TriDiWorx
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Posts posted by TriDiWorx
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1 hour ago, TriDiWorx said:
At the current state of Premiere this yearly price is not worth it. At this price new users are probably much better off with Revit or ArchiCAD. The only reason I went with Chief is because it feeled simpler to learn and cheaper. Now it is almost not the case. The benefits of industry leading software outweigh 700 extra bucks. The problem is not only in the price, but we have to consider the time it takes to learn software and get good with it and future prospects. So at similar price point I feel other software future prospects are better for new users.
I have been with Chief about 2 years. And in this time used x12, x13 and x14 (trial, rent, buy). I don't remember any actually worth while updates in this time. This is the reason I decided to stop paying for SSA until Chief starts to fix, add and update functionality that is so much needed in this kind of software. Until now the version updates were rather small and for me personally almost useless. But the model where you own the version you have and have the option to upgrade if some good update came was worth for me not going for Revit or ArchiCAD etc.
This tactic seems strongarming everyone to pay SSA or risk with the need to opt for 2k a year in the future if the need arises. I wonder if more revenue will be used to actually get better development. And I am quite sure that this SSA system will be changed in the future and older users will be strongarmed again to actually go to a subscription based model. Hopefully by then the software will have something more to offer for that price than it does right now.
Now I am left with options either buy SSA again and never stop paying, use x14 and hope that it is enough (which probably at some point is not) or look to other similarly priced software and waist another year just to get comfortable with new program.
I would understand raising prices for SSA and licence. Doing some better quality updates and maybe at some point when Chief can actually compete with other software go for more price increases. But this and right now I do not like at all.
I will add a couple of more of my thoughts.
I do understand that software development is not easy, cheap or fast. Everyone needs to be paid for their efforts. More money should mean better development. Subscription model gives that to a company and it is a stable income. But you do have to give to users something for that devotion. Especially to old users who bought Chief under different conditions and now are forced to think about trusting you or just bite the bullet and go start learning some other software. For me the decision is not clear yet. I have not seen any good updates, my experience with tech support was so and so and now this huge change in conditions and pricing model. And I cannot believe that this continuation of cheaper SSA for old users will last very long.
I have used full Revit and Revit LT for a bit. I have seen how insanely powerful full Revit is and how much better collaboration with it is. Also Autodesk has whole huge ecosystem built and you get some of that functionality with subscription. For example a LOT better 3D model sharing than Chief has...A LOT better. There is huge amount of free Revit resources for family objects, tutorials, guides, forums, cheap or free online courses. Chief has community forum which is great, but Revit has still a lot more going for it. Considering that Revit is one of those alternatives for Chief and is priced at 2.7k then I cannot see the reasoning behind asking 2k a year for Chief. At least not right now. If I would be a new user and looking for a program I would never choose Chief at this price. I might not be the best judge on software business, but I just don't see this change getting more users or more revenue. Mostly I kind of see this as strongarming older users to keep up their SSA all the time, even if there is not much benefit from it every year for them.
The only three reasons I picked Chief 2 years back was cheaper price, easier to learn, ownership and SSA model. Don't get me wrong Chief is quite a nice software with heavy emphasis on interior design. I do not hate it at current price point. It is a good software. But it is not good at 2k comparing with alternatives. As I have used only Revit then it is the only thing I have to compare with and Chief does not come even close to it. You really do have to give something in return for that money and out of the blue pricing model change.
It makes me think about two options. Trust Chief and stick with it or just start learning something new. I will definitely start playing around with Revit and Revit LT trials to see if I should go back. Quite disappointing decision form Chief.
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At the current state of Premiere this yearly price is not worth it. At this price new users are probably much better off with Revit or ArchiCAD. The only reason I went with Chief is because it feeled simpler to learn and cheaper. Now it is almost not the case. The benefits of industry leading software outweigh 700 extra bucks. The problem is not only in the price, but we have to consider the time it takes to learn software and get good with it and future prospects. So at similar price point I feel other software future prospects are better for new users.
