Any new experimental editions?

[rsalasidis]

No new experimental editions since 2016-12-09. Anything new coming our way?

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

There have been a couple of releases afterwards, but you could only download those from your Autodesk Account Portal.

[jeff.pek]

There have been more recent dev builds of hsmworks. Where are you looking?

  Jeff

[rsalasidis]

I look under experimental on the hsm Autodesk website.

I always thought the Autodesk portal had the earlier, less beta test versions

[jeff.pek]

For now, the HSMWorks dev builds are here:

  http://www.hsmworks.com/download/experimental

You'll see there are later builds than what you mention.

You're right that the Account Portal has the official releases, which tend to be older.

Jeff

[rsalasidis]

I use inventor hsm - that is where the last release was from December

[jeff.pek]

OK, got it. Yes, there haven't been recent Inventor HSM experimental builds.

Thanks for clarifying.

  Jeff

[rsalasidis]

Thanks, back to the original question - no builds because something biggermay be coming (2018 ver), or not much work recently on tbe software

[jeff.pek]

We had an update in January, then a hotfix last month. We're working on a 2018 release now. Should be out next month.

Jeff

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

---

@rsalasidis wrote:
Thanks, back to the original question - no builds because something biggermay be coming (2018 ver), or not much work recently on tbe software

---

Like Jeff says there has been some work done. In the past they did this wrong but the releases in the Account portal are the official builds that should have been tested and shouldn't have big flaws. The development versions are the tricky ones.

[rsalasidis]

Looking at the amount of updates on the HSMworks experimental site - it is an order of magnitude more than the Inventor - is there a reason they are so assymetrical?

[Fieldweld]

I would like to know why SW gets so many more updates to. Considering that the cost of staying here is going to go up soon there needs to be some reason to stay and keep paying. Quite frankly Jeff what has been delivered this past year is not much. The two big things were probing and chamfer mill which for me at least proved to be in such a limited state I use the Renishaw routines on the mill and the old contour tool path. Can you justify why I should stay and spend more money if this is all we have to look forward to? How about some turning magic?

  If you guys had something epic happening you would be telling us. I hear nothing at all about 2018. I figure it is a state of chaos over there and you guys can't even get the accounts and download pages to work right. Between Fusion360 and worrying about how Autodesk can force users into subscription there does not seem to be much left in the way of actual steady worthwhile improvements for Inventor Pro HSM. By the way, don't tell me that Ultimate is useful since I don't have SW and I am not going online so I can use Fusion360. Getting pretty unhappy here with the whole situation.

  At this rate can you please tell me why I should ever spend more money with you guys? If the past year is an indication of the coming year I might as well use my perpetual license for the next five years and still be pretty close to having what the people who spent $$$$$ will have in 2022.

[scottmoyse]

---

@Fieldweld wrote:

I would like to know why SW gets so many more updates to. Considering that the cost of staying here is going to go up soon there needs to be some reason to stay and keep paying. Quite frankly Jeff what has been delivered this past year is not much. The two big things were probing and chamfer mill which for me at least proved to be in such a limited state I use the Renishaw routines on the mill and the old contour tool path. Can you justify why I should stay and spend more money if this is all we have to look forward to? How about some turning magic?

  If you guys had something epic happening you would be telling us. I hear nothing at all about 2018. I figure it is a state of chaos over there and you guys can't even get the accounts and download pages to work right. Between Fusion360 and worrying about how Autodesk can force users into subscription there does not seem to be much left in the way of actual steady worthwhile improvements for Inventor Pro HSM. By the way, don't tell me that Ultimate is useful since I don't have SW and I am not going online so I can use Fusion360. Getting pretty unhappy here with the whole situation.

  At this rate can you please tell me why I should ever spend more money with you guys? If the past year is an indication of the coming year I might as well use my perpetual license for the next five years and still be pretty close to having what the people who spent $$$$$ will have in 2022.

