Chief Architect Software Licensing Changes Beginning January 10, 2023

[Doug_N]

Rene, Yeah me too.  I would love to see this.  I have done an entire house and permit application in one day, so I know it can be done, The hard part is not so much the building model, it is the construction drawings and specifications.  That is where elbow grease is required. Please keep us posted.  

[HumbleChief]

28 minutes ago, Renerabbitt said:

Revit is a joke for blue-collar residential, if you are comparing the two, then you are likely unaware of the various power users here and their associate youtube channels

These discussions happen here every so often comparing Revit to Chief and I fall for the same trap every time thinking that Revit might be better for what I do so I watched another Revit video and the shear complexity of the interface and arcane manner in which models are built might lend itself to more complex structures but for the residential house it seems like a very bad fit - even for free.

[richoffan]

On 11/29/2022 at 5:31 PM, ChiefArchitect said:

Rene, we don't have a way to store backup payment information. 

I think I misunderstood what was meant by backup payment. I received, this afternoon, a personal and professional email from Derek at Chief assuring me they can and will keep a card on file for renewal. I simply need to contact them direct and set it up. My bad. Another concern dismissed. Many thanks Derek

[SHCanada2]

3 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

For those of you that compare this product to revit(aside from their other professional tools), I will be doing a live stream in the next few months in attempt to hit an 8 hour design and condoc with editorial grade renderings...yes, within 8 hours.

 

I think this is the thing, if you can setup your templates(with schedules, layout boxes, details already there) and a few macros, you can do things very quickly. For me I would find it hard to believe a tool could be much quicker for a run of the mill house to produce plans for construction. It seems the more odd/custom the house is then it takes the time, but for the vast majority of houses that are built on flat or near flat  lots, it is pretty darn quick. That of course excludes any rendering, as I would consider rendering "extra" to the house plans/con docs. 

 

I would be interested in knowing how @DavidJames can do things quicker in revit for his residential designs

 

[Renerabbitt]

57 minutes ago, SHCanada2 said:

It seems the more odd/custom the house is then it takes the time

Certainly..but not much more time. I designed this home with no reference material today in 4 hours. The condocs will take another 3 because it is a type of construction I am unfamiliar with.
This is threadjacking, but, I am a brand advocate and I think their is a big divide here between the understanding of the casual user as to why this software is getting priced against Revit. So I'll post this

[mthd97]

I don’t think the casual users have enough spare cash to keep SSA alive in this economic climate especially with the price increases in gas etc ?

 

Most who use Chief for daily work will keep paying SSA and any future new users will just have to pay the subscription fee if they choose to employ CA.

 

I have said it before before and I will say it again “The Render Capabilities” are what control the cost of CAD software.

 

Revit LT has no PBR, Archicad Solo no PBR, that’s why they are so much cheaper than the full versions of the software.

 

What if CA released a version with no PBR in it ? Then you could compare that with those products I just mentioned above.

 

If I was still in full time quantity surveying work and drawing timber framing plans I would keep paying the SSA fee.

 

Maybe it’s time for CA to release a version with no PBR in it for drafters and builders who don’t use it ?

 

[DBCooper]

I think you are overestimating the cost of PBR.  Even Home Designer Architectural has PBR and Chief sells it for only $250.

 

[WesternDesign]

6 hours ago, Doug_N said:

Rene, Yeah me too.  I would love to see this.  I have done an entire house and permit application in one day, so I know it can be done, The hard part is not so much the building model, it is the construction drawings and specifications.  That is where elbow grease is required. Please keep us posted.  

 

6 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

Revit Comparisons..
For those of you that compare this product to revit(aside from their other professional tools), I will be doing a live stream in the next few months in attempt to hit an 8 hour design and condoc with editorial grade renderings...yes, within 8 hours.
Revit is a joke for blue-collar residential, if you are comparing the two, then you are likely unaware of the various power users here and their associate youtube channels

Rene,

I really want to see how you do that and what the finish results look like.

I have no doubt you can do it.  When I grow up I want to be you. :-)

[Tim_Houston]

2020 Designs did the exact same thing two years ago. We were told SSA would not increase for legacy users, and we were forced to terminate our dongles. 2nd year, SSA increased ~$200. I suspect every year will increase and there is NOTHING I can do about it. 

Chief will do the exact same thing, they will increase SSA yearly for legacy users. $595 is the fee for next year, then when everyone is on board and switched, they will increase SSA yearly, and we can do anything about it just like 2020 Designs did, just Like MS Office and Xactimate is doing.

My thoughts, this doesn't affect me. As long as my two seats work, it does everything I need for CD. I don't need any more updated versions or new features to earn a living for the next 10 years or so. I'm currently using V12 and for the first time in the 20 plus years I've been using Chief, I did not pay the SSA, as the features were bloat. I'm not going to be suckered in again.

[mthd97]

3 hours ago, DBCooper said:

I think you are overestimating the cost of PBR.  Even Home Designer Architectural has PBR and Chief sells it for only $250.

 

Just a general comparison because it really depends on the type of PBR renderer you are using inside the actual software package. 

 

We don’t know what’s inside X15 just yet either ?

[BlurredVision]

This subscription model is a disaster for those new users outside the US. Here in AU/NZ it will be $300 pm . In the current economic environment, I struggle to keep up  with the NZ$85 pm with SSA, but I'm glad I have it now.

 

Usually changing the fee structure of a product is meant to come with a net benefit, I fail to see what that benefit is, in this instance.

 

Are there plans to jack up the price of SSA, so it becomes untenable as a method to stay current.

