Piranesi in limbo

[Karl Ottenstein]

I just realized that nobody had posted here to let users know that Piranesi is sort of in limbo at the moment - no clear means of activating licenses or getting support since Informatix Japan essentially cut off its own foot by terminating its relationship with Informatix Software UK, which had provided all development and support for the product.

Informatix UK itself had some management and ownership shuffling over the past year or so which resulted originally in the loss of at least one long-term excellent employee; the latest action has resulted in all developers being terminated in mid-November. You can read more on the Piranesi forums, which so far are still active:

http://www.informatixsoftware.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/3-User-Forum

The various staff at Informatix UK were highly qualified, customer-centric and provided super support and development that was responsive to user needs. The future of the product seems very unclear to me, nearly a month after the announcement was made. The Japanese parent company appears to be clueless about how to maintain a customer base, not informing users of anything about how things will transition - particularly for license activations and end-user support, much less future development.

The Chairman of Informatix Japan issued the statement below.

November 26, 2010

Dear Sirs

In 2009 Informatix Inc, Japan (IFX) granted to Informatix Software International Limited (ISI) certain licenses and agreed certain commercial terms to enable ISI to develop, maintain and sell IFX's MicroGDS and Piranesi products outside of Japan. After ISI's failure to comply with certain of its obligations under the agreement over a matter of months and serious concerns about ISI's financial status and ability to pay its creditors, IFX decided that it had no alternative but to terminate the licences and agreement with effect from 11th October 2010, with the result that from that date ISI has had no capability to use any of IFX's Intellectual Property (copyright, trademarks and domain names) in respect of those products.

IFX are presently considering the best way for the loyal user base of MicroGDS and Piranesi to be supported and will be issuing a statement on this in due course. In the meantime and for the avoidance of doubt, neither ISI nor anyone on its behalf has the authority of IFX to develop, maintain or support the MicroGDS and Piranesi products and any statement by anyone to the contrary is not authorised by IFX.

If you have any questions or support issues please contact us at:

microgds@live.co.uk for MicroGDS issues.
piranesi@live.co.uk for Piranesi issues.

Yours faithfully
Masanori Nagashima
Chairman
Informatix Inc.

[Rakela Raul]

thx for the info, Karl

[Karl Ottenstein]

You're welcome, Raul.

Masanori wrote:
IFX decided that it had no alternative but to terminate the licences and agreement with effect from 11th October 2010, with the result that from that date ISI has had no capability to use any of IFX's Intellectual Property (copyright, trademarks and domain names) in respect of those products.

IFX are presently considering the best way for the loyal user base of MicroGDS and Piranesi to be supported and will be issuing a statement on this in due course.

Isn't it unbelievable to read the quote above, realizing that we are how a full 2 months after Informatix Japan pulled the plug (October 11), and they have still not communicated at all with the customer base?

At least those of us with a license can continue to use it ... but as far as I can tell, we have no means to deactivate on one computer and reactivate on another (or reactivate after a hard disk crash).

[MMontgomery]

Just read about this. Really disappointing.

Are there any updates as to whether it can be activated or not?

[Karl Ottenstein]

Thanks for asking - I forgot that I had made this post here.

There is new, good news about the future of Piranesi. An announcement dated January 12 has been posted on the Informatix UK web site here:
http://www.informatix.co.uk/

Apparently, legal issues prevented any earlier announcements, but Brian Woodward is being hired back to organize a new UK team and the Japanese parent is committed to at least two more years of product support. Great news to have Brian back.

They clearly still have issues with using or obtaining the customer database, as none of us received direct communication from Informatix, and just happened to hear this news via LinkedIn or other sources.

A separate web site, with the Informatix user forums, is still in operation:
http://www.informatixsoftware.com/forums/
and Brian is active there answering questions.

Cheers,
Karl

[Anonymous]

Now it is 2018. I still use Piranesi 6. But I use it in Sketchup 2015. I have not gotten any plugin to work on more recent Sketchup programs. Not even the theoretical plugin for 2016/2017.

Can you tell me what may be happening with the program, or a link to someone that knows more? Brian Woodward, for instance?

If there is no hope for Piranesi, is there an illustration program that would be comparable?

Thanks.

[Karl Ottenstein]

I haven't used Piranesi for years now, but just checked, and the domain for informatix listed in my 2011 message is now dead (for sale as of today).

But, the Japanese informatix site seems live-ish:
http://www.informatix.co.jp/piranesi/

It refers to a Piranesi 6.2 which is newer than the 6.0.3 (6 Pro) version shown on the apparently dead UK site:
http://www.piranesi.co.uk/updates.html

There is an email link on the UK site. See if anyone responds? Or do a translation of the Japanese site and see if anything there helps? I'd dig in, but as I said, haven't used the software in years. If you find anything useful, please post back here for any other people who may also be wondering. 😉