Is Factory I/O to be considered a dead product by now? I realize you are a very small company but the rate of improvements is basically zero?
I’m hoping I’m wrong?
Kind regards
Mats
Hi @karlssmg,
Thanks so much for reaching out and voicing your concerns. We understand your frustration with the pace of our updates.
Our team may be small and our resources might be stretched, but we’re fully committed to supporting and enhancing Factory I/O.
We’re not just keeping things running. We’re also diligently working on the big Factory I/O wishlist.
We’re excited about the development plans we have in store. Think of them as “big” updates in the making.
We’d love to hear more from you. Are there any specific features or improvements you’d like to see in Factory I/O? You can discuss them with the community and post them here.
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Thanks for the positive feedback!
It is an extremely useful tool and I am eagerly awaiting many of the things I and others have put in the wishlist. But on the other hand, seeing is believing.
Please let me know if I can assist in any way, as a tester or otherwise.
Good luck! 
Hola, soy nuevo en este sitio, espero poder contribuir lo que buenamente pueda con este simulador.
Un producto muerto…frustración…
Verán, yo pienso que los creadores de este simulador no son conscientes de lo que han creado, no son conscientes de todas las posibilidades que ofrece el simulador Factory IO, TAL COMO ESTA, obviamente no digamos si se mejoran algunas cosas, (que como todo en el mundo, todo es mejorable), no son conscientes de que la educación en los institutos de hoy, no es la educación de los institutos de antaño.
Lo único que ocurre es, que no han dado con la persona capaz de desarrollar lo que comento, la persona que se salga de lo común, y la persona que basándose en el funcionamiento de Factory IO, sea capaz de suplir los fallos del simulador con programación.
Por desgracia, estas personas escasean hoy por hoy, pero haberlas las hay.
Saludos.
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Hello @amjavi6
I kindly ask you to write your posts in English so others can understand, this is an international forum.
Hello Adriana Silva, I’m new to this site, I hope I can contribute what I can with this simulator.
A dead product…frustration…
You see, I think that the creators of this simulator are not aware of what they have created, they are not aware of all the possibilities that the Factory IO simulator offers, AS IT IS, obviously not to mention if some things are improved, (which like everything in the world, everything can be improved), they are not aware that the education in today’s institutes is not the education of the institutes of yesteryear.
The only thing that happens is that they have not found the person capable of developing what I mentioned, the person who is out of the ordinary, and the person who they based on the operation of Factory IO, is capable of making up for the failures of the simulator with programming.
Unfortunately, these people are scarce today, but there are some.
Greetings.
Today, just one year later, I reiterate what I wrote at that time, proven time and again. Considering that up to contribution 10 there is an average of six projects in each contribution, we’re talking about approximately 60 projects created. Plus, up to contribution 53, which has one, that would be 100 unique projects online, covering each and every one of the skills a programming student should have, to the utmost depth and to the highest degree.
Contribution number 7 deserves special mention.
Unfortunately generalizing, teachers are not prepared for this type of teaching. Despite having this type of tool that makes programming instruction much more enjoyable, they are not prepared because they do not understand today’s teaching, where any exercise proposed to a student will be searched for on the Internet, AI, blogs, YouTube, or any other existing platform. It is therefore easy to deduce that today’s teaching is not like yesterday’s, and we must adapt to the times.
I also think that it is impossible that at the same time, in the same class, with the same teacher and in the same institute and at the same hour, all 15 students are interested in the same thing, I do not think so, since each one is different and cannot be interested in the same thing, therefore, the teacher must have the ability to adapt to each one of them separately and be able to put the solution at their fingertips but without them being able to grasp it, that will motivate the student much more than if they are given a common exercise for all at the same time, also this type of teaching will motivate classmates who will want to “compete” with each other.
Obviously, it is useless to copy and paste, not even to compare, an excuse that many put to cover up, each person, just as their writing is unique in the world, their programming style is also unique, if a program is proposed to a class, all will work but there will be no two alike, which indicates that each one is unique programming and if you do not learn to master your own styles by adapting to those of others, you will never learn, this does not mean that you do not look for code, techniques or programs from others on the network to adapt them to our style, on the contrary, it is called challenge-based learning, CBL, and those codes that we see on the network made by others, we must adapt them to our style, mainly to understand and understand what we are doing from 0, otherwise, we will never be able to think for ourselves, therefore, the day that a case is presented to us we will not know how to solve it.
That said, at this point, I’ll also mention that, in my case, I’ve pushed this FACTORY IO simulator beyond the limits for which it was designed. However, that doesn’t mean it’s obsolete. This simulator will never be obsolete as long as each and every user doesn’t complete all the projects I share on this forum. There may be simulators that allow you to do more and larger things, but they’ll be useless if you don’t know how to program a simple, basic project like the ones presented on this forum. Let’s use a similarity:
Let’s look at Paint and AutoCAD. It doesn’t make sense to download and use AutoCAD if you don’t know how to use Paint. It’s logical. Paint is equivalent to TIA Portal (Siemens), CX Programmer (Omron), and SoMachine Expert (Schneider), and they are designed so that any user can program. AutoCAD, on the other hand, is equivalent to Python, C#, VB, and Java, and is designed to program much more effectively and powerfully, and not within the reach of everyone. This requires a more serious approach and adaptation to much more complex codes, as it doesn’t have the assistant that Paint does. Therefore, if we don’t master Factory IO, I see it as a waste of time to turn to other simulators capable of doing more things if our students have “feet of clay.”
