Hi jonah,

> So how difficult would it be to port the code?

Not horribly difficult... But not like a drop-dead easy thing neither, it would certainly need an investment of time, probably about as much as the overhaul for sweep that I want to do in MoI.

The big problem is that is just the tip of the iceberg - forking a codebase tends to create additional work over the long term for maintenance, like applying bug fixes in multiple places rather than in a single place.

Similarly adding new products adds additional support overhead for me as well.

I don't really like to do things that will add to my future work load, so that's basically why it is not too likely that I will be able to invest time in this.

The payoff would seem to be fairly minimal for me as well, since MoI has such a very low price currently and already works very easily in combination with Rhino already. The current version is already working well for a lot of people who would benefit from this function. I have been contacted by a few Rhino users who are looking for a plugin version since they want it to be lower cost than the current cost of MoI. But this is a pretty small number of people, I pretty much figure that if $195 is too much for someone, I'm not really very sure that they would really be able or willing to buy a plugin neither.

- Michael

Hi Steve,

> I know you have worked hard and many many hours on
> the update, but would not like to see maajor increase in
> price which may put off new users/ or owners of V1

Currently my plan is to increase the price of v2 by US $100 to a total of $295 for a full license, or $100 for a v1 to v2 upgrade license.

Then probably after about another year's worth of work for v3, I think the same thing will happen for it, that it will go to $395. By that point in time quite a lot of the things that were missing in v1 will be filled in pretty well.

One idea that I have had is that in the future I could still offer version 1.0 at its same current price as a kind of "lite" version for someone who was looking for just an essential modeling tool that is easy for them to use. I'm not completely sure about that yet, but that is one idea.

Basically I did end up pricing version 1.0 too low. I mean there were some reasons I did this, I wanted to make it easy for people to get MoI and also having a low price tends to make it easier to justify missing functions. As time goes on and functionality increases, that basically removes one of those reasons. Then that leaves me with accessibility as being the main reason to have a low price. Unfortunately it seems that this only works very well from a business standpoint if you also invest a large amount of effort in marketing to reach people. That's not really something I enjoy doing a whole bunch, so that basically leads me more towards focusing on more professional level users who can more easily afford anything in the $500 range if it helps them get their work done.


> Please dont jump up and down on me for this comment, it is just my thoughts.

No, no problem - I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will be upset at any price increase at all. Then at the same time there will be plenty of people who won't care at all! I would kind of go a bit crazy if I worried about the first group all the time though. I mean there have been a bunch of people who have told me that I should make MoI open source and available for free and that I could pay my bills with the good karma that this would generate! :)

- Michael

At one point Hexagon was $1.99.
Double CAD XT--free
XSI Mod Tool--free
ViaCAD $99
Blender--with Nurbs(big Nurbs update coming)---free
3DCoat---update from V2 to V3 will be $80 (HUGE difference in what is in V3)

Jusat food for thought

Brian

Hi Brian, that's great if those cheap/free apps do what you need!

MoI is more of a "finely crafted" type product, it especially takes a long time to do a very high quality UI design.

If you don't place a lot of value on the highest quality UI and workflow, then probably MoI is not going to be the right choice for you, you should use one of those free programs instead if price is your overriding concern.

Just more food for thought! :)

- Michael

Insane!!! I will be able to purchase MoI V2 for $100.00???? This is unprecedented for the type of application we're using here.

hear! hear! Burr.

---------

In AU dollars US$100 is nearly a full weeks pension.

Brian

>that basically leads me more towards focusing on more professional level users who can more easily afford anything in the $500 range if it helps them get their work done.

Increasing the price sounds reasonable to Me as MoI grows to a Professional app. Lets say MoI reaches the $500 or even $1000 price point at V3 or V4, WHAT are the features you plan to add?
For example will you add features like Product Documentation, Industries Standard formats like RealDwg, will you create partnerships with CAM Software...These are important features IMO to have in terns of getting the work done.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Brian, I wish I could make MoI available for free, but I have bills to pay and when I tell them to lower my bills they don't seem to listen to me.

So I'm sorry - if US $100 is too much for you, I guess you will need to stay with version 1.0 in that case. Version 1.0 is still a very solid program and can get your models built though!

- Michael

Hi Yannada, longer term I think it is more likely for MoI to kind of cap out at around $500 rather than $1000.

re: what features to add - that is not entirely set in stone, but certainly modeling things quickly and easily will always be more of the primary focus, then at some point more "communication" type features that help you to illustrate your design will come more online, things like some basic dimensions, basic rendering, stuff like that.