I have been with Chief about 2 years. And in this time used x12, x13 and x14 (trial, rent, buy). I don't remember any actually worth while updates in this time. This is the reason I decided to stop paying for SSA until Chief starts to fix, add and update functionality that is so much needed in this kind of software. Until now the version updates were rather small and for me personally almost useless. But the model where you own the version you have and have the option to upgrade if some good update came was worth for me not going for Revit or ArchiCAD etc.
This tactic seems strongarming everyone to pay SSA or risk with the need to opt for 2k a year in the future if the need arises. I wonder if more revenue will be used to actually get better development. And I am quite sure that this SSA system will be changed in the future and older users will be strongarmed again to actually go to a subscription based model. Hopefully by then the software will have something more to offer for that price than it does right now.
Now I am left with options either buy SSA again and never stop paying, use x14 and hope that it is enough (which probably at some point is not) or look to other similarly priced software and waist another year just to get comfortable with new program.
I would understand raising prices for SSA and licence. Doing some better quality updates and maybe at some point when Chief can actually compete with other software go for more price increases. But this and right now I do not like at all.
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13 hours ago, Kbird1 said:
No, it's not a Dormer as you mentioned I believe, just the second Story Wall inset say 400-600mm from the Wall below, with a "notch" cut in the lower Roof Plane to expose it. Mansard roofs are always a bunch of Manual Work in CA but do-able ( start Auto and then move the two planes as needed ) especially this one which seemed easier than one with true Dormers, which CA tends to have Issues with joining the Interior Walls in my experience, but here the Walls are not Cut but bumped against the Roof Framing.
Mick.
Ok. Thanks. This seems what I need. I have not played with mansards in CA yet. And definitely not with this kind of roof cut-out.
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Hello,
How would one go about doing this part on the picture?
Can I make a cut out from the roof plane and show a wall with siding in it?
I do not have a plan yet started for this project, but I need to recreate this house in Chief and make drawings.
Started thinking about it and cannot imagine how to show this wall through a roof plane. It is not exactly a dormer. The two most vertical sides of the roof are also at a small degree. One side of the house is like on the picture and on the other side there are windows inside the metal sheeted roof without this wooden siding cut out.
Any tools that can make this or suggestions?
Is it easily doable in a model or it is faster to just draw this wall part with windows in 2D? I don't actually need the whole model just 2D drawings.
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On 11/8/2022 at 7:57 PM, imodel said:
I do these frequently. In section I draw in polysolids for ceiling and fascia elements. I draw one side and then mirror. I don't model roof framing so this cheat is just to minimize time spent to get the needed geometry. No arm wrestling the program or head scratching required.
Where in the world are you building Homes in Milimeters? I am used to using mm when I design for 3D printing stuff. Is the only way to go for small stuff.
I am actually inclined to use your suggestion as I do not need to do framing here. I have been using 3D solids to cover up messes all along. Chief Premier kind of has a lot of tools that seem pretty and convenient on videos, but in reality, in a lot of situations I cannot get them to work as I need or there are not enough options to customize properly. 3D solid tool seems to be one of the most useful tools. You can model things with it and to cover up things that Chief messes up or are too time consuming to fix in a model.
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On 11/7/2022 at 2:27 PM, Renerabbitt said:
Would set your gable fascia to be much taller than your eave fascia just like the pic. Then throw in a flat ceiling plane at eaves and pitched ceiling plane in between. Youd have to manually build the framing if that needs to be shown
On 11/8/2022 at 7:57 PM, imodel said:I do these frequently. In section I draw in polysolids for ceiling and fascia elements. I draw one side and then mirror. I don't model roof framing so this cheat is just to minimize time spent to get the needed geometry. No arm wrestling the program or head scratching required.
Where in the world are you building Homes in Milimeters? I am used to using mm when I design for 3D printing stuff. Is the only way to go for small stuff.
Thanks, for the replies. I hoped that Chief is able to do these with dedicated roof tools. But I will try your suggestions then.
