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It was bound to happen.....UPGRADE!!!!!! When ScanVec and Amiable joined hands a while back, us Casmate users (already in the process of playing with ScanVec's INSPIRE) got sucked into, more or less, upgrading to FLEXI. Since there would never be an upgrade of Casmate or Inspire, and maybe no support, FLEXI seemed the only way to go, since ScanVec-Amiable was giving old customers an upgrade deal. That having been said and done, many of us were underwhelmed with the NEW product for all kinds of reasons. Well now, for $350.....here we go again.
posted
Bob, as you knoww, I really disliked Inspire, even as a beta tester. I got the latest Flexi, the v6, and have tried to learn it. I've found it weak in many areas compared to Casmate. I went to one of Mark Rugan's seminars to see if that might hurl me into the new generation. This new version of Flexi is supposed to have many of the missing Casmate features and Casmate interface. As far as I know, this version is not out yet, so I don't know anyone to ask questions. I still like Casmate and know eventually it will need to end.
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6721 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I hope its not like the "upgrade" they did when they went from 5 to 6.... awwwk what a mess 6.5 is ok now.
-------------------- Ken McTague, Concept Signs 57 Bridge St. (route 107) Salem MA 01970 1-978-745-5800 conceptsign@yahoo.com http://www.pinheadlounge.com/CaptainKen
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"A wise man once said that, or was it a wise guy?" Posts: 2425 | From: Salem, MA | Registered: Apr 1999
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posted
Another CasMate user here who has recently been bumping hard against the wall of un-developed dead-end software meets constantly evolving technology. I love CasMate for what I've learned to do with it. But a new machine with XP was one recent problem resolved by partitioning the HD to run 98 for CasMate, but keep XP so I didn't void my support term.
I also recently got a new scanner & can no longer scan direct from CasMate because the new things are different in ways I don't need to understand, but it will not ever work according to my tech support person who originally sold me CasMate. (Castek Resources has been a source of expert support for me for years. Are you out there Paul or Terry? I lost their number & don't know the city in Calif. to look them up. Anyone here have that info?)
Anyway Flexi-Sign Pro 7 is available now until Sept 30 in a promotion for CasMate owners to upgrade for up to $1500 (one of my suppliers offered it for $1125) and we can keep our CasMate key as well. Plus a Bergen design Cd is also offered. They say that you can set up a "profile" where you choose the CasMate "workspace" for the most similar icon placement & functionality.
By the way Bob, how "underwhelmed" were you & why? Same question for Rick, & Ken? I will get my demo CD soon & would like to be aware of other CasMate users area of diss-satisfaction so I can take a close look at those areas while I try to evaluate the whole thing before making a purchase decision
[ June 14, 2002, 04:00 PM: Message edited by: Doug Allan ]
posted
CASTEK RESOURCES...www.castekonline.com. If you can come up with a copy of v.6, you can upgrade to 7 for $350. i'm using 1 key to run casmate, inspire AND flexi! I'm underwhelmed because like Rick says....Casmate is the greatest! I do differ with him on INSPIRE. For ME, INSPIRE out-does ALL on them! INSPIRE, together with my PC-60(oh no....here we go again!)produces flawless output. Easy to learn....GREAT manuals. I think getting rid of it was an internal "political' move for ScanVec-Amiable. i'm hoping flexi 7 will take a jump ahead on this new version.....I'LL FIND OUT!
[ June 14, 2002, 04:32 PM: Message edited by: Bob Burns ]
posted
I have FlexiSign Pro 6.5v3 for sale on the classified page. The 6.6 upgrade is about $299 I think, I got an email the other day that if you upgrade yo 6.6 before the 21st you get 7.0 upgrade free. $2000 obo
You'll have FlexiPro 7 for less than $2500!
-------------------- Greg Sellers Posts: 207 | From: McCalla, Alabama, USA | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
I own a registered copy of Corel, but I honestly never use it, so I can't speak with any authority on it's merits. I also own Illustrator & after 10 years use consider myself somewhat proficient in that. It is commonly thought of as a superior product to Corel. (which of course doesn't make it true)My observation is that as good as illustrator is, for my day to day use as a sign maker, CasMate is much better in many areas, although worse in others. I just found out that as an owner of Inspire I can upgrade/crossgrade to Flexi 7 for something in the $500 range. Thats a gamble I'm willing to take to be back in compatibility to Windows XP, my new scanner, & all the future developments that casMate will conflict with.
