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Developers of custom software and educational simulations.
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Recent News at Kurtz-Fernhout Software

May 24, 2002 -- New foundation. We have decided to formally create a non-profit and donate to it our previous software product development efforts for distribution as free software. More information can be found on our press release page.

February 12, 2002 -- PlantStudio 2.10 released. This version fixes a few small bugs people told us about. It also adds one small but very useful new feature: transverse sections like "colors" and "lengths" that make it much easier to change plants quickly. See the version changes page for more information.

September 2001 -- PlantStudio trademark. Our application to register PlantStudio as a trademark was approved by the US federal government Patent and Trademark Office.

July 8, 2001 -- Links page updated. We updated the links page because one of our PlantStudio users created a library of over 200 PlantStudio plants, available on his web site. Thanks!

June 24, 2001 -- New gallery and plant exchange items We've been busy with new contract work, but finally got a chance to update the gallery and plant exchange with some excellent contributions from PS users.

March 25, 2001 -- PlantStudio 2.01 released. A few hours after releasing PS2 a few valuable customers wrote to say it crashed with a page fault under Windows 98 and ME. Within 24 hours we replicated and fixed the bug, resulting in PlantStudio 2.01 (see the version changes page for more information).

March 24, 2001 -- PlantStudio 2.0 FINAL released. After months of development, testing and fine-tuning, the new version of PlantStudio is finally ready to go. Check it out on our download page. PS2 also marks a change in the registration price and a slightly more restrictive evaluation policy (see the version changes page for more information). We also add new favorite links and a page of link buttons for PlantStudio.

February 21, 2001 -- PlantStudio 2.0 beta 3 released. This beta release adds export to Wavefront OBJ, Lightwave LWO, and VRML, and improves 3DS and DXF output. Beta 3 is the last beta before the final release of PlantStudio 2.0.

September 11, 2000 -- PlantStudio 2.0 beta 1 released. Major improvements include better flowers, 3DS and JPG output, and posing of individual plant parts. The new version also includes many small improvements to the interface. We also announce a new pricing policy on the beta page. (Beta 2 followed soon after with a few more improvements.)

July 4, 2000 -- PS2 development begins. After a long hiatus, we finally started to work in earnest on PlantStudio version 2.0 this week. More details on the Versions FAQ page. The PS2 wish list is now closed; thanks to all voters.

January 16, 2000 -- New look for PlantStudio gallery. We updated the PlantStudio gallery with a new look so that each picture has its own page. Keep those gallery pics coming in!

January 16, 2000 -- PlantStudio Versions FAQ. We added a new Versions FAQ page to answer some of your questions about upcoming versions of PlantStudio.

October 27, 1999 -- PlantStudio Mini-tutorials. We added a new community feature to the PlantStudio area (at the suggestion of a PS user): mini-tutorials. PS users are invited to send in their tips and ideas!

October 24, 1999 -- New GWI page look. We spruced up the Garden with Insight main page and features page with some new screen shots and updated explanations.

September 19, 1999 -- PlantStudio 1.60 released. After four incremental beta releases, the new version of PlantStudio was released today with several new features including DXF import, tapered stems, and unfolding compound leaves.

August 16, 1999 -- Order service change. PsL, our order-taking service for PlantStudio and StoryHarp, merged with DigiBuy. The change went off smoothly and order service was unchanged.

Summer 1999 -- Slow summer. We've been pretty busy this summer with consulting, but we keep supporting our products and making small improvements when we can.

March 10, 1999 -- PlantStudio reviewed. Three on-line publications have published reviews of PlantStudio. The details are on our new reviews page.

March 5-17, 1999 -- www.kurtz-fernhout.com moves. After our previously rock-solid web hosting service started developing some major reliability problems, we moved to a new service. We lost some email during that time, so if you sent us an email during this time and have not heard from us, please send us the email again -- it may have been lost. We apologize for the inconvenience.

February 20, 1999 -- PlantStudio makes AOL Pick of the Week. PlantStudio was chosen by the America Online Graphic Arts Forum staff as the "Graphic Arts Forum Pick Of The Week".

February 13, 1999 -- PlantStudio 1.50 released. PlantStudio 1.50 fixes a major bug (see next item) that caused it to be unusable on a minority of computers, and adds POV-Ray output.

February 13, 1999 -- File reading bug finally fixed. With help from a few extremely valued users, we finally fixed a PlantStudio bug that had been plaguing us since its birth. Thanks so much for your help.

February 1, 1999 -- Downloads way up. We've lost all track of download counts at this point because there are enough cached copies and mirrored copies that we can't be sure. But the numbers are at least over 3000 for both PlantStudio and Garden with Insight.

January, 1999 -- New consulting contract. We've started a new contract for programming and web site work with a Fortune 500 company.

December 31, 1998 -- Report on downloads. Since we submitted both PlantStudio and Garden with Insight to download.com, download counts have risen to over 2400 (Garden with Insight) and over 1300 (PlantStudio). We haven't submitted StoryHarp yet because we hope to do some work on it soon (its download count is around 325). (Of course, these counts may be underestimates because copies may be cached by popular servers.)

December 31, 1998 -- We become an amazon.com associate. We've added reviews of a few of our favorite books on gardening, botany and soil science. If you purchase any of these books from amazon.com through our web site we'll receive a small commission (it's a great way to support our work).

December 13, 1998 -- PlantStudio 1.4 released. Version 1.4 of PlantStudio includes a major improvement to animation and nozzle output, a new note feature (in which you can save a multi-line note with each plant), and various small bug fixes and enhancements. See the change list for details.

December 3, 1998 -- PlantStudio 1.3 released. Version 1.3 of PlantStudio makes improvements to several areas related to drawing, sorting, pasting and loading files.

December 1, 1998 -- Garden with Insight 1.2 released. Version 1.2 of Garden with Insight, available for Windows 95/98/NT only, adds a few enhancements. It supercedes version 1.0 and the version 1.1 add-on patch.

For older news items, see our news archive.

Recent Press Releases

None at this time.

For older press releases, see our news archive.

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Updated: May 24, 2002. Questions/comments on site to webmaster@kurtz-fernhout.com.
Copyright © 1998-2002 Paul D. Fernhout & Cynthia F. Kurtz.