Give credit where credit is due. In my opinion, SDRC should not bear the brunt of the resentment over the discontinuance of SmartCAM. SDRC has always sought after the Fortune 500 companies as their target market. We should not be surprised now when they turn their backs on the small to medium job shops, the "little people", for they have always done so and probably always will. SDRC has never had any hidden agenda, it was always clear that they would use any technology they could glean from SmartCAM to bolster their faltering GenMac product. The continued sale of SmartCAM and CAMMAND was an interim measure until SDRC thought they had a marketable product of their own. Development of SmartCAM and CAMAND would then be discontinued and all resource devoted to the continued development of GenMac.
So why do SmartCAM customers feel like they have been betrayed? In a way they have, but not by SDRC. Thousands of SmartCAM users have invested millions of dollars in software, training and software maintenance fees. This investment was made in good faith that Point Control/CAMAX would continue to support and develop SmartCAM as a product to keep them competitive in the small to medium job shop market. Needless to say, they took the money and ran. CAMAX Manufacturing Technologies sold out for a sum of $30,000,000 to SDRC. F.Y.I. There actually was an attempt made to continue SmartCAM as a viable product. Shortly before SDRC made the official announcement of the fate of SmartCAM, several members of the SmartCAM resellers council banded together and offered to purchase the SmartCAM product line from SDRC, but SDRC was unwilling to consider any such offer. You figure it out. ============================================= Fred Lauzus, CAM Programming Coordinator High Steel Structures, Incorporated mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.highsteel.com ============================================= ====================================================================== To find out more about this mailing list including how to unsubscribe, send the message "info mfg-smartcam" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ======================================================================