More power to all the corel & co-cut folks doing well without the high cost software. If Corel could offer me the option to call up a "profile" to simulate the CasMate workspace, open my 6 years of SCV files & use all my CasMate font libraries I would be happy to save money in that way.
posted
dOUG, I'M A BIG CASMATE JUNKIE ALSO. THAT'S WHAT'S SO FRUSTRATING.....YOU CAN'T HARDLY UPGRADE ANY OF THE OTHER STUFF AND CONTINUE TO USE CASMATE. AND WHEN IT COMES TO DIGITAL PRINTING,CASMATE IS OUT! THE ONLY EXCEPTION WITH ME IS THAT I CAN RUN A COLORCAMM WITH A WINDOWS DRIVER OUT OF CASMATE FOR THE SMALL STUFF. BIG STUFF,I USE THE INSPIRE RIP. BUT NOW THAT INSPIRE IS AGING,THERE'S NO WAY TO UPGRADE TO GET CURRENT COLOR PROFILES, AND OTHER DRIVERS FOR THE NEWER HARDWARE. YOU JUST ABOUT HAVE TO UPGRADE TO FLEXI(the main point that it will itself be upgradable in the future,unless it too is discontinued) JUST TO KEEP UP WITH ALL THE OTHER UPGRADED CRAP. IT'S THE SAME WITH PHOTOSHOP. I'M STILL USING PS.4 BECAUSE IN LATER VERSIONS, NONE OF MY PLUG-INS WILL WORK.....YOU GOTTA UPGRADE THEM ....SO I JUST KEEP PS.4 WHICH DOES EVERYTHING I NEED IT FOR ANYHOW! BOY, ONCE YOU GET SUCKED IN TO COMPUTERS, YOU'RE DONE!
[ June 15, 2002, 07:28 PM: Message edited by: Bob Burns ]
quote: I just found out that as an owner of Inspire I can upgrade/crossgrade to Flexi 7 for something in the $500 range.
Bob, I can thank you for the Castek link, as that is how I got the good news on saving over $600 on upgrading to Flexi 7. Since I only use CasMate & not Inspire I never thought of asking for the upgrade price from Inspire.
I own Inspire, but chickened out on jumping into the learning curve. I've been a 70 - 80 hour-a-week workaholic for several years, & got so good at banging out jobs in CasMate, that after 2 days of struggling to design in Inspire & I just gave up. (partly because I had gotten it free from ScanVec by making such a nusience of myself trying to get tech-support to resolve all my CrashMate issues)
Anyway the rumors on Flexi 7 got my hopes up, so I'll post my opinions when I check it out.
BTW bOB, I noticed you graced my name with a lower case letter! I'm honored!
posted
Doug.I cut from Corel every day.. to the tune of reasonable bux..it works. Old Paint knows what he is saying!!! He just doesn't type real well! LOL LOL.
All other progs are overpriced!!!!!
hahahahahha
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
I never used Casmate, but moved to Flexi from Inspire. Any new program is a challenge to learn, but I was determined to make Flexi work and leave Inspire behind.
After using Flexi for 2 years now, I hate to use Inspire--Flexi has so many great features that I've gotten used to. Give Flexi some time--I think you'll really like it.
I'm curiously waiting to see how Flexi 7 exports gradient Gerber GAD files. Scanvec touts this as one new feature. The question remains, How will Omega read the gradient?
Bob--
Flexi has an awesome Adobe PostScript 3.0 rip. You may want to upgrade your Photoshop after you start using Flexi, because then you can print directly from PS using Flexi's rip--the color gain using PS is noticeable most of the time.
-------------------- Stephen Bolin Signs By Tomorrow Holland, MI Posts: 78 | From: Holland, MI | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
So, are they going to upgrade the support, too? We started off with the original version of Flexi and upgraded everytime until 6 came out. We tried it and hated it...too many bugs.
When we bought our new system only version 6.6 was available so we were forced to learn to use it and I will admit I like it now.
My problem is that THE STUPID PROGRAM HAS BEEN CRASHING AT LEAST ONCE AN HOUR for the last year! Sometimes you open it and it automatically crashes. Everytime I call tech support I get the same instructions: "Well lets uninstall and reinstall the program because it's completely stable and nothing bad can ever happen with it." I've uninstalled and reinstalled so much the cd is almost worn out. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've been told that someone would check on it and call me back and I've NEVER gotten one call back.
Okay, that was my venting for the day, thanks.
-------------------- Pat Whatley Montgomery, AL (334) 262-7446 office (334) 324-8465 cell Posts: 1306 | From: Wetumpka, AL USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Bummer, That is starting to sound like all the things about CasMate that always bugged me. Oh well, at least I can be bugged in Windows XP & also get tech support.
posted
It may be a Windows problem but I can't find it and tech support just tells me to clear my preferences or remove the program (per the instructions they send me) and reinstall. There is nothing loaded on that workstation except Flexi, production manager and Adobe Type manager. We went so far as to remove it from the network, reformat the hard drive, and reload Windows without any accessories (word pad, paint, etc.).
We've learned to live with it. Just have to save the same job as a lot of seperate files so if you change your mind you can still go back to where you were. Kind of a pain but its amazing what you can learn to live with.
-------------------- Pat Whatley Montgomery, AL (334) 262-7446 office (334) 324-8465 cell Posts: 1306 | From: Wetumpka, AL USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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[ July 03, 2003, 10:28 PM: Message edited by: Ron Helliar ]
-------------------- Ron Helliar Marysville Sign 11807 51st Ave. NE Marysville, WA 98271 (360) 659-4856 Posts: 263 | From: Marysville, WA USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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A "WINDOWS" PROBLEM! 
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