T-Splines for Rhino end of life

I might be confused now but if going for RH6 makes it impossible to install RH5 on other hardware in the future, I would be hesitant to go that route until other plug-ins (i.e. not T-Splines and/or VSR) also run on RH6. For me that would be Maxwell, Scan-n-Solve, and Simlab PDF. (I consider it a given that things like Bongo will migrate).

Please correct me if wrong, but I read two general divergent thought processes into these two statements:

  1. Do we need to advance our tools, or keep up with competitors, (or simply replace lost capability) if only professionals whom compete at the highest level use said capability; quantified by seats sold.

  2. Questioning the ability to remain a high preforming professional with potential loss of toolsets, and seeking a means to hold onto status quo longer…

Does not the answer lye in where the product has been marketed, and more to the point, to where it will be marketed in future?

Individuals whom need basic levels of functionality have options, from TikerCAD on up. Regardless of the discipline, is not specific capability at the root of market positioning, on both the sell and buy side?

For argument sake, lets assume McNeel chooses to NOT cede the pro market, to not refocus on hobbyists (who, at present, can acquire tools for free had one not noticed). Let’s assume McNeel chooses to remain relevant by means it has do so to date.

If so, creating designs is about doing so with the greatest effectiveness, competency, ease, and speed. Rest trickles down…REGARDLESS OF PERCENTAGE OF THE INSTALLED BASE USING THESE TOOLS. If your competency has been surpassed, sold, or lost (whatever), you ain’t relevant, if the market goal is to remain a serious competitor, even at lower cost/reduced toolset.

Look at it this way - if one is a design pro, and on a design project, one needs advanced tools (being debated here) to complete just 5% of project, but without said 5%, you ain’t relevant, competent, etc…

Therein lies the rub…

McNeel does not believe in marketing. And AFAIK they only describe their software as (paraphrasing here): “this little thing might help you, and if it doesn’t we are sorry, please let us give you a refund”. …I know maybe half of it is ‘an act’ to lower expectations, but the other half is justa reflection of the culture.

Also I think just like I mentioned a few 5% use-cases, or rather more accurately 0.1% use-cases, many others will have similar comparisons to other workflows/tools/software. So as a whole what are the customers asking for? Is of realistic?

Also for context even if I cannot use these other other tools (because all know, or should know, plugins are ephemeral, based on their business model) I still think Rhino is a fine Pro app. And solving things better that some other pro apps can’t. I still believe better solid tools,and better surfacing are needed, but I can point to similarly important areas of improvement to any other software I use.

Also let’s keep in mind that all the companies that have chased those 5% niche markets (including plugin developers) have not have a sustainable business model. So most of all I want a healthy McNeel. So we can keep bitching for a few more decades.

Speaking of bitching, how’s the new mesh engine going? :stuck_out_tongue::joy:

G

Perhaps, but that does not mean that there is not ‘a market’ where participants are making decisions based on cost, effectiveness, ability to compete, and time investment.

Indeed, so the thinking is how to encourage investment and bolster areas to keep it that way going forward, so pros will continue to use it to compete, lest transition elsewhere, and non-pros, up-and-commers, students, hobbyists, etc, will pay for it because they may need…

I am with gustojunk on the point of how v5 and v6 will run. Wondered if I would have to buy a whole new license in order to run both ? I don’t want to upgrade anything to lose a bunch of tools I bought( t-splines and VSR ).
The only thing that makes sense in dropping all those tools is because there are more better ones somewhere else.
As far as needing a direction to go as regards to sub-d , it’s all been asked, discussed and begged for many times
Rhino is everyone’s tool. But not every one is completely happy in their needs.
After listening to all the poeple who work at Mcneel and what they have done for Mac users and Grasshopper ,Architects and more.Just have to expect they want everything their customers want too.
I like webinars for advertising new products like the products used here. People know where to look to find it. My nickels worth–Mark

Do you know what’s sad? I own two licenses so I can run in my laptop and desktop and the same time. Of course I can do that currently because I work at a candy store, and candy is free. But that’s not something I’d like to do in the real world.

