Our products contain a lot of API classes, samples and documentation. This can make it quite a challenge to find the information you need for a specific task. After trying out a few things without success, you may decide to contact our support desk.
Access to our product support desk is a service included in your Product Maintenance agreement or in your Subscription. |
At Hexagon, we try to be as responsive and helpful as possible on the support desk. However, before we can provide a good answer to a how-to question, we need to understand:
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The use case you are trying to solve.
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Where exactly you encountered problems while you were implementing your solution.
If you provide all that information in your initial support message, we can immediately start helping you along, without having to ask you for more context first.
The ideal how-to question contains
A high-level description of your use case
We can provide the best support if we understand the use case you are trying to solve. Even if you have a question about something simple, such as the usage of a particular class, we would like more information about the context in which you are using the class:
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You may believe that the class is the best solution to your problem, so you want to find out more about that class. However, if you also tell us about the problem you are trying to solve, we may come up with a different, more effective solution than the class you are asking us about.
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We might offer more appropriate classes to fulfill your use case, and can point you towards them.
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You might have a use case that is useful to add to our (future) API. The use cases of our customers provide essential information for the design of our APIs.
A clear description of the actual problem and the desired output
Once we know the general use case, we need to know what part of that use case is giving you trouble:
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Provide details on the available input data or parameters
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Provide details about the desired output or behavior
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Try to be as specific as possible: if you need assistance with the use of a certain class or method, for example, use the exact class name and method name.
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Provide an overview of the things you already tried. If you already tried and discarded certain approaches, let us know about them as well. Tell us why they did not work out for you, so that we don’t suggest exactly the same solutions to you. Illustrate with code snippets if you think that they will clarify things.
Before you send your support ticket, consider that our support engineers have no knowledge of your application. To understand what you are trying to achieve, and for which part you require assistance, they need as much context information as possible. |
Product and version information
Specify the product name and version number, LuciadRIA 2021.1.04 for example.
Rendering technology: view type or map type
Some products have multiple view types, each with distinct API and capabilities, so it helps us if you specify the view type you are working with. For example, you can specify that you are working in a GXY view or a Lightspeed view in LuciadLightspeed. For LuciadRIA, specify your map type: Canvas map or WebGLMap.
Where you looked in the documentation
Our products contain a lot of documentation and we are constantly evaluating whether we need to improve and/or expand it. If we think that your question is sufficiently general for other customers to benefit from it, we will update our documentation and document the use case. To determine in what way we can improve the documentation, we would like to know where you looked for answers to your question. This knowledge allows us to:
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Plug possible documentation gaps at that particular location.
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Add cross-references from that location to other locations that document your use case.
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Clarify the existing documentation.
General support ticket guidelines
Create a ticket for each unrelated question
If you have multiple unrelated questions, or multiple questions on distinct topics, open a ticket for each question. All support desk agents have a specific area of expertise. As such, each of your questions may be handled by a different support engineer. Separate tickets for unrelated topics make ticket assignment much easier.
Create a new ticket for a new question
If a new question occurs to you while you are working on a ticket, open a new ticket instead of adding the question to the current ticket. All support desk agents have a specific area of expertise. As such, each of your questions may be handled by a distinct support engineer. Separate tickets for unrelated topics make ticket assignment much easier.
Refer to related tickets by their number
Each of your tickets may be handled by a distinct support agent. The agent working on your current ticket may have no knowledge of any of your other tickets. Therefore, if you want to mention another ticket, refer to it by its ticket number. This allows all support desk agents to retrieve it and familiarize themselves with it.