I agree with almost everything you stated here, with the following caveat;
2020 has been struggling with these issues since long before Cyncly acquired them. It seems like every new version actually has fewer options, less versatility, and is harder to use, rather than the other way around.
Honestly, as far as the cloud is concerned, I think moving the catalogs to the cloud in the first place was a colossal mistake. We often end up doing design work on job sites and in places where is no wi-fi, and even if we do have wi-fi, many people on Comcast servers have issues with the cloud connection not working correctly which causes items to not load properly, lose attributes etc. There are workarounds for that, but we shouldn’t have to.
On top of all that, the fact that with items from the cloud we cannot adjust most attributes, re-texture, adjust lighting (Or even have lighting) properties, on and on. Plus the cloud catalog search interface is an absolute nightmare. I’m learning how to navigate it, but even as I get more accustomed to it, that doesn’t mean it isn’t awful, it just means I’ve gotten better at navigating it. It’s clunky and awkward, at best. I still have a lot of older local manufacturer catalogs (GE, Maytag, LG, Wolf/SubZero, Amerock, TopKnobs) that are ancient and out of date, but still better and more user-friendly than the cloud versions, so I keep using them.
I was just having this conversation with a colleague earlier today. 2020 Design is still (Probably) the best software option out there for most design businesses, but that doesn’t mean it’s good… It just means that the other options are worse. Honestly, if the two major competitors (You know which ones I mean) had anywhere near the manufacturer content (And I mean the cabinet manufacturer content, 2020 is fast losing ground in other areas) that 2020 does, I’d switch today. That’s the only thing 2020 does better in my opinion, and the others all cost a lot less as well, but having those cabinet manufacturer catalogs is pretty vital.
Resource efficiency is another problem. There are many types of software out there which handle 3D object creation and rendering far more complex than what 2020 does, and do it better, faster, and with a fraction of the memory resources that 2020 uses, and aren’t nearly as unstable and prone to crashing. Maybe 2020 needs to hire some programmers from some gaming studios/graphical engine producers and rebuild their graphical rendering from the ground up.
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