I can run two apps concurrently in my two machines in many other packages, including Adobe. This should also be looked at if McNeel can find a way to let us do this while not making them lose sales to casual piracy.

In case you are wondering why I need to run two machines at ones: booleans and rendering.

G

I kind of like the idea :slight_smile:

But I’m sure we will come up with a technical solution that will work for you and not leave us completely destitute.

Oh, yeah. Have you moved out of the house trailer yet? And how about the Pinto? Is it still running?

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Always on the move, can’t have people tracking us down, you know.

-Pascal

He traded it for a Vega.

I just chatted with @bobmcneel about this a little bit. Given all the options we can imagine, it may be most straightforward to allow Rhino 5 to run when one of the following conditions are true:

  1. A standalone license of Rhino 5 is installed on the computer
  2. A Zoo provides a Rhino 5 license lease
  3. A standalone license of Rhino 6 is installed and validated on the computer.

If you have your V6 license in a Zoo or the Cloud Zoo, your V5 won’t be able to see it, and so option (3) wouldn’t be available to you.

Logged as RH-37081.

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Thanks Brian and Bob,

As always, it is an incredible pleasure to deal with a company that really listens to it’s customers and responds to their needs! I always metion this when someone asks my opinion regarding Rhino.

Mark

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Not much movement here anymore, would be nice if there is still a change to purchase a license before the 7th with a pleasant discount.

Regards, Robert

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@brian I was re-reading this today and it occurred to me to ask whether the case of running with a valid V6 license under a ZOO might be addressed by allowing V5 to run on a computer that is RUNNING a valid Zoo-licensed copy of V6? I have no idea whether, technically, this would give the security you want, but just thought I’d ask.

If anyone is thinking of placing an order for T Splines for Rhino before EoL on Jan 7th, I’d suggest getting the order in very soon. As posted somewhere above, I was warned about potential delays at AutoDesk by the folks at Simply Rhino and sure enough, the order I placed for T Splines on 21st December has not as yet shown up on my AD download page. I have at least had an email from them acknowledging the order.

For me, the decision as to whether or not to buy T-Splines and/or VSR Shape for Rhino is a simple one: If you can foresee the need for such tools and you want to stay loyal to Rhino, get it now. It’s already been stated on here that V6 will not have tools that offer this kind of functionality. There doesn’t appear to be anything else on the market that does a comparable job (regardless of whether you want a plugin for Rhino, or are willing to go elsewhere) unless you’re prepared to spend a whole load more money. Yes, they’ll only run on Rhino V5 and are certain not to work in V6, but if these things are important to you, V6 without them will be a downgrade vs. V5 with them and in the short term at least there’s no way to make up for that.

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I’ve been wondering about the same thing but haven’t got a solution fully
formed yet.

Did it work out for you, do you have the serials already?
I bought Tsplines yesterday evening and within two hours I got the confirmation and the serial shows up allready.
Just want to let you know in case something went wrong with your order.

Kind regards, Robert

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Yes, fine thanks. Like you, I received a confirmation email from AD on the day of purchase, showing my license details. The problem I had was that when I signed in to my account, T-Splines didn’t show up on my downloads and licenses page. I gave up waiting last night and requested their assistance. They sent me a link to a page where I could download the installer, which worked. T-Splines still hasn’t appeared on my account page however. VSR Shape and Sketchbook Pro reside there, so I would have expected it to join them.

Well, the end draws near for TS…

 Sorry to see it come to this as I was in from the very beginning and have spent a lot of time learning it as it matured. I did some pretty crazy stuff with it along the way and and even won a couple of their design competitions. 
I guess I will down load the latest version and hope for the best in the future. Hope I have no problems with the licensing on the new computer I am just loading up with all my old apps. I bought into VSR Shape along the way too and have had problems with finding the license for it on the AD site, hope to sort that out too while there is time.
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