So I’ll keep my horrible experience to a bare minimum for now. I bought a RhinoCAM license (around 1500eur) and I installed it on my laptop. Later I reinstalled windows on that device and now I can’t activate the license and use it because for some reason their platform believes it is used by another machine. I explained to them what happened and they told me that because I didn’t release the license before reinstalling windows, now they need to charge me a fee in order to be able to use that license (that is payed for) on the same machine with the new OS.
My mind can’t comprehend the absurdity of this behaviour. Can they do this legally? Any input is appreciated, thanks for reading.
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I would try to stay in a solution-orientated exchange with the support.
(this includes maybe a more technical title for your post - you can edit it - focusing on licensing)
Do you have any backup of the old windows installation ? Some of the Application Support files and some registry entries might prove that the licences was/is linked to this old installation ?
And how much should MecSoft’s fee be ?
Regarding legal aspects - as most of the users, and maybe you too - I ve never read the licence agreement - but I suspect that the agreement describes the (only?) way, how to move the licence to a new computer or installation.
good luck, kind regards.
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$1600 USD isn’t that much in the grand scheme of the whole entire CAM cabal.
I’d recommend cutting your losses and using a different CAM solution completely.
Mecsoft is one of the worst options imo. My first license of Mecsoft was in 2004. I’ve learned everything there is about what they have to offer. And it’s at the absolute bottom of the totem pole.
Consider yourself lucky it was only a $1600 loss.
They use the same technologies that 90% of all the CAM’s use: ModuleWorks/MachineWorks.
And they’re the worst provider of that technology out of all the CAM’s.
My company has wasted $10’s of $1k’s on Mecsoft in the last 20 yrs. Not to mention time of use and evaluations.
My company has also wasted probably $70k’s on other options in the last 15 yrs in addition to that, with Mastercam’s CNC Software and their resellers.
For now the best we got (in my current workflow) is Mastercam, but it’s so bad compared to what it should be in the 21st century.
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I hate to say that you have to suck it up and pay them but unless you can find a less costly alternative, you don’t have much choice, at least to keep using their software.
I have one CAD application that requires an approx $100 reinstatement fee as you describe in your situation if you don’t release the license. I have a different application that does not tie the license to a specific machine, so you can use it anywhere you want without having to first disable the license, it will disable the previous location when you login on the new location. A third program, which I pay an approx $1600 yearly maintenance cost allows a limited number of reactivations at no charge.
If you pay Mecsoft a yearly “maintenance” fee, then they should give you an activation or two within the year at no additional cost, in my opinion.
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Basically they are asking me to pay 300eur in order to keep using that software with the same license on the same machine with the new OS.
OR upgrade to the 2024 version (which btw, means they won’t treat me like a second class citizen, and I would have some sort of priority when needing customer support), which has the ground-breaking ability to release the license in 8 hours if it is not used.
You can make up your own mind about this company, to me it is the worst experience I ever had with a bought product and I feel scammed. They don’t care, as long as they stated this responsibility they put on the customer somewhere in the guidelines. Hope this helps people knowing what they get into if they buy their products.
My mind boggles finding out that not all of them do that…
madCAM is an alternative and less expensive and not subscription-based.
I like the product and the fact that it’s scriptable but the customer service has been non-existent for me.
I rarely use it now as I’ve implemented my own CAM in Grasshopper.
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Please, then send me $1600.
If a CNC plugin for Rhino is worth $1600, then Rhino 3D, itself must be worth a million Dollars!
Also, FreeCad does CNC. I don’t like to draw in it, but it does have CFD, FEM, and CNC workbenches and plugins.
Nudge:
There is a new option for CAM in Rhino coming.
There is a demo up on the package manager. You can contact me directly for post processors and test licenses.
There will be options for 30 day and life time licenses when released. Prices will be very competitive.
We will never charge you to move the license to a new machine.
Cheers
DK
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I doubt that.
So how long ago did you originally purchase RhinoCAM? And did you buy the annual maintenance?
You doubt that I don’t like to draw in FreeCad? LOL!
I have used the OpenFoam plugin for CFDFoam: CFDOf for 12 generations of car body. I have used the built-in Calculux FEM integration, which also does heat coupling. It does seem to have CNC functionality, too. Many programs can use Paraview for visualization, which appears a tool 2nd to none.
I was doubting that ‘free cad’ has CFD, FEM, CNC etc.
Why would you doubt Brenda? She has always seemed to me to be as serious and smart as anyone else here.
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You have the energy to type “I doubt that.” but can’t be troubled to type “freecad” into a search bar and find out for yourself?
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I’ve been trying to make it clear, I doubt a free CAD has CFD, FEM, CNC etc. 
I’m backing that up with at least 20 yrs of research. If anyone wants to prove it wrong please be my guest and show me up with irrefutable selfevident data.
In the meantime I guess I’ll have ta google it or something since no one proved it yet 
‘open foam’ is familiar, I remember it from somewhere, probably last time I researched CFD… 
This is the only CFD I see here so far (searching open foam):
From CATIA unfortunately 
I wonder how much simscale cost:
I did not searched for 20 years but I “click-scroll-clicked” on the link provided and saw this:
That’s a good start for CAM.
And for FEA;
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I missed the link
What kinda sorcery is this
I have alot of reading to do 
https://wiki.freecad.org/Category:Command_Reference
Still not seeing much on CFD, for example. 
Without digging too much I found this;
Might be related!
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This is an example of what I’m mostly liking to be able to do when I think of CFD:
Hopefully this isn’t soldworks related 
I was just looking at moldflow’s annual price 