Muzzer post=349428 userid=18852
How do you plan to handle bug fixes and feature upgrades? Do purchasers get free perpetual upgrades every time new features are added or are they stuck with the release that was active at the time of purchase? I can't see how the first option would be commercially sensible for you and the second wouldn't work for users.
Centroid have an interesting model where you can choose to pay for periodic major updates where new features have been added but otherwise you purchase is forever and includes free minor updates and bug fixes. Might be worth considering something similar?
Certainly it won't be long before some kind of machine learning / AI becomes usefully capable of this kind of feature recognition and takes a lot of the surprisingly laborious CAM off of our hands. There are hints of it already in CAM such as Fusion where you can use Claude to create toolpaths directly inside Fusion via its API and an "MCP" connector. I've done this myself and it's surprisingly powerful but at this stage it's not something I want to stop doing myself. In my experience, agents like Claude currently have the capability and dependability of an excitable junior engineer who doesn't know what he/she doesn't know. This will surely improve in the medium term.
Here's a view of the Claude / Fusion integration at work:
Hi.
1) Until we release a new version of the software, you get unlimited updates. If and when a new version is released, the previous one is locked for life with no further updates. We expect that the product would have reached full maturity by then. We expect to release a new version every 24 - 36 months
2) We expect to have an update a month during the first 3 - 4 months and slow down after, these are more for features rather than bugs or refinements in UI. We dont claim to be bug free but we have tested thoroughly already. We are also working on a couple of additional machining strategies like radial thread on a rotary setup - all will be free updates.
Whatever you do, Fusion will cost you 1500 per year for a basic 4th axis. Takshak wont.
We have a community space for feature requests / posts submissions / bug reports etc..
We have videos on our Youtube Channel showing both 3 axis and rotary Feature recognition. It does not cost you anything extra. comes standard.
