[Jaime Axten]

I downloaded the trial version before my cd came in the mail.  I completed some school assignments with the trial version , they were all saved as kit files, and once my usb came in the mail, 2020 began saving them as kbf files, how do i open or convert all my school work that was saved as kit files??  i need to revise and keep working with these files and have put hours and hours and hours into these files, to recreate them would be devastating!  help!~

[Neil Wilson]

Hi Jaime,

I’m sorry to say that there is no way to convert .kits to .kbfs or vice versa.  The only way that I can think of would be to unplug your key and open the .kit file in the trial.  Select the whole design and then select copy from the home tab.  Close 2020, plug in the key and open the educational version and then paste the design into the floorplan and save it as a .kbf.

I have no idea if this will work but its worth a shot.

Neil

[Danny Steiger]

I may be missing something Neil, but what is a .kbf file?  I’ve only ever seen .kit or the backup.

Thanks!

[Neil Wilson]

Hey Danny,

the educational version of the software, the one provided to students and schools at a reduced cost, creates .kbf files.

Neil

 

[Nancy Bosscha]

I am an instructor at a College, and I am trying to facilitate the learners with 2020. The difference between the education version and professional is quite extensive. Filename changes, can not use the cloud or other catalogs. 2020 does not even have support documents for the educational version of the software, so when I go to the e-learning videos, there are serval things that I can do with the education version. This file name issue means that I as an instructor cannot grade the learners work unless it is a *kbf file, and the learner nor I have no resources to provide grades to the learners. We are trying to use the software that industry uses, but it is getting very complicated for both instructors and learners.

[Erez Gabay]

seriously ?? which company provides 2 different software version ? just because it’s in reduce cost ?

what a very bad marketing strategy. I hope the management in 2020 will wake up. there are so many other creative ways, to increase revenue, this is NOT the right one!

[Neil Wilson]

Hi Erez,

2020 actually provides several different versions of the software at differing price levels dependant on the client’s requirements.  We have the student version, which is by far the least expensive option, for students and teachers so they get hands on experience with software at a price that is affordable to students.

From there we move up to the essentials version which limits the user to the catalogs provided in the software.  This version is obviously less expensive than the full version and is popular with users that do more custom work and don’t sell cabinets provided by the larger manufacturers.

Then there is Select where you can choose a single manufacturer.  For clients that only sell a specific brand of cabinets and the Complete version where you can use any of the catalogs available in the software.

All have different price points dependant on the available features to make them more available to our clients.

Neil

[Erez Gabay]

Thank you, Neli for the answer, but I believe you didn’t understand the thread subject.

The question we all ask is what is not on what application version you have, but why to create different file type to each version? The problem we all have is that you created different file type to a different version.

There is absolutely no logical reason for such an action besides greedy. students cannot learn your product as part of the education cycle, then go home and cannot use the same file for learning.

You can disable & enable options inside the application, this is totally fine, but to block the student to practice at home?  im going to uninstall this app as soon as im finish with this chapter in my university.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Erez,

Thank you for your feedback.

We understand the challenges of the student version the way that it is today.   It was created initially to offer an non commercial version of 2020 Design at a low price.  It was not intended to obstruct the learning/teaching flow.  This said, we are looking into re-engineering the student version to make it more inclusive with other commercial versions of the tool.

Look forward to the future student version that will enable you to easily share projects between different versions of Design.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Erez Gabay]

Appreciate your innovating thinking, Santiago.!

keep in mind that – success adaptation of new technologies, start from the students 😉

 

hope to see this correction soon.

 

[Mike Langensiepen]

Hi Santiago,

Why not adopt KIT files for all versions but watermark the plans and renders produced by the education versions? This would stop it from being used in a commercial environment while still allowing full use. Come to that, this could be done at the licensing level and depending on the license key, could be watermarked ‘Trial Version’, ‘Student’ etc etc.

No doubt there are reasons why the above might not work for you but worth thinking about. We used to use a PDF creator/editor that watermarked everything until you bought the license but it allowed full testing of the app prior to that.