The sad recent sudden death of Gary D’Arcy, the founder and driving force of drcauto, the pre-eminent Australian developer of add-ons for AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, highlights the danger of buying software from small companies who require that it must be re-licensed every year.
Registered users visting drcauto’s website now find that it has been suspended, the only advice being a message which states “DRCAUTO HAS CEASED TRADING”. Worse, no email communication is possible with drcauto. This is a disaster for drcauto’s approximately 5500 licensed users whose software licensing period has ended or is about to end.
So what would happen to your copy of Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software in the unlikely event of Softcover ceasing to trade, for whatever reason?
Scan2CAD is supplied with a lifetime user licence. Provided that you retain the supplied User Name and Registration Key on file along with their accompanying notes and keep a back-up of the Scan2CAD installation file, there is no reason other than the vagaries of future operating systems why you should not be able to continue to install and use Scan2CAD long after we have gone.
However, what will most certainly prevent you from continuing to use Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software (and all other software which requires registration via licence keys) is if you fail to keep your registration data and installation file somewhere safe.
We are constantly re-issuing licence keys to registered Scan2CAD users who have lost them. We would like to think that had drcauto used our more generous licensing method, its users would not be in the trouble they are today. Sadly, however, we know from experience that a high proportion of software users lose their registration details. In such a case, if your supplier has ceased trading, you’re snookered!
