So as time has passed, THREE of the PCs that have the seats on them are no longer convenient. One Surface PRO tablet PC works great, but I am not using it. The second Surface PRO is DEAD. The battery will not charge and it will not boot up. The third seat is on an old Toshiba laptop running Windows 98. I tested it for signs of life a few days ago. It took nearly 2-1/2 hours to boot up to the desktop.
So the Toshiba is on its last leg too.So I went to Best Buy and purchased three brand new, spiffy DELL Inspirion 7000 laptops, running Windows 11. I decided to move those three seats to these new laptops. This will make it easier to do remote on-site training sessions, since I won't need to lug three PC towers, separate monitors, cords," wall warts," etc. along. Training will now be crisp and clean, no caffeine!
Today I called PlasmaCam to move the three seats to the new laptops. Of course, this is like asking God to part the Red Sea. This should be a SIMPLE, ONLINE, AUTOMATIC process. Shut down PCs 1,2 and 3, and move the DesignEdge seats to PCs 4,5, and 6.
PlasmaCam has some slow, arduous, manual method of moving seats, and nothing is ever done quickly. I would almost SWEAR that their company records are kept on 3"x5" index cards stored in long wooden drawers, in old wooden public library book directory cabinets.
I am packing for a short visit to a friend in another State, and I want to take these laptops along for a bit of experimentation in the logistics exercise of simply BRINGING them along. I bought the stacking black tool totes from Lowes. The bottom tote has the wheels, and two more stack on top, and lock down with a nifty mechanism, so the whole thing becomes a single unit on wheels, about the size of a trash compactor. The bottom box holds the laptops and power supplies. The other two totes have the wireless keyboards and mice, external USB drives, parallel cables, etc. It is amazing, how much STUFF I take along.
Here I sit, waiting ... waiting ... for the installation of DesignEdge on the new laptops to be activated. I get the, "BUY MORE SEATS!" error, but I am not buying more seats... I am only MOVING three seats to new computers. When I call, they claim to be "extremely busy," selling tables and accessories, and parts, and doing tech support.
GOD FORBID PlasmaCam should ever pass along Robert Johnson's email, or MY email, or that of a half-dozen other people who come to mind. If only they gave these contacts to new owners who want to get up to speed on the software quickly. PlasmaCam doesn't seem to realize that the efforts by those who coach "newbies" translates into happy table owners, and customers who PURCHASE the various upgrades, parts and accessories, based entirely on OUR recommendations!
Joe
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