Short version:
We have 13 offices in 12 states, and purchased SolidWorks for everyone who needs it (20-ish licenses just at this building at this campus of 7 buildings.)
The var threw in draftsite for free, as we routinely do business with companies that are still using the older .dwg file format.
After 30 days, a lot of people lost the ability to use draftsite, because they never received the confirmation email. But some did; there was no pattern to who did and who did not. But after 30 days, we had to tell it "yeah, sure, I'll register it right now!" and it would still launch the software (and the email was never received.) This continued despite having our exchange server whitelist anything to do with sw, ds, 3ds, etc. Some people got the emails, some (in the same office, in the same building on the same system) never did.
While at a customer site out of country, I could not get on the wifi when draftsite complained about activation - and when it failed to find a connection, it quit working completely.
I called our var ("We don't support the free version")
I called 3ds ("We don't support the free version")
I asked if we purchased 50-75 copies of the professional version, if it would work properly ("Oh, so you have the free version. We don't offer support for the free version.")
I contacted Mark Lyones directly, as this is not a support question at all, it is an issue with their email/registration system. ("You are not entitled to support because you have the free version.")
This all happened in parallel with multiple questions and comments on this forum, alongside the installation package nightmare in the linux version ("Why are you not broadcasting a standard dependency list to the os in the installer?" var:"what version of windows are you using to run linux?" var:"go to a dos prompt and run regedit" var:"oh, we can't support the free version." 3ds:"let me connect you with the var because we don't support the free version.")
I uninstalled it and went with a9cad, librecad, etc, and never had a problem at all.
So forward a year; one of the engineers asked for some help with a function in draftsite. I figured that after a year, certainly the problem was fixed. (yeah, no.)
I reinstalled (twice) from a fresh download. It tells me I need to register, then instead of exiting, it starts consuming ram and cpu - one core at 100%, and after 4 gig of ram gets used I have to force close it, because otherwise after 12.8gig of ram consumed, the computer has to be hard reset, since it quits functioning. But if I choose not to try and register, it just exits.
The linux version installed (thank god I symlinked all of the file dependencies last year!) but the mouse does not work in the graphics area of draftsite (yet it works fine everywhere else on the system.) - and this is yet another known issue with only band-aid solutions to nvidia users (and NO solutions to ati users!)
3 days after trying to register it, I got an email - "click here to register!" Which of course took me to a "there was an error processing your request" from the 3ds website.
Through all of this, not one response to any questions concerning registration from anyone at the company at all, despite several requests from me directly to them - to generic help email addresses, and to specific people and departments.
A quick review of the forums here shows this to be the standard reply from draftsite - "Oh, there's a problem with the free version? tough. we don't support the free version" might as well also say "Oh you need an ambulance? sorry - we can't help you, you have the free version."
Yesterday, I exported the requisite registry key data from one of the engineers who was able to get his activated - merging it with the registry on my machine caused draftsite to work. First time. No stupid emails, no memory leaks, no locked-up computer. Just a functioning piece of software.
After 18 months of me requesting help to get it to work, I am convinced of two things: 1. Draftsite does not give a crap about the people using the free version. 2. Draftsite does not give a crap about questions on the forums, including questions to THEIR POSTS.
They refuse to acknowledge they have a registration issue, because then they would have to fix it. But by hiding behind "we don't support the free version," they don't have to admit that their registration system is broken. They do not seem to care that people are running into a systemic problem that breaks the software, and they think that their users are naive enough to *not* see that they are only acting stupid or confused by claiming they do not support a major issue with their system, with the same "who cares" attitude they would give to someone asking how to use a function of the software. "Your registration system is broken" and "Your software uses 13gig of ram when trying to register" are *NOT* "support" questions, they are "Hey - your system is driving toward a cliff" questions.
If they don't want to answer "how do a make a 3 point circle" questions, then fine. They can stand behind the "free version" shield. I actually do agree with that. But refusing to address an extensively-documented problem with their email subsystems and registration system failures is a weasel response, and only serves to alienate customers who might actually want to buy their software!
I considered posting the registry key export here, but I figure draftsite would choose this post as one to target, and they would undoubtedly unleash lawyers and attack dogs and black helicopters if I did, because that would be me supporting the free version (which they refuse to do.)
But, since this is an 18-month (at least) issue that they refuse to address, and because of the time I have lost trying to get it to work, or building a dependency list from an undocumented installation, or running scandisk after being forced to hard-power-cycle my machine... I will gladly send a link to anyone who requests it via pm.
Linux and OSX users, I apologize. I have not dug through the system far enough to find where similar information might go on your systems, nor have I figured out why the newest version has borked the graphics so badly on Linux systems.
