RiscCAD returns in force | Drobe.co.uk archives

RiscCAD returns in force

By Chris Williams. Published: 25th Jan 2005, 20:37:30 | Permalink | Printable

Hell of a price drop

Software developer David Buck has released a new version of RiscCAD, three months after returning to the RISC OS scene. The engineering design software was previously published by APDL, but reclaimed last November by David. Release 8e of RiscCAD is the full package, originally priced 250 quid and now only 15 quid, and is RISC OS 4, Iyonix and VirtualRiscPC compatible.

As a 2D CAD application, RiscCAD packs a number of features, including support for "virtually any plotter" and symbol libraries. David began writing CAD software in the 1980s, initially for his Master Compact, and then later for his Arthur powered A310 Archimedes. According to an Acorn Publisher reviewer, "if you are seeking the means to create highly accurate scaled drawings then I can recommend [RiscCAD] without reservation".

Links

RiscCAD 8e announcement - pricings, features, ordering info

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Discussion

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Cool! I guess at that price it is a must-have. :-)

JGZimmerle on 26/1/05 12:20AM
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Quality software being updated and re-released at a resonable price is always a good thing. Congratulations David

vshears on 26/1/05 10:08AM
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Superb news..glad to hear RISC OS Stability is still around

any website links?

Dont think ill go looking for a demon,,at this price ill just buy it

em2ac on 26/1/05 10:43AM
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Some simpler payment methods would be appreciated, though.

JGZimmerle on 26/1/05 1:15PM
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JGZimmerle:

The simplest / cheapest way inside the EC is a banktransfer. When you use the right form and fill in the IBAN and BIC there are no (extra) bankcosts. The problem is that banks do not like it, so with the smallest error they try to charge some extra bankcosts.

egel on 26/1/05 2:18PM
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egel: True, as long as you transfer within the Euro zone. I do not think things are that easy between the Euro zone and Britain though... First of all, there is a currency conversion, so the banks will always seize that opportunity to make money from that. And secondly, I doubt that anyone in Britain could give you their IBAN and BIC numbers. I do not even know them for my own British account. What I know is that transferring money from my British account to my German account is a complicated procedure (you cannot do it via internet banking) and costs an enormous amount of fees (20 Pounds minimum), so I suspect the opposite direction may be similar.

wuerthne on 26/1/05 2:54PM
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World Pay with HSBC costs "only" 9UKP - but I believe you need to do it in person. It can also be possible to transfer via PayPal, at 4% or so.

mrchocky on 26/1/05 2:59PM
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Nice to see returning devolopers back on the scene.

Revin Kevin on 26/1/05 3:00PM
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Well, only recently I bought a 2nd hand i16 podule from somebody in Britain and we managed to do it via IBAN / BIC codes without any problems or large fee for the banks involved.

Anyway, it sure is nice to have such a program renovated for modern architectures and having a programmer returning to our scene...

hEgelia on 26/1/05 4:48PM
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You can find IBAN and BIC numbers from your bank. They are also probably printed on your statement. I sometimes get money from Europe (I am in the UK) with this method.

dansguardian on 26/1/05 5:14PM
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But at any rate, it's not convenient. I'm sure people (like me) would be willing to pay the extra cost via PayPal (or whatever) to benefit from the convenience. 15-20ukp is the sort of 'I may as well, even if I don't really need it' price that I like, but if I can't buy it by clicking a button or two on a website, I definitely won't bother.

senduran on 26/1/05 8:32PM
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Natwest printed my IBAN and BIC on ever statement, that was about a year ago. I think halifax do the same, they sent me it in a letter a while ago, at least. However, the amount came out slightly short, apparently they couldn't specify the exact amount in sterling unless they paid an extra fee.

john on 27/1/05 12:38AM
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The PayPal system MrChocky mentions looked quite good, and I only joined it just 2 weeks ago. Does anyone find PayPal useful and really worth it over other payment systems?

Sawadee on 27/1/05 1:57AM
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OK - I'm certain to offend some people here but honestly, are RISC OS users so incredibly isolated in that dust collecting ivory tower that only a handful have come across payment systems like PayPal and credit card processors like WorldPay and you're actually discussing methods of payments like SWIFT transfers and sending cheques across continents?

I for one gave up years ago trying to buy RISC OS software and hardware because it required me to do all sorts of silly things like sending an e-mail with my credit card number spelled out, sending a fax or even sending my order by snailmail with an attached cheque, hoping that the letter would in fact reach the people it was meant for. Most of these orders got through eventually but some didn't and I got tired of having to go to my bank to cancel cheques that disappeared somewhere on the way. At the time I lived in a country void of any RISC OS dealers for quite a few years and as far as I know there aren't any RISC OS users, let alone dealers where I currently live so trying to buy RO stuff hasn't exactly been a walk in the park.

