Does anyone know if the company that markets 3rd Planit (I believe it’s El Dorado Software) is still in business??..I read on another site a few nights ago that they closed up shop, and I tried to both call and email, no replies to either…I wanted to buy a copy, but if they are history, no support etc, I’ll go with CadRail…at least they still answer the phone…anyone know for sure??..thanks
rich
There is a yahoo group for 3rdPlanit users. There seems to be a dicussion about the direction of the product, et.c.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/3rdPlanIt/
Take care,
The 3rd PlanIt program is under extensive revision and the author, it is a one-man company, is experiencing some extremely unfortunate situations and is without internet connection temporarily. He is re-locating and expects to resume operation shortly. Check his site now and then over the next week or two. 3rd PlanIt is a fine program. You will be pleased with it.
The owner of El Dorado software is in the process of moving his business to another location, so is temporarily without easy e-mail or telephone access. This is expected to be a temporary situation.
Although the discussion group has mentioned that Randy Pfeiffer can be slow to respond to queries. To get a feel for things, best to look at relatively current message traffic from 3rd Planit discussion groups. There are several.
-Ed
Thanks for the input all…I’ll hang in for a bit longer and see if the owner gets it together…I would prefer his program, based on all the positive posts I have read…was just a bit leery based on no response since I have been burned before buying software then finding out the company vaporized…thanks again…
Ed,
You seem to be more aware of what is going on with this guy than I, but the problems seem to be more than just lately. I remember a couple months back that there were a large group of people that order the program and then were given passwords that did not work and therefore they could not activate the program. This went on for some time with the purchasers unable to get any kind of response from the owner.
Definitely, this would have to have been resolved before I would recommend the program. I use it, and even though in many ways it seems counter-intuitive, I am leaning toward liking it.
Although I’m a member of two Yahoo discussion groups on 3rd Planit, I’m not really a very active participant. The reasons are a few, but mainly boil down to these:
Discussions on those forums tend to be repetitive: “How do I do such and such?” and its answer. The fourth time you see that question posted, and the fourth time you read the answer to that question, it’s fairly likely that you’re going to know how to do “such and such.”
Both of those forums have had fairly controversial participants who’ve tended to take over the action of the forum for days at a time. In one case, although my remembrance of the details are hazy, it involved someone violating the terms of the software’s user license in order to “help out” someone else. He was booted off the forum as a result, and that situation is the reason for there now being two forums.
If you think this forum gets high pitched, you should see some of the traffic on those two.
As far as people getting passwords which didn’t work, I’m not familiar with that. There was a situation in which the author removed a beta version of the software from use, but that WAS a beta version. Anyone who is using a beta version of a piece of software for important work that they’ll need later, for instance their own final layout work, or, even more obvious, as an engine to produce work that they’re doing for hire, is, to my mind, an idiot.
-Ed
Waiting to see how things work out is a good plan–that’s where I am now. On one of the yahoo lists over Christmas there was a total flame-out brouhaha–it was really something. Hopefully things will come together, though I expect it will be several months, rather than weeks. We’ll see.
In the meantime, did you download the demo? http://www.trackplanning.com/
Lawrence, yes, I did dl the demo…I also did alot of research on this product and the company thru the various forums…I am not going to purchase this program now…after seeing multiple complaints regarding support, I have decided to go with a more professional company…many different people have been offering excuses regarding the lack of response from the company/owner (not surprisingly, none are from the principle)…everything from moving to “unfortunate” events taking place…whatever…as a former owner of two very successful web sites, I learned very early on that the very most important thing you must do is communicate with your clients, both potential customers and existing ones…failing to do so is a sure fire recipe to fail…I know, my first web site tanked because I was too busy “doing” business to “take care of” business…lessons learned and as a result, 2 web sites sold for obscene amount and I am now retired…the company that authors this program appears to be in very serious trouble, from where I stand…my opinion, of course, but read thru some of the “excuses” given by others and you’ll see what I mean…at any rate, should you decide to go ahead and get the program, let me know how you like it…it does seem to be a bit more “elegant” then CadRail, (which is where my money went), but being well versed in AutoDesk products, CadRail seems a bit more typical of CAD conventions…time will tell…again all, thanks for the input and the tip to check out the other forums…