<OK, I'm gonna get way O.T. here, but this is something that is stuck in my craw & needs to be coughed up.>
My apologies Randy, but when a guy spends a year working on a new program that fulfils a clear need, posts it here for us to all try, and then has you compare him and his work so unfavorably--well that got my dander up a bit.
Anyhow, I don't think you are a misanthrope, but just that I saw you as acting like one. Sometimes I'll do the same thing as a joke, but your comments didn't come off as any joke to me. Perhaps because in your business nothing less than 3D will do, you treated Joe like some Luddite trying to reinstate the Dark Ages.
There are lots of businesses where the overhead of 3D isn't wanted nor justified--at least not in its present incarnations, and certainly not in the form that most clients seem to be providing it to us. In our business, there is a liability in providing too much information. Anything we provide over and above that strictly required to constrain and deliniate the work represents a potential not only for undetected error but is potential ammo for the opposition in the event of a lawsuit. Incorrect or misconfigured 3D info that trickles down from a client or consultant drawing into our drawings is a total hazard, and we filter it out before passing anything down the line.
Remember that we're not engineering multi-billion dollar nuclear powerplants. Our business is mainly wood-framed and CMU school projects in the $2M~$50M range. Programs like Joe's (and no, I haven't tested it yet, but I will) are definately needed in my world. To see you denigrate his work on the open forum in such an off-hand manner...well, I simply couldn't let it pass unchallenged.
