You know what? I am not using Virtools 4.0. We have it - that’s not the problem. The thing is, I am not motivated to use it. Every year the prices are increasing twice as much as it gets improved. The EULA changed and is now saying that webpublishing isn’t free anymore. Office and XE players could be an alternative if they wouldn’t be so crazyly overpriced. You may think differently if you live in Paris or London - but not *ALL* do.

In 2000 I read an article about Virtools 1.0.1 written by my current boss. It was that article that let me discover that tool and technology. At that time I was studying. The tool seemed interesting but I needed time to learn it and my workload didn’t allow. Somehow it happend that I could wake the enthusiasm of one of my professors for it and some months later it was bought and the first course took place. Finally I got the justification to take time to learn it ;). Friends told me that then, for some months, I vanished from their radars.

At that time I struggeled intensively with the Character export (very unstable and buggy). Now it’s more stable and much less buggy but look at the large number of people asking for help about character export. Still a workflow with lots of pitfalls - 6 years later!! I had to discovered many of them the hard way. It’s time-intensive and therefore cost-intensive.

Today I started to ask me if I should stop helping with this because it’s repetitive and feels more like beeing ‘Virtools support’. Like many other advanced users, that are visible in the online community, I invested a lot of time over the years in troubble shooting, making suggestions, writing reports … it had an effect, no doubt, but somehow the frustrations from the past 2 years of hitting very frequently shortcomings are heavier in weight.

They say "3D For All" … now I wonder for what does "All" stand for?
AYM ??

You don’t know AYM? It’s new and part of ALC, PLC and PLM … it stands for "All Your Money"
… oops, I was wrong. I just got an eMail saying that I am wrong … it’s actually AYMABTU ( All Your Money Are Belong To Us)