I am in Estonia. We use only metric units here and all construction stuff is mostly in mm. I mean drawings, models and documentation is in mm, but of course in reality you don't build so precisely that it is on point with the exact dimension. Even factory-made building parts or materials have its own tolerances. But yeah, the consensus here is that drawings and dimensions are mostly in mm.
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Hello,
I attached a picture that explains what it has to look like and a plan file that I started.
Can anyone help me get the result as it is on the picture. How do you create an open roof over a deck like this?
I tried using invisible walls and building roof automatically. And then tried to draw manual roof.
I cannot get these two roofs to connect properly. Especially at eaves. It just creates a broken mess.
Beams and columns and materials are not a problem. I just need to make a similarly shaped roof to work with.
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On 10/6/2022 at 7:35 PM, DBCooper said:
I don't know if those blue lines actually mean anything. They could just be showing you the outline of what you have selected and it might look strange because you are at a strange angle in a perspective view. The shadow line is more of a potential issue because this might indicate that the surfaces are not aligned. What does this look like in a vector view? Vector views are a much better way of telling when you have problems with the model. Whenever I see missing lines or extra lines in a vector view I can tell that I have a modeling problem.
Regardless, if you want anything more than random thoughts and guesses, you should probably post the plan.
Hi,
Sharing a link to onedrive with a plan: https://projektmaja-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/info_projektmaja_ee/EaMGxsM5oTVCrG5hN4SbCacBcHx7hUVKT2MbPdM24X5waw?e=E3z9wF
This colliding soffit is still visible just a bit behind quoins that I started to add. Would be good to know why this is happening so I can fix if I have similar situation next time.
If I pull roof plane a bit away from stucco, then it does not link with the wall.
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On 10/2/2022 at 6:38 PM, DRAWZILLA said:
the roof plane cannot go past the outside of the stucco or problems will happen, so just pull the roof plane back to the outside of the stucco
Hey,
Thanks. The roof plane is actually right beside the outside of the stucco. The only thing that seems to help is if I make a 20 mm gap between stucco and closest roof plane line. If I move it closer than 20 mm, then soffit for some reason becomes linked automatically with the wall and rams into it.
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Hi,
Can anyone tell from the picture what might be happening here? Why soffit wants to ram into my wall? Cannot edit this line.
These weird collisions between roofs, walls, railings, room dividers and attic walls are sometimes such a headache to understand what Chief is trying to do and how to fix it.
I am running premier x14 latest update.
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18 hours ago, DBCooper said:
It seems like the program will already put the deck structural elements on the floor below. Not sure why you would need to use cad or reference display.
Oops. It really does. I had just deck layers turned off. I thought I had them on in my template and did not check.
Then the only thing that does not work for me this way are 3D solid objects.I mostly do not use deck tools so overlooked this. It shows up for me too. Just needed to turn on layers.
Thanks!
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47 minutes ago, robdyck said:
My bad, I assumed you weren't aware of the available methods. There really is no true function to allow a floor by floor display of certain objects. That might make a great suggestion though!
FWIW, I draw all the structural components for a deck / balcony manually. So I'm already placing them on the correct level. I don't use Chief's auto tools for deck framing / structure.
I have saved objects in my library that have the correct notes applied to the label tab and I'd rather place everything correctly myself than edit what Chief builds.
As or chimneys, etc, I do what you do, manually place cad objects and yup, gotta remember them all if something moves, but it's usually quicker than setting up and managing a ref. display.
Thank you. It is actually a good idea. If I get the time I might save some objects to library myself. I don't really like Chiefs decking and railing tools anyway. They just break stuff or are not flexible enough. This time it was an easy deck so I chose built in tools for speed. And on that note stair tools could be also a bit less forceful. Sometimes I need to make a stair that is not "best fit" or most comfortable build/angle.
I do all low decks that are on the ground with 3D solid (when I don't need framing details). Just place a chunk on the ground. Shape it how I need and apply deck texture on it. Not amazing, but is easy, fast and does not collide with anything.
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52 minutes ago, robdyck said:
That doesn't really make sense. They are stairs.
