A brief review from a brand new user
So today's the last day of my two-week free trial, and I'm planning to keep the software. Here is a brief review:
Ease-of-use: I'm pretty happy with the capabilities of the software overall, but the UI is somewhat counter-intuitive due to it being based upon a CAD engine - I knew this to be the case going in, I was prepared to be challenged, and I was, in fact, challenged.
I'm not quite sure I completely "get" the architecture of this application's relationships to the things it manipulates. I'm a software engineer by trade, so if someone plopped down a UML-ish diagram of how symbols, symbol sets, styles, etc. related to each other I'd feel a lot more comfortable.
I wish the manual had gone into a little more depth. I may have to go back through it a couple more times. I fully admit that this may be a PEBKAC issue (google that if you don't know what I mean).
Feature set: Absolutely second to none. I think what really differentiates this software from its peers is:
1) the CAD-like manner in which maps are interacted with (very powerful IMO),
2) the different options for drawing shapes (fractal lines, bezier curves, tracing other shapes), and
3) sheet effects (these add what I would call the OMG factor to my admittedly mediocre maps)
Value for money: I bought the World Builder bundle plus Cosmographer and Symbol Sets A&B. It was not a cheap purchase (in fact, it's the most I've ever paid for any software product outside of Microsoft Office), but it's software for a niche market (wherein lack of volume must be made up for in sales price to allow for the vendor to remain solvent - I've seen crappy software for niche markets run in the tens of thousands of dollars, and this software is -not- crappy). Where it falls short is in the stock textures and symbols. I understand that the Annuals make up this deficit, and I plan on purchasing some (knowing my OCD nature, "some" probably means "all"), but in terms of strict value-for-money I feel that CC3+DD3+COS3+SS1+SS2 could have brought more to the table in terms of artwork.
Overall: I think this software is the best on the market to-date. It could offer more "stock" artwork, the manual could be more thorough, and the user interface could be more intuitive, but this program truly is the Photoshop for cartography.
Ease-of-use: I'm pretty happy with the capabilities of the software overall, but the UI is somewhat counter-intuitive due to it being based upon a CAD engine - I knew this to be the case going in, I was prepared to be challenged, and I was, in fact, challenged.
I'm not quite sure I completely "get" the architecture of this application's relationships to the things it manipulates. I'm a software engineer by trade, so if someone plopped down a UML-ish diagram of how symbols, symbol sets, styles, etc. related to each other I'd feel a lot more comfortable.
I wish the manual had gone into a little more depth. I may have to go back through it a couple more times. I fully admit that this may be a PEBKAC issue (google that if you don't know what I mean).Feature set: Absolutely second to none. I think what really differentiates this software from its peers is:
1) the CAD-like manner in which maps are interacted with (very powerful IMO),
2) the different options for drawing shapes (fractal lines, bezier curves, tracing other shapes), and
3) sheet effects (these add what I would call the OMG factor to my admittedly mediocre maps)
Value for money: I bought the World Builder bundle plus Cosmographer and Symbol Sets A&B. It was not a cheap purchase (in fact, it's the most I've ever paid for any software product outside of Microsoft Office), but it's software for a niche market (wherein lack of volume must be made up for in sales price to allow for the vendor to remain solvent - I've seen crappy software for niche markets run in the tens of thousands of dollars, and this software is -not- crappy). Where it falls short is in the stock textures and symbols. I understand that the Annuals make up this deficit, and I plan on purchasing some (knowing my OCD nature, "some" probably means "all"), but in terms of strict value-for-money I feel that CC3+DD3+COS3+SS1+SS2 could have brought more to the table in terms of artwork.
Overall: I think this software is the best on the market to-date. It could offer more "stock" artwork, the manual could be more thorough, and the user interface could be more intuitive, but this program truly is the Photoshop for cartography.
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