dold said:
I don't really mind bugging tech support about small stuff. There's a gaggle of them that take turns at the tech support keyboard. A lot of times when you ask "can you do X in risa3d?", they'll say something like "No, but that would be a good improvement/feature. We'll put in a developer request and let you know when it's implemented." Friendly folks they are!
I worked for RISA for a long time (just shy of 16 years). Most of that time was spent either as the primary support engineer or managing the support group. Now I work for one of their competitors (SAP2000/CSI). I've also talked to some people that worked at what (in my mind) was a dysfunctional company (STAAD/REI).
In my experience at all these companies, the ones that do well (pre-Nemetcheck RISA / and CSI) tend to be the ones where the people who talk to the customers the most (i.e. the tech support guys) are given a significant voice in the company. So, I always encourage people to talk to these companies when there are minor tweaks that can make the program better. That can be really helpful....
Note, I said Pre-nemetchek RISA not because I know that much about how RISA works now, but because I saw the way it changed when I was leaving.... Much more "stay in your lane" type of attitude from the higher ups. It's probably still better than STAAD was in the REI days. But, it was definitely drifting away from that at the time. Just not as much of a "customer focused" attitude as it was back when I started there(2002). Maybe even beginning to have a attitude of superiority over the engineers who used the program.
I talked to a customer once who switched over from STAAD to RISA. He said when STAAD first implemented Time History analysis (back in the REI days) it was clear that they had released a glorified Beta version that just didn't work. He said it was limited to a maximum of 500 time steps. Like they had no idea that there were structures out there supporting equipment which operated at 500 Hz or faster. My point is that this was a "marketing feature" for STAAD. It was about selling more units of the program, not about getting the feature correct.
Caveat: My time at RISA ended in a less than amicable way. Plus, RISA/Nemetchek (through a 3rd party) have threatened me with a lawsuit for talking about them. Ergo, I am not exactly an unbiased party on this subject.