Maintenance Renewal to Subscription - 32bit to 64 bit?

[Muppett1]

I'm at the point where I'm being directed toward FC subscription vs a maintenance renewal plan.  My question is this, why hasn't Autodesk incorporated conversion software to convert older 32 bit files to 64 bit from 2019 FC and beyond?  I still need to be able to access 32 bit files that I've created in the past 15 yrs or so, that requires, at least at the moment, that I be able to access FC 2017 to open the 32 bit files, then save them as 64 bit.  I do not want to go to a subscription if that requires me to not be able to use my previous versions that have been licensed to our company.  Are there any plans to remedy this issue, so that I can access any files that I have created in the past, 32b or 64b?  At this point, cost aside, I'm not seeing the benefit of a subscription over the old maintenance renewal system.

And I'm also aware of the batch exe file that is available to convert 32b to 64b that Autodesk has, but that's difficult as well, as I have files spread out over different computers and servers across our company.

Thanks,

Steve

[Anonymous]

Yes I have the same problem. I cannot open older files either. When we upgraded we also replaced the computer that we were running FC. on. So now I don't even have a copy of FC 17 Just FC 19 as we only have 1 seat. We have been using featurecam since before it was featurecam (feature-mill and easy-mill originally owned by Bridgeport) So I literally have thousands of files I can't open. Some help would be nice

[Muppett1]

I've been advised that we can download back to FC 2017 from the download page for this purpose Kevin.  Hope that helps.  But I fear that, through a subscription plan, the "two back" rule will cancel out the use of FC 2017 for this purpose after moving on to FC 2020 and beyond.  I am the only seat of FC here at our company as well.

[Anonymous]

yes exactly the problem I can go back 2yrs at the most now. the problem is that We have customers that can come back 5, 10, or even 15yrs later and want the same part. Now I have to reprogram them all from scratch if I need to make a slight change. The way it is currently may work well for a shop that runs a few thousand parts and never has to run them again but some of us don't have that situation. we may make 10 or 20 of something and not need to run them again for years.

[Muppett1]

I'm in the same situation at present. I'm having to retrieve part mold files that I created back in 2010 and modify them. Thousands of 32 bit files are there to potentially be called up at any time for an engr mod.

[aaron.williford]

Thanks for bringing to light the number of 32-bit files that are still out there with our customers. I've noted this for our development team.

If you didn't know we have included a batch convert macro with later versions of FeatureCAM 2019.

Here is an article that describe the use of a macro. For the number of files you are talking about this will take some time to run.

[Muppett1]

Thanks for your reply Aaron. I have been informed of the batch exe file for converting 32bit to 64bit, but as you noted, it would be time consuming for sure. I have no problem going back to FC 2017, on an as needed basis, to open the older 32 bit files that I need, then saving them as 64 bit files for use in the newer versions of FC. The issue I'm seeing, is that only having one seat of 3D FC software, I will face violation of the subscription terms and conditions by running more than one seat, IF I go back to FC 2017 to convert an existing file. If this one condition was lifted, being able to go back to FC 2017 as a conversion software, without being penalized for running more seats than we are licensed for, all would be good. Thanks for being on top of this for us.

Steve

[Muppett1]

I checked into the batch exe file Aaron, and I'm still not too keen on converting whole folders of 32 bit files to 64 bit.  I know I can create a copy/backup folder, but still this just seems to be overkill, to me that is.  I did download and install the add-in for resaving the 32 bit files to 64 bit, but have yet to try it.  I believe I will have our IT dept continue with Maintenance Renewal plan for the foreseeable future, at least for this coming year, until something else is hopefully brought up to help with this issue. 

[Muppett1]

I don't consider this issues resolved, so I can't "accept solution" at this time.  Feel free to lock/close this topic if you wish mods, as I will bring it up later if there's a change in the status.  Thanks.

Steve

[Muppett1]

So I've read that, in order to run the batch conversion macro, I have to be in FC2018, since I have already upgraded to FC2019. Is this going to be a recurring theme to go back one version to be able to convert the 32 bit files to 64 bit, or is there a plan to have future versions automatically convert them? Thanks, Steve

[brian.donahue]

We have plans to "fix" this in the near future.  I cannot legally give you a date, or even a release number, other than to say "soon".  To clarify, some future version of featurecam will be able to read (but not write) 32-bit .fm files (.tsf, .mf and .md i would presume as well). 

[Muppett1]

That is great!  Thanks for the update Brian, and thanks to the Autodesk team for realizing this is a very important feature for a lot of people using FCam.