Hello,
Curious if the latest version of Spine supports the ability to simply update/upgrade from Trial to Pro so that I can save my project file. I saw in the forum back in 2020 someone requested this and it wasn't supported at the time, so I am hoping this has been implemented 5 years later.
Save/Export file from Trial version to Pro version?
The trial version of Spine does not support saving or exporting project files. This limitation is intentional, as the trial is meant for exploring the software rather than for production work. To save your work, you would need to recreate your project in either the Spine Essential or Professional version after purchasing a license.
Spine team,
This is a major pain point in the user experience. Most software contains the ability to activate various features that are not enabled in the Trial version once the customer purchases the full version, making a seamless transition that does not negatively impact workflow.
I am a bit surprised that you have overlooked something that has been repeatedly requested for years; I've seen posts in the forum dating back to 2013 asking if this is possible.
Think about it - you have someone test driving your application, going through all the steps of creating meshes, adding bones, adding weights, creating an animation and they decide they would like to move forward with purchasing your software. Common sense dictates that they would love to be able to SAVE the work they invested in during the test drive.
Please integrate the ability to simply be able to save work once a person has gone from Trial to a purchased copy.
I agree it is unfortunate to lose work done in the trial and especially that it makes for an unpleasant first impression after deciding to purchase the software. Being able to keep work done in the trial would indeed encourage purchasing. We'd like to do it, but there are some challenges in allowing the trial to save. I just posted in a similar, but not quite the same, discussion on this topic:
https://esotericsoftware.com/forum/d/28821-i-just-want-to-learn-the-program-to-be-able-to-apply-for-jobs