Here’s some advice for students:
I’m self-taught. I never went to college. I learned on my own by watching tutorials online. Everything I’ve learned has been through my own means, analyzing what others do and adapting it to my own style. This way, any code from any program in my library can be adapted to any program in my library.
I hope my reflection on the quote, along with the demonstration of what it says, clarifies some things about learning today.
Best regards.
Well… If it is not a dead product? It sure seems truly and completely stalled in its development. Too bad!
Hello karlssmg:
I don’t think anything has stagnated; in fact, it will take a while to stagnate, and I’ll tell you why:
Do you know the amount of knowledge in my projects? If you’re able to do all the projects I’ve presented, FACTORY IO has stagnated for you and me. In fact, I can’t get any more performance out of this simulator; I’ve pushed it to the limit.
It will be obsolete when all the students do all my projects; at that point, it will be stagnant and obsolete. But if that doesn’t happen, it won’t be obsolete or stagnant.
For me, it’s a shame that students don’t graduate with a moderate level of programming skills using current resources, including, of course, FACTORY IO, which is the best way to learn programming as it is.
This is my opinion; there will be more, but this is mine.
Best regards.
I agree completely! Nothing wrong with your projects at all. But the product? No interesting features added for years now…
Hello karlssmg, I’ll try to explain myself better…
A basic calculator has addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and percentage functions.
A scientific calculator has, in addition to the basics described, fractions, powers, and natural logarithms.
That said, a student starting in first grade who knows nothing about math must learn the basics: addition, subtraction, etc. Therefore, a basic calculator will be sufficient until they learn the basics, and it won’t become obsolete until they learn the basics.
Once the student has learned the basics, that is, they already know how to add, subtract, etc., then and only then will they need a scientific calculator. This means that it is NOT necessary to add more functions to the basic calculator until the student is proficient in basic operations.
Now, the problem is that students, generally speaking, when they finish university and obtain their certificate, don’t know how to add, subtract, etc., meaning they don’t know the basics. That’s why they need a basic calculator until they master the basics. And if they don’t know how to do the projects I show them, it’s foolish to add more things and features to the simulator if they won’t understand them. That’s why FACTORY IO is too much of a simulator and is too much for the vast majority of students, just as a basic calculator is too much for all elementary school students until they reach higher education.
I think I’ve explained myself better this time.
However, and due to the interest generated in this topic, I would like you to show me a project of yours that you’ve done with Factory IO, and that way we can be more specific about whether you need more features or not.
Regards.
Again! I fully agree! My disappointment comes from the lack of progress related to the contents of forum topic “the big Factory I/O wishlist”.
Hello again karlssmg:
I’ll show you with an example, watch this video, I just uploaded it, it took me 45 minutes to do what you see in the video, watch the video;
That project doesn’t contain any sensors or detectors, so I’m already missing things that Factory IO does have. That is, if Factory IO didn’t have any sensors or detectors, it would work for me for programming.
Now, you see, take the most powerful simulator in the entire world, the most complete one, the one that has many more features than Factory IO, and do what you see in the video. If you can do it with the most powerful simulator you can find, I must tell you, both simulators are on the same level.
I can say that Factory IO is obsolete and outdated, I can say that, can you say the same? Could you show me a project of yours here so I know your level? If so, you can also say the same, and so on until all students can do what you see in the video in 45 minutes, then Factory IO will have to be forgotten, but in the meantime for me it is the best of the best there is on the net to learn to program.
Of course, when I’m finished, I’ll share the scene with you, to make it easier for all users of this site to learn programming. To do this, you should use Factory IO as is, nothing more. One of the advantages of this simulator is its ease of creating any scenario that any beginner can think of without too many options, which makes the work quite easier (Paint), meaning it has no submenus, no login screens, no hidden settings, or anything like that (AutoCAD).
That’s my opinion, although there may be others.
Best regards.
And again I fully agree. And you do not seem to agree with my point which is fine. Have a good day.
Hello again karlssmg:
It doesn’t seem like it. I’m not, in fact. I will be when I’m proven right. For now, I still think the simulator doesn’t need more features, that it’s not a dead product, much less obsolete.
Regards.
Hi everyone,
Thanks for all the thoughtful discussion and continued interest in Factory I/O!
As mentioned before, we are actively developing Factory I/O. We’re working on a complete rework of the product. Over the past five years (yes, it’s been a long time), we’ve been deeply involved in R&D to gain the necessary know-how to add the features and improvements the community has requested.
In that time, the landscape of real-time development platforms has shifted significantly, and we’ve decided to move away from Unity. This prompted us to rebuild Factory I/O from the ground up, leveraging everything we’ve learned and all the feedback we’ve received over the years.
The main goal is to implement many of the most requested features, along with some original ideas of our own, while maintaining the practical and straightforward approach that has always made Factory I/O an excellent tool.
While we’re still a small team, we’ve grown and continue fully focused on this effort. The new version won’t include every suggestion mentioned here, but we have some very innovative and exciting things in the works.
We’ll share more as soon as we have something we can show publicly. The most accurate update we can give right now is that it’s a matter of months, not years 
Keep up the fantastic work. It’s truly inspiring seeing how far you’ve taken Factory I/O!
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