I agree, Ed. It's really a shame they didn't do some work on their help
system. After giving up on them with the same experience as you, I brought up
another CAD program I haven't used for years. With just their normal help
menus I was productive inside an hour.

Before going for their platinum version, it might be good to hear from a few
people on how far that tutorial actually takes you, since they also sell more
advanced ones and, if you end up needing them, the price goes up a bit.
GerryG

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 01:57:02 GMT, "Ed" wrote:


"Bob" wrote in message
...
The latest issue of Fine Woodworking had a good evaluation article
called "CAD on a budget". It reviewed CAD packages for under $100.
Based on the reviews I decided to get a copy of Design CAD 3D Max. Boy
was I chagrined to find they have DOUBLED the price of the software.
Its now $199. It seems more than slightly coincidental that the price
jumped so much right after a good review in a magazine. I think that
practice stinks and I'll pass on the purchase.

Bob


Based on the FWW article, I downloaded the trial version of this program;
DesignCAD 3D Max 15. I have absolutely no knowledge of CAD. When I found
that the help was no help at all, I contacted the company. They tried to
sell me the "Platinum version" but provided a link for free online
tutorials. Unfotunately, the tutorials were set up for version 14, so they
didn't work quite right for the newer version and even then, there was no
explanation of how everything worked. I didn't buy the program although if
I do buy it later, I'll likely spring for the platinum version so that I can
actually learn what all the included functions mean and do.

Ed