Free utilities are no longer free?

[fonhorn]

Can anybody tell me how to access the "Free" utilities in Craft Director Studio v9.4.1? Purchasing this new fractional upgrade has not been a happy experience for me.

I've been using CA plugins for a couple of years: 2WE, 4WE, Spline Speed-control, and trailer. I've depended on "ExtraWheel" for many of my projects. I just upgraded to v9.4.1. Now, I no longer have access to EW. It is located in the "Create Accessory Tool" dropdown list; but, when I click on it, I get a dialog box giving me 4 options: Evaluate, Activate (if I have the code), Buy, or Create with restricted functionality. When I click "Create" to see if It might have some functionality, I get a message stating that, since it is not licensed, I will not be able to use the plugin the next time I open this Max file. That is some pretty serious restricted functionality. I have unfinished projects with deadlines that use EW.

The 1st dialog box has a picture of CD case for EW. At the bottom ot this image is the word "Free". Further down the page are the buttons and text telling that I have pay for it. Everything on the CA Web site says that it's free. When I click on any links to EW, I'm sent to a tutorial page. The free utilities are not mentioned on the "Store" page. So,..... its free; but, I can't use it unless I buy it; but, there is no way to buy it. Isn't that a plot from a Joseph Heller or Franz Kafka story?

Any help will be very much appreciated. I'm sure it is something obvious and right in front of me. I sent an email to Herman; but, I won't hear back from him until next week, or later. Sooner would be very good. Thanks to anybody that can help me.

[Micael Belin]

I can verify the utilities are indeed free and the problem is purely technical. Somehow the software has lost it's information about the freeware utilitites and therefore believes you have to purchase it in order to use it.
Is it only EW you are experiencing problems with, or are all utilities unavailable? (You can check their status in the License Manager). I'm guessing the latter.

Please try re-download the software from our homepage and install it again. If this doesn't work, let me know either on this forum or contact mus directly on support@craftanimations.com.

[fonhorn]

You're correct. All of the utilities are unavailable. My first thought was that a browser was to blame. Since the browser wars began, I've had to bounce around from one browser to another in order to get some things to work. I tried all of my browsers with this issue but, nothing worked. It's 3:45 AM here and I'm finishing up some work. I'll try to access the utilities when I get back. I'll let you know what happens. Thank you.

Russell Welch

p.s. - sorry for the sad attempt at humor in the previous message. Too many hours in front of the computers, isolated from the rest of mankind.

[fonhorn]

I am still unable to access the free utilities. They are installed along with all of the other plugins; but, when I try to open any of the utlities, I get a message that the plugin has no license and I need to purchase it. If I click on "Create," I receive a message that the utility will not be able to save and I won't be able to use it when I re-open the Max file.

[fonhorn]

Okay! A fresh install has fixed it. Thanks.