If you'd like them to display as dashed lines on a different plan view in Layout, there are multiple methods to accomplish that. You can copy and crop a layout box in layout, and set it to use a different view if you'd like.
Also, you can use Reference Displays to show as much or as little as you'd like. This can be more work to setup but is handy if it is something you'll need often.
Open 'Help' and search 'Reference Display'.
The sentence you quoted is about balcony not stairs. Stairs are mostly not an issue. If I do auto stairwell or manual open below room then it shows properly on all needed floor plans.
When I have this balcony like on the picture. If I do floor plans then on first floor I need to show posts and main beams, on second floor I show an actual balcony/deck and on foundation plan I show foundation columns. Same structure just different level. Different elements of structure need to be shown on different levels. But Chief only shows those things on a single story where it was placed. And yes I know about reference display and CAD drawing. Basically this is what I was doing all along. It is just not very good. It would be much better if Chief would be able to cut through those objects in a plan view on a specific height and show it on all levels. Floor plan is after all a horizontal section of a building.
Another example is when I do a chimney with 3D solid. It goes through all levels to the roof. But I see it only on the level I placed it. Would be great if I changed the location of chimney it could change on all levels. If I redraw chimney on other levels with CAD lines then I have to remember to move CAD lines also. So it is half way like drafting in AutoCAD for example.
And by levels and stories I mean "floors/floor plans".
But thank you for the info. I guess I will just be using CAD drawing and reference display as I was doing.
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59 minutes ago, rlackore said:
Solution to question 1: Open the Stair Specification dialog box. Under the General tab, uncheck Automatic Heights, check Top Tread, Lock Bottom, and paste the deck room floor height value into the upper stair section's Top Height box.
Thank you. This works.
Was doing all sort of other things to stairs, but apparently not that.
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Hey,
Have two questions.
1. On picture red arrows. Is there a way to make Chief to do stairs where beams connect at a proper height. Right now every stair I do seems to attach to second floor or landing just below it. If you think in reality you cannot connect those beams. It is in the air and looks weird/unreal. There should be one more tread at the top, but if I make this additional tread it just changes angle and hangs the stair back in the air. Basically you cannot actually build this stair.
2. I modelled my balcony and stairs on the second floor. Can I display them on second floor as balcony and on first floor as post and beams? Or I just have to redraw those details on first floor with CAD objects to be able to see them there? This is one thing that I do not like in Chief that it shows objects only on floors where it was drawn. Even if the object goes through all floors. Like chimneys. Or is there a fix for that? Right now I have been using cad lines on objects. Then copying them, going to another floor and pasting them in place.
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22 hours ago, robdyck said:
It is mainly caused by using the 'Clip Elevation' function. If you change 3 things the elevation view will open and operate much quicker
- uncheck "Clip Elevation" (use a cad mask to cover the floor slab)
- uncheck "Clip Sides"
- turn off layer 'Terrain Perimeter' (use a cad line to represent grade if needed).
As for the elevation view losing focus, that is bug (or use some other term) in X14 that seems to get passed over in the frequent updates. One regularly needs to click the 'Fill Window' tool after opening an elevation or section view to a blank screen. I don't know why Chief doesn't remember the position of the camera / view and apparently neither do the program developers.
Nice!
Thank you. This helps a lot. Views are much faster. I would not thought of that clipping might slow the view down. I don't think it was so problematic in x13. I have done this for a year on x13 and only now it started to really bother me and slow me down.
Good tip for fill window button. I probably need to brush up my knowledge on functionality in Chief. As many of the buttons and functions are not used every day. So some buttons get overlooked.
Thanks again.
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Hello,
Can anyone help me please a bit. I posted a plan file and an image.
For some reason all elevation views are very slow. Opening them takes about 15 seconds. Switching between opened elevation tabs is also very slow. Drawing and doing other things is mostly ok, but some operations with elevations view are very slow. And my computer is not slow. It worked much better in x13. I worked a year on x13 and did not notice that elevations are so slow. I think this change in speed came with x14 update. And I cannot shake it. I don't know if it is something with settings that changed with the update, but I cannot find the issue. I used vector view also in x13. Its sometimes impossible to work. In posted plan file there is just a small shed and why does it take so long to open and render a view.
