Bondbuilding

Another big drawback is HDPro only does a 18"x24" Layout page! Big houses at 1/4 don't fit

I have never used Revit...and never would. I would imagine most of the people on this thread have never used Chief Home Designer Pro because you are on another level, but HDPro seems to do pretty close to what that Revit feature list shows and maybe more. My brother uses HDPro which is why I have interacted with it. It's works exactly like Chief X series except it is thinned down of features. I think if you are going to start making comparisons or jumping ship you should consider Home Designer Pro. The big things HDPro doesn't do that a contractor type user would miss are: lack of saved and preprogrammed "show items" views, it only does 5 Layout pages, and you can't change scale or modify sent views in the Layout....and ...some other things if you drill into it. You can definitely make a set of plans with it, and you can make "views" (they are just not preprogrammed} You can work around the Layout pages and make 2 different Layout files for the same plan if you need more pages. These are efficiency hassles that would not work for someone designing for hire but are work arounds for a casual or contractor user. I personally don't use a lot of the specific and 3D and framing allocations and diagrams on Chief Architect, preferring to just 2D label them (<------14" floor trusses @ 16" OC----->...etc) So it would almost work for me. If I was new to the business, I would probably come on board with HDPro and muddle through..but I have about 100 plans 25 years back that exist in the real world and want to make sure I can access them in the future. The past Better Homes and Gardens, and past consumer versions of the program, did not do Layout and HDPro only did 1 page previously...(but now does 5) so that was not a reasonable option for a professional. It's a little bit of a conundrum what to do going forward if you already use CA or have a large portfolio. If you have been driving a Corvette, it's hard to go back to a Corolla. HDPro would never open a legacy CA file unless only to view, so you could never modify old files. But if you use HDPro it will convert and upgrade the file to CA in the future, Home Designer Pro is a hell of a deal for $600 though for a remodeler and sometimes "full home" builder. In my world something half-way between HDpro and X14 that opens legacy files would be perfect, but I don't expect that to happen.

Agree.....At some point your owned copy will not be supported ...then what? Is the work around that you own it and pay for SSA forever? That’s definitely better than $200 a month forever!....assuming that SSA is honored to legacy users, and you don’t screwup and let it lapse. I have some bookkeeping software that went to subscription, and the old "owned copy" quit working on the new Mac operating system. You might get shut out at some point and be forced to go to the subscription at some point. So, you have created this huge portfolio of plans that only work in a Chief controlled software rental environment. (FYI...I run the bookkeeping software on a non-upgraded separate machine) I am using x7 ...which I guess some of you would think is a dinosaur (already unsupported) Let me insert here, that I have been using Chief so far back that every floor was a separate file. Decades. I haven't recently upgraded because the upgrades don't really enhance the experience for what I do with it. I don't use a lot of the new features. I have upgraded 4-5 times over the years. I have thought about upgrading recently to X14 weighed against how much better it is, and how much I use the software. But again, my brothers Home Designer Pro is not significantly different than X7 other than he is missing a lot of the Layout and toggle display items features. Some of the HD Pro 3D is better too. I have a 20-year-old hydrostatic drive Kubota tractor. Hydrostatic drive was the last great tech leap in tractors. It still moves dirt and grades things. New ones are better, but they generally move dirt and grade things like my old one... therefore I don't buy a new one. I guess Chief is at a tipping point where there is no practical or planned obsolescence …or huge leap of improvement to an existing user. Evidently the revenue solution from someone from up top ... is that now you need to pay $200 a month forever! It's their company and they can do what they want. I think if I was a new user, I would be very scared about who I get in bed with. Who knows though…maybe one day Chief can get a brain implant and you can think the drawing on the screen! None of these comments are meant as an insult to anyone at Chief. It really is, and was, a groundbreaking software 25 years ago. Some people a hell of a lot smarter than me developed it. It's a two-way street though. Any business needs to evaluate their expenses for tools and equipment....and the right to repair, the relationship...and whether they need a new tractor and can still get parts for the old one. My knee jerk is that $200 a month forever is high for marginal improvements to a legacy user. That's not an insult, it just is what it is. I'm sure t's hard to understand your legacy customers perspective from the board room, when the other guy spends the majority of his time out in a field trying to get guys to frame something correctly and listening to the neighbors complain about trash in their yard. I'd be curious what percentage of customers...new or old... are this borderline user that need something a little better than HD Pro but not quite X14. New Coke came out in 1985.

