It gets weird where I am

Assalammu'alaikum family, friends, readers and followers of this blog. It is indeed weird where I am.

Many question my interest in digitizing and creating. Pricing here locally can never get close to as cheap as what the US counterparts can offer. I mean look at fiverr. They charge us$5, and they are all awesome people, most of those who I really really love working with uses Wilcom.

Here where I am, everyone complains and says Wilcom is expensive, and not user friendly, and this and that. I just cant get by that. True, I don't have Wilcom, yet. But, I have the Hatch, albeit it being only the customizer, but I have tried the Digitizer via the trial version and it has been nothing but awesome. I am not paid to say all these by the way. It is truly and honestly my opinion and experience.

Maybe it is because I am a CAD designer working on AutoCAD, Revit and Microstation a lot that when I try Hatch, it is a familiar workstation, and the way it works are just the same, click click click, right click, left click, shortcut keys. They are familiar names and use to me. I work well like that.

I guess truthfully, it boils down to the cost. I won't deny, it is expensive. It is also pretty much like comparing the Paint with Abode Photoshop. How could anyone possibly compare them two?

And look, it is not cheap to produce drawings on CAD either, locally, freelance drafters charges something like $20-30 a drawing with max 2 revisions, subsequent revisions goes to like $10/change or smtg. Company sells their drawings with their endorsement and all for like $100/drawing or more. And not everyone buys, some take our PDFs and recreate instead. Making it seems cheaper that way, but really, when you put the hours and what not behind, it is just the same as signing the cheque. The softwares? Now, with subscription we are paying over $2500/yr, like over $200/mth. It is not cheap. Then people say oh the lifetime software is cheaper, why not just that? Well because the technology world is changing far faster than we can download. I have a 2015 on my pc, and before i knew it, my architects are using a 2017 version already. And guess what? There is a 2018 version waiting to be downloaded now. And would you keep buying new versions as they come out like that or would you pay monthly fee to get access to any versions you need? I rather the latter. Thank you.

So, back to digitizing in here, Singapore. Many said "Why must you work so hard to digitize something so simple? Just search for it and buy it off someone" Well ya, we can, we all can do that. But it is a different satisfaction when you do it yourself from scratch, and it is a form of zoning yourself out of the usual stresses. Maybe until you get to a point where it frustrates you too much because the software grew brains and decides to be smarter than us. Maybe.

So yes, I have been purchasing when I first started. I even said it "So many designs already availble, I wont need to digitize anything!" Well, I was wrong. No matter how many are available, it is always special to make it more unique and screams you more than anyone else.

Oh speaking of technology I am on the subscription version for Microsoft Office too. It is like $148/yr, but like I said, I get all the latest version and download it whenever I need onto 1pc, 1 tablet and my phone. I say why not? If $100 sounded too much, go for monthly payment, $14.80/mth. kindda sound ok right?

Now back to digitizing, see how messed up my head can get, now? Yeah. it is all over the place. So ya, digitizing. With the software so expensive for us here, we cant charge $10 to digitize anything. For our time worth and the softwares good stuff to come on, we need to charge at least $30 before we can switch on our laptop and launch that software. Now who pays that much when they can get on fiverr for a third of that price? Ya, sad. I know!

I still want my Hatch Digitzer though. It is for myself, yes? And if I become good, maybe I will take much lesser time and effort and maybe by then I can afford to charge like how fiverr does. Who knows? Just keep upgrading myself, I say. Noone can take the knowledge and experience I have been through. Noone can take that away from me. So what is there to lose? Just keep learning, I say. Keep learning. We will all get there. Don't give up...

Until I get more things out of my head,
Jun

Wassalam