Simplify3D User Forum

It's been more than 2 years since the last update or patch and the software is far from finished.

I assume the project has been abandoned ?

There is a blog as recent as June 30th, so it appears people are still working there. That said, they have not responded to anything related to V5 or upgrades or enhancements, or future, in anyway for a LONG time. Based on what seems like deliberate selective communications it feels like customers are not worthy of response. I have even sent messages directly to S3D Mitch and S3D Chris with no response. Hate to bash because it is a great product that could be even better if it wasn't for this type of support. Very disappointing.

You all do realize that you need someone who really knows a lot about 3d printing and programming to rewrite software that does what a slicer does.
Then add the fact that the person or persons would want to be paid a very good salary for doing so.. How do you compete and stay profitable when your competitors are free and just about as good? Add in that your customers cry rape when you charge them $150 for a product that is not a subscription and will work forever, even if they no longer support it.. This is why the software is dead in the water, it's not profitable enough to support itself in the current business model . At least the website has not be shut down yet.. Maybe as the world economy gets back in shape they can find some venture capitalist's to fund them and get things going to stave off Prusa. I am still using version 4.01 with no issues.. how can they be expected to keep moving forward when current customers have no reason to buy anything else from them?

Maybe if they didn't persistently lie to customers for the last 2 years then their name would not be mud on Reddit, Facebook and Instagram conning people into buying a dead product by promising version 5 releasing soon it's their own fault why pay £150 for something that is now sub-par when cura and Prusa are both free bugs are fixed and updated.

I want to ask the same question.

I appreciate you noticing my involvement here on our user community. Thankfully, I'm not alone in moderation duties. In fact, the introduction of other moderators has afforded me more time to help out with other important projects within Simplify3D.

What I said below is still true.

S3D-Jake wrote: ↑Tue Nov 10, 2020 4:18 pm

himadeto wrote: ↑Tue Nov 10, 2020 3:57 am good afternoon. sorry but I don't want to read the whole thread. tell me what about the dates of the new release? thanks.

A release date has not been announced.

gwhite wrote: You may not think S3D is dead, but a large number of your customers do.

I'm a Simplify3D employee and there's not just me here on our community forum. In fact, there are more Simplify3D moderators on here than there ever have been previously. We're all anxious to know more about Simplify3D V5. I don't think it gets anyone any closer to knowing anything more to insinuate that the company is dead or dying. I appreciate your constructive criticism of our communication regarding development progress.

....

I appreciate your constructive criticism of our communication regarding development progress.

What communication? That's the problem: there is no communication that progress is being made. In this case, no news is not necessarily good news.

TheBum wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 12:08 pm

I appreciate your constructive criticism of our communication regarding development progress.

What communication? That's the problem: there is no communication that progress is being made. In this case, no news is not necessarily good news.

i agree, there is absolutely no transparency... especially nothing of substance in that non-answer about what if anything is being done in the organization besides bringing on more people for what appears to be 15-minute-workday forum moderation as there are quite a bit of unanswered posts.

I'd suggest that everyone here get a copy of the Print Quality pages, if/when S3D folds so you have a copy of the good advice on those pages.
https://www.simplify3d.com/support/prin ... eshooting/

I always thought time-based subscription makes more sense than perpetual license. In the time-based model, there is more reliable revenue to support a team, which basically expects a reliable salary. In the perpetual model, the company is forced to come up with nominal upgrades just to justify an upgrade price, when maybe effort would be better spent on bug fixes, etc. It makes the engineering work slave to the need to constantly pimp a new upgrade for money, instead of leaving engineers to plan what is best from an engineering point of view. I would not mind an annual fee for S3D.

Microsoft does this now for Office, and I think it helps the product a lot. Before, when licenses were perpetual, they were constantly trying to push out unwanted/unneeded changes just to have something to attach a price tag to. It was worse than doing nothing, it was super disruptive to the users.