Techsoft Design v3 (previously 2D Design) - worth the upgrade?

[dgsmith]

Our DT teacher has advised me of the newer version of techsoft design v3 and when glancing at the headline feature set, I don't think there is anything of real significance there to justify the £495 upgrade cost. I am mindful that future versions of 3.x will support future Win10 builds which isn't assured with the much older v2 software.

 

Am I overlooking some real clinchers here that would make it worth the jump up to v3? I can't say v2 has been a particular issue on the network or on any existing Win10 machines we are using. I can't really find an exhaustive list of what differs, as visually it looks pretty much the same too.

[jthompson]

I can't remember the specifics now, but we upgraded to V3 the other year. I think the advantages were mainly in how it worked with our laser and vinyl cutters. Some things that I'd need to be a DT teacher to appreciate, I think. From a deployment perspective, not much changed, although licensing was a little more involved, iirc.

[AJWhite1970]

We are just about to upgrade to v3 as well as getting a 3 year home usage licence. My DT department also said about the cutter and also that there is now multiple undo’s.

 

It’s not a mission critical update, but as they have been running v2 for 11 years I took pity on their request

[dgsmith]

Yes, I also observed the multiple undos and seemingly better cutter drivers yet on the surface it seems to be very much like a minor 2.x revision, but repackaged into a "major" version with the price tag to go with it. While v2 is now incredibly old comparative to release cycles of most other software, it looks virtually the same (i'd have maybe expected some considerable visual improvements too after this length of time)!

 

I'd normally not have any issues in recommending an upgrade to >10+ year old software, especially one that is used often and fundamental to a specific subject, but I do want to be clear as to the "reason" if/when asked.

[Jaan]

How do you guys deploy this?

 

Does it support .MSI and are you using the network version?

 

Thanks

[jthompson]

We deploy using an MSI, but with resources and license file first stored on a shared network drive (about 150MB). The network installer will let you set up the shared resources and license file into your shared drive. You will then be able to find an MSI to use for deploying the application itself. We use the one with "no_data" in the filename as it doesn't bother with the resource files so is lighter weight.

 

TechSoft's documentation here - https://www.techsoft.co.uk/support/254-Installation-of-TechSoft-Design-V3-on-a-Network