Second thing that happened in x14 and x13 is that opening elevation and its sometimes empty. For some reason it randomly loses focus and cannot figure it out why. Mostly I am able to find the drawing by scrolling out in a view. But sometimes like on the picture I am not able to find it anymore. Is there some autofocus button? Something like in AutoCAD. A command that finds all the details in a view and focuses screen on them?
I have the latest patch for x14 installed.
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On 7/14/2022 at 8:19 PM, Small_Fish said:
Got it figured out.
In playing around with different configurations, the issue only occurs when i send the elevation to the layout page and select "live view". When I send it as plot lines, it prints correctly.
Hey!
Was about to create my own post about the same problem and then saw this thread.
Having exact same problem and selecting plot lines helped. And this came after this last update. It was not there in initial x14 release.
After initial x14 update I am having all sorts of weirdness with elevations. Like most annoying is that every move with details seen in elevation is very slow. Changing between elevation views is sometimes 5 seconds. Even in a plan with a very tiny building. Was much faster in x13.
And now new update to "fix" x14 bugs gave this rescaling issue.
At least I can print my drawings now.
Thank you!
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On 6/27/2022 at 3:06 PM, GeneDavis said:
It's a toggle, and you might want to add the three buttons to your toolbar, as most need to swap and change depending on situation, and it's too tedious to make the change going to Edit>Preferences>Marquee Selection . . .
See the attached for all three added to the toolbar: Contained, Intersected, and Centers.
Thanks!
Not sure why, but I did not know about these toggles. Basic, but good to know!
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Hey,
This is probably very weird and beginner question, but I just cannot find if there is a setting for it and if this change came with x14 or I did something.
If I draw selection box on multiple objects partially then it will not select those two objects. I think Chief behaved differently in x13.
I now have to draw selection box to include entire objects for it to select them. In most cases this is so uncomfortable for me.
Is there a setting to change so that I don't have to draw this selection box to include objects in full, but partially?
On the picture there is what I mean. It is not marquee similar tool it is normal selection.
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Thank you all. Very helpful replies. I have also two 27 inch monitors. So screen space is not that much of an issue. Just in many software I was using context menu all the time. And thought I can use Chief this way also and as a bonus get more space on the screen. But I was wrong. Just using different software at the same time sometimes gets confusing
It is not much of a problem anyway.
Thanks!
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On 6/9/2022 at 5:36 PM, solver said:
You may always use the Context Menu.
Why do you want to turn off the Edit toolbar?
Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
I wanted to use only context menu. So if I was using only context menu I could make more screen space without this toolbar. But I actually was a bit wrong about that. I cannot do that, because this toolbar displays secondary actions/options for tools also. So with only context menu It would be hard to work. Did not think about that when I was writing this post. So I will not be needing to turn off edit toolbar. Sorry, my mistake.
But as I understand this angle snaps icon cannot be hidden?
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Hey!
I have two questions.
1. Can I turn of edit toolbar and use contextual menu? When I right click on toolbars then select toolbars and untick "Edit" then this edit toolbar disappears. Right after that I click somewhere else this edit toolbar comes back on its own. I don't want it to come back.
2. Can I have angle snaps off without this notification icon floating with my cursor? I have used all software without angle snaps and when I need angle snaps or ortho then I just hold shift key. This is just how I am used to and I like it this way. The only reason I have angle snaps on in Chief is because of this annoying icon.
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13 hours ago, JacobB said:
Hinged opening indicators point to the hinge or handle side based on the X13 plan setting @joey_martin mentioned. Schedules combine all rows that are identical, excluding the 3D Exterior Elevation, 3D Interior Elevation, and 3D Perspective columns. The image displayed in those columns is an image of one of the objects in the row, even if those objects do not all look the same. Doors have a hinge side (left or right) and a swing side (in or out). The size column displays the hinge side, but there isn't a column that automatically displays the swing side. You can add the swing side information to the door label or object information and include that in the schedule to distinguish between the different hinged doors.