So come on RISC OS developers - there are plenty of ways for you to get payments online and even deliver software online and most of them hardly cost anything. This could actually be a way for some of you to get your a**e into the 21st century!

Gulli on 27/1/05 2:52AM
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I think PayPal is the easiest solution unless the recipient can pick up credit card payment by himself. PayPal is easy for both sides. I did try bank transfers to UK a while ago and - wow, expensive (AFAIR some UKP 20) which I consider a real rip off.

Another nice one is this: My dad sold something via eBay to a chap in Scotland (part of UK). The buyer sent my day a check of his (the buyers) Scottish bank written in Euro since the price for the sale was in Euro. My dad then passed on that cheque to his (my dads) bank which then connected with the Scottish bank. Nothing wild so far but here is the crazy part: The Scottish bank refused to honour a check of one of their customers since that cheque was written in Euro. The solution you ask: Well the buyer picked up some cash in Euro and put them in an evenlope and sent that with snail mail.

And to Gulli: Sending CC card details via email can be done like this in a relative safe manner: Write it in a draw file, convert to paths, save, put into a password protected Spark archive and send that - in case you care to you can split the number into several separate mails even. Chances for non RISC OS users to be able to "decrypt" are relatively low.

But do I agree that I prefer the companies accepting credit cards via website like Spellings (Aemulor.com) offers or via PayPal.

hzn on 27/1/05 6:36AM
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Of course the thing about PayPal is that it costs :-(

But I must say I suspect the ~50p or whatever wouldn't be too big a deal - especially as a stamp costs half that already. I would like to see RO dealers etc follow the example set by a few (e.g. MWSoftware) and provide online payment systems.

hzn: "Nothing wild so far but here is the crazy part: The Scottish bank refused to honour a check of one of their customers since that cheque was written in Euro." Huh? What's wild about that? The bank account is in Sterling - why on earth would the bank honour a cheque made out in Euros? Would you expect them to honour it if it was in dollars? or yen? or bolivianos?

"Sending CC card details via email can be done like this in a relative safe manner" I know little about encryption, except that this is not it! I suspect it would be easy for any dedicated cracker to find the info hidden like this. I am also certain that if you mentioned it to your bank, they would simply laugh in your face. So I wouldn't recommend this to people!

Adam

adamr on 27/1/05 9:34AM
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I can now accept PayPal, so no excuses

demondb on 27/1/05 9:50AM
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David,

PayPal? Tell us how - and the orders will flood in I suspect.

Sending cheques is such a faff. Warm Silence have the same problem and I've been meaning to purchase stuff from them for years and never exactly got round to it.

Ebay and Amazon do so well because buying (and paying) is so easy!

cynic on 27/1/05 11:05AM
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Go to www.paypal.com and create an account, then you can 'send' money to my email, via paypal. As soon as paypal tells me the money has been sent, I will send RiscCAD.

demondb on 27/1/05 1:15PM
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hzn: That CC number to draw file to archive to e-mail is actually pretty close to one of the stupid things I was asked to do once. When I got that request I gave up and never ordered the stuff I had intended to (whatever that was).

demondb: Excellent, unfortunately I have no use for a CAD package so I'll probably not be ordering RiscCAD although just being able to do so via PayPal almost justifies ordering it simply on principle

Gulli on 27/1/05 1:48PM
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In reply to Gulli:

What, you never need to re-design your kitchen, or garden, or need a graphic at an exact size, or need a graphic with an area filled exactly with a certain pattern, or.....

you get the picture

demondb on 27/1/05 1:55PM
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demondb: I think the owners of my student apartment would object strongly to me redesigning the very standardised kitchen and bath

Gulli on 27/1/05 3:55PM
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Using Paypal (or any online facility) can be done safely if you use a dedicated credit card with no limit (ie it is a cash card only accessing available funds). Keep a small amount in credit and only transfer funds into it when you are making a payment. Alternatively have a dediacted card with a low credit limit just for online purchasing.

rmac on 28/1/05 1:35AM
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Alternatively trust that the credit card companies know what they're doing when it comes to fraud, mine tend to phone me up to confirm 'strange' transactions.

Rimmer on 28/1/05 8:04AM
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rmac: Personally I don't think there's need for such paranoia ;-)

As Rimmer points out, so long as you don't do anything stupid like give someone else your card to use or something, your bank/card company will re-imburse you should any fraud take place.

Adam

adamr on 28/1/05 9:33AM
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I sent my money, via Paypal last week, for the software, manuals and support.

Nothing had arrived, via email, as of last night.

Has anyone else received RiscCAD yet?

Andrew

ajb on 1/2/05 12:29PM
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In reply to ajb:

I ordered it last Thursday, and received it via e-mail last Friday.

Kev

Animal on 1/2/05 4:24PM
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In reply to ajb:

On its way as we speak.

demondb on 1/2/05 5:44PM
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demondb:

Received with thanks. :-)

Andrew

ajb on 1/2/05 11:40PM
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