It's still not really a particular goal to necessarily replace any other software that is being used, the main goal is more about being able to get certain kinds of things done really quickly.

- Michael

I am only trying to make a sort of "international" view point.

Aussie is one of the richest countries yet the National government is spending huge amounts of money to ensure that all primary school children get access to computers.

The problem is that the schools do not have the funds to buy the apps to get the computers to work!

Brian

Hi Brian, will it help me to tell my bank that they should lower my mortgage payments because people in other countries need to use my software for free?

I just don't understand how you would expect for me to run a business without charging any money for the work that I do.

If you know of a way to make this work, I'm afraid you're going to need to explain it a lot more clearly to me, I don't understand how that would work right now.

I mean I can understand how it could lead me to bankruptcy and to foreclosure on my house and a lack of food for me to eat... But those are things I am rather intent on avoiding!

- Michael

Sorry Michael your answer is either diplomatic or you are not entirely sure what is gonna be. On the other hand you have a price set. If you don't mind me saying that is bit confusing for me, Sorry.

>It's still not really a particular goal to necessarily replace any other software that is being used, the main goal is more about being able to get certain kinds of things done really quickly.

Well by adding dwg or Product Documentation support It does not mean that you trying to replace Autocad or Rhino...

Hi Yannada, well the truth is that I do not have anything firmly set.

re: Product Documentation - I expect to have stuff in this area, but it will be likely to be targeted towards more informal things. For example probably not a huge list of arrowhead styles and spacing controls for gaps between arrows and leaders, and ANSI compliant stuff, like the stuff you would expect from a full drafting table type mechanism.

So I guess it depends a bit on what your specific definition of "Product Documentation" is.

- Michael

Ok I am not expecting MoI to become a full drafting app. But basic dimensioning tools will help to push the envelop. Also a Dwg support I think is necessary even if I hate this format with passion.

thanks for you reply.

Michael

In marketing there is a popular belief that, by keeping prices low, and thus increasing the volume of sales (internationally?), one can then get resulting higher end net profits.

I would hope that I have been trying to suggest this--I appear to be mis-interpreted!

Brian

(It worked for me when I was the Managing Director of a large National Aussie company)

Hi yannada, unfortunately DWG is a fairly difficult format to work with, I basically have to license some libraries to deal with it but those are fairly expensive so I'm not quite sure when that will happen. Probably DXF is more feasible to happen before that.

- Michael

Hi Brian, yup that can work well if you have a marketing department that is focused on reaching a large number of people.

Maybe this has not been clear to you, but I am the only person that works on MoI, there are not teams of marketing people or teams of documentation people working on shortcut key cards, etc... for it - it's all just 1 person doing everything.

If I were to pursue a heavy marketing campaign to try and promote a low cost version I would basically have to interrupt any work on the actual development of new features in the software.

Is that what you are saying you would like for me to do? I mean to stop working so much on developing new features and instead put all my time into marketing work?

- Michael

I think Rhino has "teams of people" and "Sdk's and Third party millions" and would venture to say a fairly substantial marketing campaign....

But they dont have a MoI Mesher!

Hi Michael.

Regarding your price structure, many of us would agree the price was quite low for such a rock-solid modeling program. But then when you consider it's just the first version, limited to more basic modeling functions, etc I would not say it's "under-priced" exactly. Currently MoI is something of a no-brainer in the "bang for the buck" department at just $195. At some point (perhaps V4) when your price nears the $500 mark, then it won't be such an easy decision for many people anymore. MoI then becomes a "main" package for many people instead of a "support" package. So the concerns of Yannada become even more important issue for new purchasers. At that price, they'll be comparing it to other apps with very extensive functionality and 3rd party plugins...

@ Brian, karma rarely exists on individual level, and never in the world of business. And you can't compare MoI to other apps in similar price range, because it doesn't share the same development path. Think about some of them, and why they are/were as cheap as you mentioned. It wasn't from the kindness of the developer's heart. I paid around $169 for Hex 1.0 Buying 2.0 for just $34 was something of a compensation for the fact that I was unknowingly buying deadware... ;)

jonah

PS... Michael, you have at least least one other person working unofficially on Triple Squid staff. I see Brian plugging MoI EVERYWHERE...