Technical Support

1.0 Contacting Support

The information below is intended for existing customers. If you are evaluating the Tech Soft 3D product line, you would typically be working directly with a TS3D Consulting Engineer who provides direct assistance.

1.1 Methods of Contact

Support Website

When reporting a bug or a problem for any of the Tech Soft 3D products, we encourage you to submit the information via our Support Website, located at:

developer.techsoft3d.com/support/

If you are accessing the site for the first time, click on the link, I'm requesting an initial password, and you will be sent your initial password. After logging in, select the Create Issue link to create and submit your question or description of your problem. Tech Soft Support will log your issue, and an ID will be included in the subject line of related emails, and be displayed in the following format: [#<issue_id>]. We encourage you to include the issue ID (and maintain it's original formatting) in the subject of any further correspondence on the matter. You can also use the support website to track the status of your issues, submit test files, etc...

Electronic Mail

You can also submit issues by directly emailing us at support@techsoft3d.com. All email content is automatically routed and tracked by our technical support system. 

Phone

You can also contact our support group through either phone or standard mail using the contact information below.

Tech Soft 3D
931 Ashby Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94710
U.S.A.
PHONE: +1.510.883.2180

1.2 Required Information

Before Contacting Customer Support

A. If you have a question, have you:

  • Reviewed pertinent sections of the documention?
  • Explored the technical articles on the HOOPS Developer Zone?

B. If you have found a problem that you believe to be a bug, it may already be resolved in a HOOPS/3dAF maintenance release. Active customers can obtain the latest maintenance release from the downloads section of the HOOPS Developer Zone. Before reporting a problem, you should consider the following questions:

  • Do any of the HOOPS Demonstration Programs experience the same results? If yes, which program and how is it used to demonstrate the issue?
  • Can you reproduce the problem using the HOOPS 3D Part Viewer, typically by exporting a HOOPS Metafile and reading it into the viewer?
  • Are special compiler/linker options being used?
  • Does the same result occur on multiple drivers (e.g. Windows GDI and OpenGL)
  • Does the same result occur on multiple platforms?
  • If you cannot reproduce the problem in the standard demos or the HoopsPartViewer, is a small test program ready for submission to Tech Soft Support?

Once these questions have been considered, please contact Technical Support. We will be prepared to work with you, and to gather other pertinent information that will help us resolve your issue.

Information required Via Email

If you choose to submit information via email instead of logging into the support system, you should use the following info template:

    A. SUBMITTER INFORMATION:
    NAME: <Your Name>
    ORGANIZATION: <Your Company or Institution>
    PROJECT: <Project within your Company - Optional>
    PHONE: <Your Phone Number>
    SUPPORT LEVEL: <Priority, Developer>

    B. PRODUCT INFORMATION:
    PRODUCT: <HOOPS/3dAF, Interop, PDF SDK, Parasolid>
    VERSION: <Your Product Version, Including Maintenance Release (e.g. 3.22)>
    PLATFORM/OS: <e.g. WinXP, Solaris 3.21>
    DEVICE DRIVER<e.g. X11, Windows GDI>

    C. QUESTION OVERVIEW, OR BUG PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
    <A one line description to be used as the title of the issue>
    (45 characters or fewer, please)

    D. DETAILED DESCRIPTION:
    <self-explanatory >

    E. TEST CASE:
    <If the issue is a problem or apparent bug, you should include a small testcase which demonstrates the problem. It has been our experience that the smaller the program, the quicker the resolution. Test programs and / or metafiles can be sent to Tech Soft using standard utilities such as GZIP or PKZIP. Please do not send self-extracting executables. The maximum allowed attachment size is 20MB.>

    F.  SAMPLE DATA:
    <An .hmf or .hsf file demonstrating the problem>

The template for this information may be cut and pasted from this document, or may be found in in the <hoops>/demo/common/test directory as a comment block within the program "bug.c"

1.3 Standard HOOPS/3dGS Test Programs

The HOOPS/3dAF installation contains a set of Reference Applications and a suite of stand-alone test programs that can be used to verify and isolate problems with the various components of HOOPS/3dAF.

When problems occur within applications using the HOOPS/3dAF C++ toolkits (such as HOOPS/MVO or HOOPS/MFC ) it is useful to write out a HOOPS Metafile from the application using HC_Write_Metafile() and then to load the metafile into one of the Reference Applications. These applications are precompiled on all platforms in the [installation]/bin directory and provide an easy preliminary check for ruling out usage errors or verifying bugs.

When problems occur--or are suspected to occur--within HOOPS/3dGS, the suite of stand-alone test programs in the [installation]/demo/common/standard directory often can provide useful tools for problem verification. In general, application problems with text, drivers, library confilcts, geometry, rendering, system settings, etc... can be checked against a single stand-alone program in less than a minute. The stand-alone test programs can be compiled easily using the supplied makefile.

In addition, the stand-alone programs can often be modified slightly to create test programs and these can be submitted with bug reports. This is perhaps the most efficient way of demonstrating bugs and problems to our Technical Support team.

2.0 Levels of Support

Tech Soft 3D has 2 different levels of support available, and organizes it's customer support services into two groups. The Technical Support group assists developers in optimal usage of TS3D products, distributes products and product information as well as manages bugs/problems and basic usage questions. The Consulting Engineering group provides developers with design assistance and training courses, evaluates feature requests and bugs, and assists the Technical Support Group in handling more complex issues.