---

@Fieldweld there have been quite a lot of incremental improvements in turning and mill/turn in the last 12 months as well. 4 axis wrapping etc. If you pull out the last of fixes and updates over the last 12 months there are actually a lot. There are more in HSMWorks though, and increasingly more in Fusion 360 than Inventor HSM.... it's pretty disappointing for Inventor HSM when compared to the others. In isolation, it's actually OK when compared to traditional release cycles for CAD / CAM software... the problem with incremental improvement over time is the improvements get lost and people easily forget what it was like 1 or 2 years ago.

We recently got a customer back on board after they dropped off maintenance subscription two years ago. They're on subscription now... but looking at the version of Inventor HSM they had installed, was a brilliant reminder of just how much stuff has been added to Inventor HSM in that time frame.

I still get frustrated that Inventor is Autodesk's flagship mechanical CAD tool and that isn't reflected in the state of development & level of integration of CAM when compared to HSMWorks and Fusion 360.

[Fieldweld]

Hi Scott,
I renewed with Solid Edge for my CAD program last Friday. Inventor is
just hopeless compared to SE for ease and power if you deal with imports
and are used to direct editing modeling only. I prefer Synchronous Tech
over what Inventor has among other things SE does that make work flows
so much more intuitive and easy to use. I like HSM and it is what I came
here for. BUT SW and Fusion360 in particular are where the emphases is
and I don't have SW and I am never going to use Fusion360 which demands
I go online to use it and have to rent the stupid thing forever to work.

I don't believe there is a viable future here for the old perpetual
seat paradigm which is the only way I will purchase software. I don't
like duplicitous behavior that says yes your perpetual seats will be
always be there but the cost will go up astronomically because we hate
you and want you to go away. In the mean time yes HSM is improving but
not nearly as fast as others and it starts from behind since it only
covers certain aspects of machining where others cover much more.
Adaptive was unparalleled but this too is changing.

Quite frankly I don't like what Autodesk proposes and I intend to use
HSM as long as is reasonable for ME and Inventor is just plain history.
Autodesk is focusing on software I will not be using and subscription
online only programming I will never buy. It is the end for me with them
unless something really powerful comes out for 2018 and you know far
better than I it just is not going to happen.

[Lonnie.Cady]

---

@Fieldweld wrote:
Hi Scott,
I renewed with Solid Edge for my CAD program last Friday. Inventor is
just hopeless compared to SE for ease and power if you deal with imports
and are used to direct editing modeling only. I prefer Synchronous Tech
over what Inventor has among other things SE does that make work flows
so much more intuitive and easy to use. I like HSM and it is what I came
here for. BUT SW and Fusion360 in particular are where the emphases is
and I don't have SW and I am never going to use Fusion360 which demands
I go online to use it and have to rent the stupid thing forever to work.

I don't believe there is a viable future here for the old perpetual
seat paradigm which is the only way I will purchase software. I don't
like duplicitous behavior that says yes your perpetual seats will be
always be there but the cost will go up astronomically because we hate
you and want you to go away. In the mean time yes HSM is improving but
not nearly as fast as others and it starts from behind since it only
covers certain aspects of machining where others cover much more.
Adaptive was unparalleled but this too is changing.

Quite frankly I don't like what Autodesk proposes and I intend to use
HSM as long as is reasonable for ME and Inventor is just plain history.
Autodesk is focusing on software I will not be using and subscription
online only programming I will never buy. It is the end for me with them
unless something really powerful comes out for 2018 and you know far
better than I it just is not going to happen.

---

@Fieldweld just remember they are not forcing anyone to give up their perpetual license.  The proper phrase is "creating motivation thru strategic pricing."

So on a serious note, what is your work flow going to be.  Design in SE and export to inventor so you can use HSM?

That is effectively making it a stand alone cam system at that point.

[Fieldweld]

Hi Lonnie,
That is what I have been doing for almost all the work except minor
part alterations done inside Inventor since I came to HSM. Inventor is
that bad compared to SE. Inventor is my parts placer so I can use HSM.