brentonchad

I am currenlty looking into investing in some equipment(heat press/vinyl cutter) and starting a home based business. I have been looking at pricing and packages offered by many of the vendors and have narrowed this down to two. The difference in the package is the direct drive studio and pricing is about $400 dollars difference also.

My question is exactly what does this software give you and is the $400 dollar price worth the benefits? Are the templates worth using? In short is this software something you use and will definitely be worth paying $400. My goal is to sell to local schools and sports leagues. I plan on marketing uniforms, custom shirts, custom window stickers, etc. (Being a parent of four it's amazing what you will pay for just to have your kids name on your car!! LOL At the very least I can save me some money since I am as bad as the next parent when it comes to saying no!!)



Chad

 

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Rodney

Quote: Originally Posted by brentonchad I am currenlty looking into investing in some equipment(heat press/vinyl cutter) and starting a home based business. I have been looking at pricing and packages offered by many of the vendors and have narrowed this down to two. The difference in the package is the direct drive studio and pricing is about $400 dollars difference also. My question is exactly what does this software give you and is the $400 dollar price worth the benefits? Are the templates worth using? In short is this software something you use and will definitely be worth paying $400. My goal is to sell to local schools and sports leagues. I plan on marketing uniforms, custom shirts, custom window stickers, etc. (Being a parent of four it's amazing what you will pay for just to have your kids name on your car!! LOL At the very least I can save me some money since I am as bad as the next parent when it comes to saying no!!) Chad

The directdrive studio software makes it easier for you to do numbering, lettering, logos, text effects, etc.

It comes with a lot of templates and if you aren't super familiar with your grahpics design software, directdrive can make a lot of tasks simpler. It also comes with a lot of clipart and tail graphics that can help with designing t-shirts for schools, etc.

There may be other differences other than the $400 between the packages.

If you are comparing 2 vendors pricing, one price may include lots of after sales support, while another may not have the same type of support structure needed for a new person entering the industry.

There's a bit more to consider when comparing pricing than just equipment and software

Be sure to check our Preferred Vendors page and read the special offer links that many vendors are extending exclusively to t-shirt forum members.

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brentonchad

Rodney,

Thanks for the reply. Actually both vendors are from the list of preferred Vendors and I 100% agree with you on the fact concerning service and support. This is especially important to me being that this is something new and I will be learning on the way.

I have researched the board and both companies have received nothing but praise. One is physically closer than the other (which means it's a shorter drive to ring a neck if I need to) but otherwise from what I have read from the other members on the board they are both very reputable companies.

That is why I am a little stuck on which way to go and the only difference in parts and pieces is the Direct Drive Studio.

I am hoping to hear if someone has used this and can say "It's the only way to go" or "I have it but never use it becuase I think xxx does more what I need it to do"

 

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gareyd

I bought Direct Drive for my daughter and grandson to be able to do their own designs without having to know any graphic software....

I installed the software several times and got newest upgrades from the vendor I purchased from and never got it to be stable on my computer, constantly crashed the system....

Was told by the salesman at the vendors that he would have the software developer contact me and try to resolve the problems I was having...waited 6 weeks for the developer to call, never happened...

Several calls to the salesman at the vendor about not getting any help finally resulted in not getting my calls returned after being forced to leave a voice mail (always got him personally when I was spending $5,000 on my equipment).

Finally got hold of another salesman at the vendors and got a RMA number and returned the software for a credit....

What I got to see of the software it was pretty cheesy...however if you are graphics software illiterate and you can get it to run stable on your system, I can see where it could have some advantages.

Y.M.M.V.
GareyD

 

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SQL

I have direct drive installed with Corel and have yet to use it. Its not because I think it's bad, its just that the templates are never something that folks seem to want. I work with schools and sports teams too and every time I recommend one of the templates, they have different ideas.

Just a thought from my perspective

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John S

I have it. It was included in part of a larger package.

I would not buy it for $400. You will out grow it very quickly. It seemed to have bugs in it. The fonts that came with it are useful, but you can find similar fonts on the web. I wasn't impressed with the design layouts.

You will get a better return on your money investing in good clip art and learning how to crank out the designs in your vector program of choice.

 

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