You can look at the attached X12 plan that demonstrates this behavior with three different schedules generated from the same doors. Note that the size column also displays the hinge side and exterior/interior, not hinge side and swing side. Additionally, the hinge side defaults to right but the swing side is determined by which side of the wall you click on when placing the door. There is also a drag behavior that can set the hinge side to left.
Ok. Thanks.
It is a bit inconvenient in my opinion. It would be nicer to have an additional option to generate a view from a door that is always on the swing side or opposite. This way you do not have to be so diligent about placing every interior door.
If I want to make a schedule that is understandable in my country and as most of the designers do them here I will have to go through every door on my schedule and compare them on a plan and set my schedule up how I need it to be. So manual labour then :). Or I need to put in a proper instruction on how to read this schedule.
Chief Architect Software Licensing Changes Beginning January 10, 2023
in Announcements
Posted
Hey,
Yeah. It is a fair point. Thant every alternative program can go drastically up also. But how can you make your decisions on "it might go up to 4500". You can try to consider things that you cannot predict, but you still will have to make a decision based on information available right now. And right now it is what it is.
What I wrote IS based on seeing the rest of the world. Everything is already going up in prices and will continue to go up. I think this is well known already. Another thing is of course different use cases and different needs of the user. I am a user who needs to consider "is my time worth spending on Chief or Revit" for example. The reason I use Chief is actually, because I do not like Revit. And Chief is cheaper. But the fact is that a lot more users in my country and vicinity use Autodesk products. Which means collaboration is much easier if I used Revit. If I some day need new workers or go myself to work for that matter, it would be much more beneficial for me to master Revit not Chief (I am a solo practitioner for now). No one probably even knows about Chief where I live and work. Chief is worth for me for a lower price. But for so much higher price I would need to at least see/hear that Chief will be making software better starting from more important things. Latest updates weren't so good in my opinion. And would be nice to hear what are the plans for the future of SSA prices and will there be at some point migrating everyone from SSA to new subscription. Some clear information about that. Maybe some roadmap or at least a well thought out statement. And yeah I think that Chief right now is worth more than current SSA price if the model would change to subscription and you do not have initial higher payment. I just don't think it is 2k yet, but that's not my decision to make.
Revit is a superior tool to learn and work on. Even if one does not like it. At least from my point of view. It of course does not apply to everyone and depends on a use case. Some might think Revit is not good for designing houses. This is wrong. Revit just has a very, very steep learning curve. A lot steeper than Chief. It will take years to get good with it and even longer to master. Once you get to a point you be able to do much more with it. Again I am not praising Revit nor saying Chief is bad. Just considering programs I know, that in one use case are alternatives to each other. Comparing price, what you get for a price today or in years and the state of development. There is no need to debate on this because this was just my thought process about this price increase and this is probably not the topic for this debate. I do not expect everyone to think the same.
Just wanted to clarify that I was not whining about anything just was giving my user opinion on what is happening and is affecting my livelihood/career by a lot. I do not expect anyone to care, but I do think there are more people who can relate. I will be thinking about switching software, because Chiefs benefits for me might not outweigh benefits from other programs at new prices. At least considering information that is available today. I do hope that Chief issues more clearer statement about this SSA continuation and what the pricing for SSA might be in the coming years. Also would be nice to hear what this additional revenue will mean for the development and what are the plans going forward. And I do hope they do it soon and within this year. As the statement they issued so far is vague as hell. This is a huge change and affects users lives. If someone already took my money under first conditions and now wants to get a lot more money from me under different conditions I expect to get a good explanation so I can make an informed decision about it.
And for a side note. The e-mail said that if SSA expires you will not be able to renew SSA anymore. And in this thread they saying that you will be able to renew. What is that? Please give us a clear, well thought statement with all the needed information.