[drmosh]

This is not a flame regarding Dolphin support, but this is an actual, 100% truthful situation I am having with their software right now. I highly encourage any user of a previous version of Dolphin to read this...

I bought a fully licensed copy of PartMaster Level 2, v9.1 in April 2007. I used it for about 8 months or so and personal situations forced me away from the hobby. I took a break for several months, and during that time my hard drive crashed. I installed a new hard drive and reinstalled the exact same copy of the OS (valid, not pirated, same OS key) on the exact same computer.

I went to re-install Dolphin today. Found my original v9.1 cd media, installed it, used my activation code from the original email, and guess what? It won't activate. Contacted Dolphin support because I noticed the serial number on the cd didnt match the one in the authorization email, so I thought that might be the problem. It wasn't...

Turns out that since Dolphin has released v10, they've parted ways with their previous license activation service. They have, apparently, absolutely no way of re-issuing license keys. And what about if you use the activation code you used originally? Won't work.

So let me set everyone clear on this: if you have a previous version, and your drive goes, and you reinstall exactly as before, you won't be able to reinstall Dolphin and activate it. Doesn't matter what you've saved, what you have, what you bought, etc. etc. Doesn't matter. Per Dolphin support, your only option is to buy a new copy of v10.

Unless, of course, you purchased the support plan.

So I have a bunch of drawings that I just started working on again, and had planned to export them to DXF and try some cutting tomorrow. That's not going to happen because the unactivated version won't export to DXF.

I'm stuck. I have absolutely no other alternative, at least as it stands right now, other than either abandoning all the drawings and starting over in a new CAD/CAM package, or paying for their new v10 which can be activated. Actually, that's not entirely true - their support did agree to convert the files for me to DXF, but obviously if I loaded them back into Dolphin v9.1 I'd never get them out again.

Not a single word of this is made up. I strongly ecourage current back-version users of Dolphin to contact support and verify this situation. If ANYTHING happens to your computer, you WILL NOT be reinstalling - you will be purchasing new product unless you own support.

[Dolphin USA]

The reason is very simple. If we issued an activation code that would work for many different hard drives, would that be fair to us? I have worked with several different cad/cam dealers, not software in general, just cad cam dealers and they all work the same way pretty much, unless you have a dongle that is.

I have already explained this to you as well and told you I would try to figure something out. Version 9 used a different activation process. We develop CAD/CAM software to help everyday machinists. The activation process is typically always 3rd party. Once vista was released, the OLD activation process was no longer useful. It was not vista compatible. It forced us to move to an alternative solution which is our new activation method (Copyminder).

It also was not stated that, "If you have support" you would be able to get a new activation licensed. It's not logically possible. We deal with copyminder now and that is not backwards compatible.

If there was anything possible that we could do, I would sure be able to. If we could go and ask the OLD activation company for one more license for a customer that is having difficulties, I would be happy to. But I have a feeling they probably wouldn't care to much.

[drmosh]

Yes you have been very helpful. That's why I pointed out I wasn't flaming Dolphin support. But I strongly suspect that this is not the expected behavior of reinstalling software from original media on the same machine, with the same OS. I appreciate you make software for the average machinist. My point was to educate the "average machinist" as to what will happen if their machine goes down, even just the hard drive, so they are not caught unaware as I was.

[Dolphin USA]

For 9 Versions, the OLD activation method was the way the software was activated. It was activated via a .txt file. Unfortunately the Vista platform placed a hurdle directly in front of us, instantly.

One thing I strongly advise everyone to do, whether working with microsoft software, cad/cam, notepad, anything in general... save all your files. If they are all saved, nothing should be lost that you have done.

I know this is not your fault and that is why I specifically told you to let me brainstorm and see what I can come up with. I will try my darnest to come up with a viable solution to make you happy.

Again, it's unfortunate that the transition to vista put a lapse on our old activation process.

[drmosh]

Yes, Dolphin Support is absolutely right. It's super-important to have backups, and in my case I was lucky I did.

Just to clarify for the other users out there, my machine had WinXP SP2 reinstalled on it, not Vista.

[John S.]

Rodney,
PM sent.

John S.

[drmosh]

I want to let everyone know the status/resolution on my situation.

There does not appear to be a technical solution for my issue. Dolphin offered an upgrade to Level 3 if I purchased a new copy of v10, which would allow me to install and activate a new instance of the software.

I communicated to them that I truly believe that the average user does not expect that when you install a legal, licensed copy of software that it is bound to a single, one-time activated instance of that software. If users felt that was the default behavior, then everyone would just throw out their physical media (cdroms) because they would really serve no purpose. But that is in fact not the case. You save them because you think you may need to use them again in the future on the same machine.

The Dolphin activation model, practices and technical limitations are clearly documented in their files, but they are not the practice of the overwhelming body of commercial software titles, including your operating system. That is why you save the physical media, reciepts, etc.

I do want to thank the Dolphin support team for their hard work trying to resolve my situation.

I strongly encourage any Dolphin user that does not have v10 to read their documentation carefully. If you do not have a hardware dongle, then you are at risk. If anything ever happens to your machine, or your hard drive, or the install of your previous version, you will be unable to reinstall without any recourse other than buying a new version of the software. If you are in this group you may as well throw out your physical media, because it will be of no value to you if you have to reinstall on your original machine, let alone a new machine. If you do buy a new machine, there is a transfer process of moving your activation, but I'm not sure if it's supported since they've turned off the licensing service for v9. Again - contact Dolphin support before you assume that you can move the activation.

If you are thinking of purchasing Dolphin, I would strongly advise you to buy the USB hardware key so as not to be bound to an software-based activation service model. I would also ask Dolphin what their stated support and replacement policies for USB keys will be in the future. In my case, the software was 14 months old and the reinstall was rendered impossible. It would be a shame to loose your USB key in 14 months and not be able to get a replacement.

As for me, I've converted my files to DXF format and I've migrated to a competitive CAD platform that I felt had a better market presence, licensing model and support services. It was a personal decision I felt comfortable with but each user must pick the path that works best for them.

I wish Good Luck to both the users and the company in the future.