Issue: Volume: 23 Issue: 10 (October 2000)

LETTERS - 10/00



But I have school-age children who love to play computer games, and I just don't let them near the really lurid stuff. Consequently, their tastes have developed in other directions.
Andy Pasternack
Richmond, CA




I am a retired computer systems engineer and marketing executive. For a long time I have used-fasten your seatbelt-TurboCAD 3.2 for DOS. I don't use any CAD program daily, only a few times a year. In spite of this I have become quite proficient with this software, which when new cost me about $40. This was a far cry from, say, the cost of AutoCAD. How ever, I could do everything I ever needed to do in two dimensions.

The other day, however, wanting to create a simple front view of an interior wall, I discovered to my chagrin that there was no way I could do this within TurboCAD 3.2 for DOS and output to a format that I could send via my computer software fax program. Recently, I had decided to buy the new TurboCAD Professional 6.5 for Windows, so I loaded the new TurboCAD onto my laptop and set out to try to do this.

Well, my work came to a quick halt when I realized it would take far too long to learn the new TurboCAD, even though it would allow me to export to the fax program on the laptop. I ended up more or less faking the drawing using Corel Draw.

So I fully appreciate that there is a "learning curve" problem with regard to today's CAD programs. However, rest assured, I shall attack the curve with TurboCAD Professional 6.5 until I master it.
Bernard A. McIlhany
Lebanon, GA

I am a system administrator at Henry Cogswell College in Everett, Washing ton. We have a computer animation program here, for which I have to maintain a wide variety of graphics-oriented hard ware and software. Lately, it seems to me that it is getting harder and harder to get support after the sale from many companies.

One example is the difficulty of getting support for products that are not in the current lineup. I have some hardware that is a few years old, and companies have disavowed it, basically denying they ever made such a thing. I realize tech support is expensive, but I would buy products from a company I knew was going to support them for an extended period of time-even if those products were more expensive.

Perhaps your readers would have some insights regarding this state of affairs.
Carlton Findley
System Administrator
Digital Arts Department
Henry Cogswell College
Everett, WA

The two cloud images shown on pages 48 and 49 of the July 2000 issue's feature "A New View on Volumes" should have been credited to Mainframe Entertainment.




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