Hello Friends and Chief Sales! 24 year user here... I have recommended and gotten more friends using this software than I can remember. This is interesting news from Chief. For me personally it has provoked a lot of thought about my personal situation and relationship with Chief going forward. I have read the entirety of the comments which mainly seem focused on the SSA relationship in the future. The comments are interesting and I get that Chief needs to make a profit! I think the issue with me is that not one size fits all, and It seems that the new pricing program is geared towards a "Heavy User", someone making a living drawing plans. I want to make some comments that don't seem to factor in to Chiefs thinking about the purchase model going forward. I totally get that all the big players have gone to the subscription model. I started with Chief 6.. 22 some years ago ...upgraded to 8...then to V10 ...then to X7 Premier which is where I am now. I want to say Chief 6 was $1400 all those years ago. (which seemed like a lot!) I have seen the software evolve quite a bit over the years. I have never had SSA other than the original purchase included. (this was generally offered/presented as Customer Product Assistance/Service which I very rarely if ever needed) I am a Home Builder/General Contractor and I only use the program to design homes that I personally speculatively build or custom design for clients to custom build. This amounts to probably an average of 2-3 plans a year. I am getting near the back end of my career and it makes absolutely no sense that I would need to or want to pay in perpetuity $2000 a year or $200 a month just to use the work already created, or draw a handful of additional plans per year. Obviously I can always open the files with the original program......but we all know that once you open a file with the new version you can't go back. The situation does present some concern if the program fails or ceases working will a new future operating system. This could put me in a situation where I really don't have a lot of options. I feel pressured now to buy an owned version of X14 before Jan 9th...or use what I have until it dies. If I buy X14, how long will it be supported as an owned version?.... Then what? I go stints where I don't use the software for months..maybe as long as a year and then may draft 3 home plans with it. I had a fairly significant run in the 2009 bust where I didn't use it at all for a couple of years. The software is an absolute marvel, ...but the fact is it does about twice as much stuff as I could actually care about. I'm not trying to create perfect 3D houses with perfect renderings and imaginary accoutrements. I am drawing 2D house plans. Obviously the function of drawing and creating in the program is in 3D, but the end goal for me is to have some 2D plans. It's is, and was, a brilliant concept. A person composes a a 2D drawing dictating its 3D properties and can see and take views of it. A person can draw an awesome 3D house if they want to put the time in! One of the things I say to my customers is that "while we are going to have some 3D modeling, the focus here is to complete a set of 2D plans to build a Real House ...not create a perfect "virtual one"". Other features the software does, again, are not super useful to me, (estimating, generated materials list, intricate framing diagrams etc) ...because they require too much time perfecting the "virtual home" to use. For me the time effort for me as a Builder is better spent doing it old school...labeling the 2D plans with the methods and features... "floor trusses 16" OC" etc and then sitting down and figuring it out. (This is just me...to each his own) Lastly... My younger brother who does remodeling uses Home Designer Pro. He doesn't typically do whole homes and does not want to pay big money for software for a handful of remodels per year. I have helped him finish some plans in Home Designer is not significantly different or better than my X7 as far as functional modeling...but it does kind of stink as far as the restricted feature set...(no preset plan views, inability to change views on the Layout Page, only 5 Layout pages...and a few other things). Honestly, if Home Designer Pro did just a few more things it would work for me perfect. If the whole method is going to subscription, then it seems that Chief should have some sort of cheaper subscription for a light or intermittent and Long Time User.. like me....or .....something a little better than Home Designer but not quite as full fledged as Premier 14. I'm sure it's a fine line to determine the feature set of Home Designer Pro so a person will buy Chief Premier....but $60 a month going to $200 a month with nothing in between is a big leap when there are a significant amount of features in the step up software that a Builder Type or Remodeler Person could care less about. Maybe a light user lease or legacy plan. ( I get this would be super hard to administer but might be worth retaining some users). It's been a long ride ...hopefully its not over for me. ✌️