2.1 Priority Support

This program provides maximum support to major commercial development efforts. By using our dedicated Consulting Engineering resources, training services, and Priority response for problem/bug resolution, software developers can best leverage TS3D as a virtual extension of their R&D groups. Priority customers have the advantage of direct input and influence into our ongoing product development process and future technology direction. They are also assigned a dedicated Consulting Engineer, and in certain cases may receive custom maintenance releases with special features and modifications. The support group strives to provide Priority Support customers with an initial response to Info Requests (questions) within 24 hours, and attempts to reproduce reported Problems within 48-hours. (This assumes that a small, reproducible testcase was provided with the Problem report.)

2.2 Developer Support

This program provides the base-level of support recommended for incorporating HOOPS technology into a new or existing application. Developer support includes direct e-mail and telephone access to our Technical Support group and special consideration during bug fixing periods. The support group strives to provide Developer Support customers with an initial response to Info Requests (questions) within 48 hours and, and attempts to reproduce reported Problems within 72-hours. (This assumes that a small, reproducible testcase was provided with the Problem report.)

In addition, all customers automatically receive major, minor, or maintenance releases of licensed Tech Soft products as soon as they are available.

3.0 Support Issue Tracking Process

After you have contacted customer support, you will receive e-mail notification that your information has been received. If needed, a member of the Technical Support group may contact you for clarification. Otherwise, for Priority and Developer customers, Technical Support will log an issue using your information.

As previously mentioned, your issue's ID will be included in the subject line of related emails, and be displayed in the following format: [#<issue_id>]. We encourage you to include the issue ID (and maintain it's formatting) in the subject of any further correspondence on the matter.

In the issue log, your correspondence will be documented and the issue will be assigned a type, a status, and an initial priority. Priorities reflect the urgency with which the issue is being addressed and is determined based on the severity of the issue and your level of support.

3.1 Issue Types

  • Problem - A problem has been encountered, and it is undetermined whether the problem lies within the customer's product or Tech Soft 3D products. Such issues should be submitted with detailed information which enables TS3D Support to reproduce the problem, such as full system information, sample data, a small reproducible standalone sample program, etc...
  • Feature Request - A formal request for new functionality within our product, or a problem which is only only addressed via such functionality.
  • Info Request - A request for information about product usage, distribution, licensing, etc.
  • Bug - The problem has been confirmed to be an error within our product. Note: a reported problem is not considered a Bug until the Tech Soft Support group has reproduced it.
  • Docs Bug - Documentation errata.
  • 3rd Party Bug - A verified bug which is not in a Tech Soft 3D component.

3.2 Issue Statuses

  • Open- All issues begin with this designation. If the issue is not resolved immediately (i.e., interactively over the phone or by an e-mail reply within one business day) the issue remains Open to indicate that Tech Soft 3D is still working on the issue.
  • Open - 3rd Party- we are waiting on a response from a 3rd Party component provider.
  • Customer - If we require more information/action on your part, a member of our Technical Support group will follow up with an e-mail or a phone call, and the status of your issue will be changed to "Customer" until you respond. Issues in "Customer" status for 30 days without a customer response will automatically be moved to 'Customer - On Hold'.
  • Customer - On Hold - Similar to 'Customer' status, but the Customer has indicated that they will not be able to provide requested information or a testcase in the near term. Issues automatically moved to this Status will be closed if the issue is not responded to within 15 days. Note, this automatic closure does not apply to issues where the customer has requested additional time to work on an issue.
  • Timed Out - This indicates that the issues has been in Customer status for 30 days and Customer - On Hold for 15 days and was automatically closed.
  • Testing - This status is given to a fixed bug which is awaiting customer verification. Generally, bug-fixes that do not have a very high confidence level are given this status, at the discretion of the TS3D support staff.
  • Work Around - A customer-confirmed workaround has been found for a problem that is not easily corrected. Such issues may be reviewed for formal correction in the future.
  • Complete - The issue has been resolved and no more work is required. In the case of a confirmed bug, it has been fixed. In the case of an info-request, the question has been answered.
  • Can't Verify - A reported problem cannot be reproduced by the Tech Soft 3D support staff, and all other measures have been exhausted (the customer cannot reproduce the problem outside their application, etc...) In such situations, the issue may warrant hands-on consulting depending on the customer's support level and severity of the issue.
  • Refused - This is used to indicate that an unreasonable feature request has been made ('I would like the next release of HOOPS/3dGS to run on my microwave oven's LCD display.') In the case of a reported bug, this means the described behavior has been determined to be correct.

3.3 Issue Priorities

  • P1 -- Blocker -- A verified Bug or reported Problem which significantly impedes development, or blocks shipping or testing. Such issues are given immediate attention by TS3D staff, and any resulting fix is delivered to the customer via a Hotfix release.
  • P2 -- Critical -- A verified Bug or reported Problem which involves a crash, loss of data, severe memory leak or severely incorrect rendering result. Such Bugs are corrected in the next regularly scheduled maintenance release, but can be reviewed for delivery in a Hotfix release.
  • P3 -- Moderate -- A nuisance Problem/Bug. Such Bugs are corrected on the next regularly scheduled release based on resource availability. The P3 priority is also the default level for all new Support Issues, and they can be upgraded/downgraded depending on the urgency/severity.
  • P4 -- Minor -- A Problem/Bug involving very minor loss of functionality or where an easy workaround is present. Bugs with this priority may be fixed during the release stabilization depending on available resources.
  • P5 -- Trivial -- A cosmetic problem or extremely low priority issue that is not considered for short-term resolution.

Before each major and minor release of a product, the Consulting Engineering group and development staff reviews the confirmed bugs and assign each issue a final priority. The final priority will determine which bugs are fixed for the upcoming release, with a minimum of all P1 and P2 bugs getting fixed.