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
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"Dennis Jeffrey" <
href="mailto:djeffrey@teknigroup.com">djeffrey@teknigroup.com> wrote in
message
href="news:6052260@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6052260@discussion.autodesk.com...
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
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"Dennis Jeffrey" <
href="mailto:djeffrey@teknigroup.com">djeffrey@teknigroup.com> wrote in
message
href="news:6053915@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6053915@discussion.autodesk.com...
Not ignorant. I wrote two books on Mechanical Desktop. I
know it's strengths AND weaknesses inside and out. There are some things that
MDT is best suited for... and some areas that Inventor wins hands down. I use
both... and have since the original versions of both products.
However, there will come a time when everyone will have to
switch. Don't put your head in the sand because you prefer MDT. That is a
dangerous course of action.
--
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
Please understand that I've always been a fan of Mechanical Desktop, and then
I made a very similar emotional decision regarding Inventor when it was first
announced over 10 years ago. Possibly many or most of you tried Inventor through
the years, and may have also made an emotional decision because it was so
different than AutoCAD and Mechanical Desktop. It took me until Inventor 5.3 to
understand why Autodesk decided on a different path for 3-D modeling.
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<danielfloren> wrote in messageIf
href="news:6070949@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6070949@discussion.autodesk.com...
I read your reply to Aug really fast, it almost sounds like you care...
NOT...!!!
Dear Mr. Floren
As a company we've made the decision to focus on Inventor as our flagship 3D product. We understand that Mechanical Desktop is still an excellent solution for certain segments of the manufacturing industry and that we have customers, yourself included, who would prefer to continue using Mechanical Desktop.
We have taken specific steps to minimize the impact of this change.
First we will continue to provide activations for another three years and our QA organization will continue to test the data translation and migration capabilities to protect the intellectual property contained in your existing Mechanical Desktop files.
Second we have incorporated many of the best aspects/key features of Mechanical Desktop into recent releases of Inventor with the intention of providing you with the "best of both worlds". This process is driven by customer input with the goal of making Inventor the best alternative to Mechanical Desktop.
I realize that any change of this nature is not without cost but I urge you to also consider the benefits of moving to Inventor. This is an extremely capable and stable product that has benefited greatly from lessons learned with Mechanical Desktop. There are many, many customers who have successfully made this transition and who use Inventor for the creation of complex assemblies and production drawings.
Sincerely
Simon Bosley
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<ed.galicki@dds-sd.com>I
wrote in message
href="news:6071934@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6071934@discussion.autodesk.com...
can't believe how you guys betrayed us. I have just convinced one of my
biggest clients to switch from Pro-E, which they used for years, to MDT. They
bought the new MDT-2008 and have started working into it - and now this. You
have lost me at a subscription member. I will not be renewing. I will go back
to Pro-E, or even Solidworks. I can't believe you are giving up any part of
the market, even if it is a small part. I keep every customer, even the ones
who only do an hour or two a month or less. Maybe you have such a big market
share somewhere else that you feel you can throw us MDT users in the trash.
You also ruined MDT when you made the version that will not allow materials on
parts so you can make some transparent to see components inside an assembly.
This is one of the stupidest things I have see Autodesk do in many years. But
now you have topped that by throwing all MDT users in the toilet and flushed
us. You have also made me look like a total idiot to customers that I have
persuaded to switch to MDT. They have assemblies built, and cannot see inside
them without some kind of idiotic solution like ACIS out and ACIS in to
another drawing - and manually apply materials to some of the hundreds of
parts in the assembly. Do you have any idea how ludicrous this solution is?
Goodbye - it has been a nice long relationship since about 1987 - but you have
closed the door on it. Ed Galicki San Diego, Ca.
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<ed.galicki@dds-sd.com>I
wrote in message
href="news:6071972@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6071972@discussion.autodesk.com...
have been trying to get this to work but not with that lisp program. I put the
part properties on a layer, and then autocad properties of the part on that
layer, then the insertion of thepart in the assembly on that layer and it
still doesn't work. I will try this program to see if that will work. Thanks
for the next thing to try. eg
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