 2d dwg
does not fulfill the requirements.

The whole mess of individual part files and
assembly files and drawing files makes it complex enough I don't see Uncle Sam
capable of making that transition any time soon.

 

Our only choices are to stay with MDT as long as
possible then move on to a different approved package (looks like Pro-E right
now). Unfortunately IV does not qualify.

 

Aug
Message 6 of 93
anagnoa
in reply to: sjbosley

Unfortunately, the AutoCAD and MDT code bases are too intertwined.
Message 7 of 93
anagnoa
in reply to: sjbosley

Aug,
This is something we have to look into for you and your team, and I'm apologize for the deaf ears. Thanks for the actionable feedback. Andrew
Message 8 of 93
sjbosley
in reply to: sjbosley

I'm very interested in understanding more about your requirements. We have a number of customers who use Inventor on government contracts and so I'd like to figure out the differences between their contracts and your situation and see what we can do to help. If you'd like to send me your contact information to simon.bosley@autodesk.com I will follow up with you.

Simon Bosley
Product Manager
Autodesk
Message 9 of 93
Anonymous
in reply to: sjbosley


Any chance of porting some or even all of the
better tools to AutoCAD? View creation (flatshot sucks), igesin/out, bom...
. Seems like the developers of AutoCAD are working on trying to get things
to work in vanilla AutoCAD that have been in MDT for years. Why try and reinvent
the wheel when the wheel has been spinning in MDT without many problems for some
time now.


face=Arial size=2>

--

Jason Rhymes
3D Solid Power
Toys
including Multi Solid Stretch

href="http://www.acadianagraphics.com">http://www.acadianagraphics.com

 


 


style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
Unfortunately,
the AutoCAD and MDT code bases are too intertwined.
Message 10 of 93
Anonymous
in reply to: sjbosley


They could drop the parametric modeling capability
and leave the drawing creation tools and visibility controls and integrate them
to vanilla Acad and preserve a lot of customers and greatly improve their core
software.

It shouldn't be that hard as you say they are
already integrated,....just patch in the code.

 

Aug
Message 11 of 93
Anonymous
in reply to: sjbosley


Uncle Sam will have to change the specifications. None of the
other 3-D modelers support a single file format either.


--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified
Expert
Autodesk Manufacturing Implementation Certified
Expert.
Instructor/Author/Sr. App Engr.
AIP 2008 SP2, AIP 2009-SP1
PcCillin AV
HP zv5000  AMD64 2GB - Geforce Go 440, Driver: .8185
XP
Pro SP2, Windows XP Silver Theme

href="http://teknigroup.com">http://teknigroup.com
Message 12 of 93
Anonymous
in reply to: sjbosley


Acad  has been doing a fine job since
R13.

I only use MDT for the robust tool
package.

I do use the parametric modeling on occasion but
it's not what drives our preferences.

 

Aug
Message 13 of 93
adam_perry
in reply to: sjbosley

Aug, Jason, Dennis,

I am the Product Manager for ACAD Mechanical (ACM) and I and my team are really interested knowing more about the 2D tools you find the most beneficial in MDT (Aug, I think you mentioned specifically that it is generally the 2D tools you are interested in). The hope is to add these tools to ACM - if they are not already present - to allow a mostly seamless move.

Would you be willing to speak with us about the tools that you get the most use out of? Please email me, and we can set something up!

my email is:

adam dot perry @ autodesk dot com

(I left out the spaces to stop the 'bots from grabbing my email address...)

Talk to you all soon,
Adam
Message 14 of 93
srichey
in reply to: sjbosley

Adam,

Just want to add my 2¢. We moved to MDT in 1999 for the ability to do 3-d parametric from Excel spreadsheets. Since then we've discovered Automatic dimensioning, Qselect, and several other functions that have really boosted our productivity. We generate 50,000+ drawings/year for our suppliers, mostly 2D, in response to customer orders with very short lead times. I can't imagine losing MDT and being able to keep up. Just the Auto Dim function loss would be huge.

Thanks,

Sara L. Richey
Fulfillment Specialist
Andersen Windows
Message 15 of 93
Anonymous
in reply to: sjbosley


I've designed and modeled complete carwash systems
on MDT6.0

All parametric and constrained.

In my library 7500 + variety parts all interacted
from catalog library.

I can type pages and pages of advantages MDT
versus IV and similar others.

I thing we had had enough discussions
before so there is no time for it. 


Al

 


style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
Adam,
Just want to add my 2¢. We moved to MDT in 1999 for the ability to do 3-d
parametric from Excel spreadsheets. Since then we've discovered Automatic
dimensioning, Qselect, and several other functions that have really boosted
our productivity. We generate 50,000+ drawings/year for our suppliers, mostly
2D, in response to customer orders with very short lead times. I can't imagine
losing MDT and being able to keep up. Just the Auto Dim function loss would be
huge. Thanks, Sara L. Richey Fulfillment Specialist Andersen
Windows
Message 16 of 93
Anonymous
in reply to: sjbosley


How much time have you really spent using Inventor?


--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified
Expert
Autodesk Manufacturing Implementation Certified
Expert.
Instructor/Author/Sr. App Engr.
AIP 2008 SP2, AIP 2009-SP1
PcCillin AV
HP zv5000  AMD64 2GB - Geforce Go 440, Driver: .8185
XP
Pro SP2, Windows XP Silver Theme

href="http://teknigroup.com">http://teknigroup.com
Message 17 of 93
Anonymous
in reply to: sjbosley


Enough to realize that two files model and dwg is
not of the many my favorite feature of IV.

Al

 



style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">

How much time have you really spent using Inventor?


--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified
Expert
Autodesk Manufacturing Implementation Certified
Expert.
Instructor/Author/Sr. App Engr.
AIP 2008 SP2, AIP 2009-SP1
PcCillin AV
HP zv5000  AMD64 2GB - Geforce Go 440, Driver: .8185
XP
Pro SP2, Windows XP Silver Theme

href="http://teknigroup.com">http://teknigroup.com
Message 18 of 93
Anonymous
in reply to: sjbosley


It actually makes it more efficient in large designs. All
other 3D modelers also have the multiple file type formats for that same reason.
There will come a time when everyone will have to change.


--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified
Expert
Autodesk Manufacturing Implementation Certified
Expert.
Instructor/Author/Sr. App Engr.
AIP 2008 SP2, AIP 2009-SP1
PcCillin AV
HP zv5000  AMD64 2GB - Geforce Go 440, Driver: .8185
XP
Pro SP2, Windows XP Silver Theme

href="http://teknigroup.com">http://teknigroup.com
Message 19 of 93
Anonymous
in reply to: sjbosley


You are welcome to contact me anytime offline to discuss this.
I still use and love MDT for what it can do, however change is inevitable and
not as painful as you may think. I can help you with any transition.

 

US:  260-399-6615



--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified
Expert
Autodesk Manufacturing Implementation Certified
Expert.
Instructor/Author/Sr. App Engr.
AIP 2008 SP2, AIP 2009-SP1
PcCillin AV
HP zv5000  AMD64 2GB - Geforce Go 440, Driver: .8185
XP
Pro SP2, Windows XP Silver Theme

href="http://teknigroup.com">http://teknigroup.com
Message 20 of 93
Anonymous
in reply to: sjbosley

I don't want to change customer bases in these economic times.
IV is not an option.

Aug

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