[MoeGia]

I've been using since V3.0; almost 30 years.  I've been a Bata Tester for many of those years.

 

As a Beta tester, I spend 4-5 months testing the upcoming upgrade.  I enjoy the process but it's a significant chunk of the year to devote to product testing.  Would I be willing to spend that amount of time if SSA increases significantly?  Would folks paying $2k a year for subscription software be willing to invest the time to improve the product?  Maybe Beta Testing goes away and new features are added on a more regular basis, instead of a yearly upgrade?

 

Maybe knocking out the low level users will allow Chief to focus on advancing features instead of making it easy for new users.  I don't think that's a bad thing, but without new users, we're all screwed.  The time to become productive in a new software will become more of a factor with this pricing structure.  It does feel a little steep.  Time will tell, and things will change.  We can count on that.

 

All in all, using Chief is one of the best decisions I've ever made.  It serves my business and my market very well.  I know the decision is going to be a lot harder for new users, but I look forward to seeing where this change takes us.

[TriDiWorx]

On 12/9/2022 at 5:59 PM, richoffan said:

Really! Didn't buy the software based on resale value any more than I bought my F150 based on resale (though that's really good right now) I bought it for its VALUE. To me.

As for the price going up thanks for that sage advice. Very helpful. What would be more helpful is if Chief were to enlighten us. Right now the SSA is less than a days work to cover. Fairly insignificant. If an increase and the coming slow down changes that to a week or more to cover - that would be nice to know. With more than 30 days to adjust. Don't need whining about other programs and what they cost - just want a responsible business associate to help me plan for the coming head winds.

For all the comparisons listed in here how do you know say...Revit LT won't bump to 4500? Jus' sayin'

 

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.

[Kbird1]

8 hours ago, TriDiWorx said:

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.

 

There has always been a "forgiveness period" , I thought it was 30 days officialy, but have seen 90 mentioned before , however what it is now I don't know , as it seems the policy on Transferring Licenses has changed with this announcement too.

 

M.

[richoffan]

56 minutes ago, Kbird1 said:

There has always been a "forgiveness period" , I thought it was 30 days , but have seen 90 mentioned before , however what it is now I don't know , as it seems the policy on Transferring Licenses has changed with this announcement too.

 

 

Posted December 1

There have been a few comments about paying SSA.  Here are some options and our policy on SSA renewal.

• The price of SSA is currently $595.  When we make changes to SSA pricing, we notify our customers in advance.  The price of SSA renewal is not changing on Jan. 10.
• We begin billing for SSA 45 days prior to the due date.  At that time, you will see the invoice in your online account and an email notification that SSA is due.  There are multiple reminders to renew SSA as the due date approaches.
• We offer an SSA auto-pay option. You can contact sales at 208-292-3400 to provide payment information to get auto pay set up.
• If your SSA expires, there is a 30-day grace period from the date your SSA expires to get your SSA renewed. So, if you are out of town, etc., you have additional time to make your SSA payment. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Chief Architect Sales

208.292.3400 | sales@chiefarchitect.com

 

There has been no posting from Chief regarding transfers. Hoping they see the wisdom in doing that...soon

[DavidJames]

On 12/9/2022 at 3:55 PM, SHCanada2 said:

 

I think this is the thing, if you can setup your templates(with schedules, layout boxes, details already there) and a few macros, you can do things very quickly. For me I would find it hard to believe a tool could be much quicker for a run of the mill house to produce plans for construction. It seems the more odd/custom the house is then it takes the time, but for the vast majority of houses that are built on flat or near flat  lots, it is pretty darn quick. That of course excludes any rendering, as I would consider rendering "extra" to the house plans/con docs. 

 

I would be interested in knowing how @DavidJames can do things quicker in revit for his residential designs

 

 

If there's any interest from users in this forum, I don't mind creating a tutorial on how I use Revit for residential work. You'd be surprised at how quick, easy, and headache-free Revit is to use once you get over the learning curve and you set up libraries (families) etc. Everything about the user experience is extremely polished and all the tools provided are a godsend. You'll never encounter strange anomalies with the software that will require "work-arounds" to fix the issue, nor will the software ever fight back. Everything just works, and works really well. 

Ultimately Revit is insanely powerful for design and you can do just about anything. 

[buildology]

We have 8 licenses and will be keeping own SSA up to date but with this move we have lost all good will and confidence that Chief will still work for us going forward. With a company our size we have some ups and down so choosing weather we upgrade our SSA this year or skip a year was our choice. For this season we don't do any subscriptions. 

Also here in New Zealand most Architectural firms use ArchiCad but we have stuck with Chief because it was so good and we have built all our systems around it but going forward we will be looking at new software.     

[mthd97]

5 hours ago, buildology said:

We have 8 licenses and will be keeping own SSA up to date but with this move we have lost all good will and confidence that Chief will still work for us going forward. With a company our size we have some ups and down so choosing weather we upgrade our SSA this year or skip a year was our choice. For this season we don't do any subscriptions. 

Also here in New Zealand most Architectural firms use ArchiCad but we have stuck with Chief because it was so good and we have built all our systems around it but going forward we will be looking at new software.     

All other CAD will definitely have steep learning curves compared to Chief Architect. I could always do a quick render in Chief Architect with less hassle.

 

It’s up to your own business model but if you want to punch out a quick concept of a home that is not too complicated, it’s good to have an up to date version of CA in the office.

 

I am retired from full time work but if I was still working I would jump at the upgrade and keep SSA current for that CAD tool.

 

In my circumstances to upgrade from X10 to X15 before the Jan deadline would cost me $3500 AUD. I would definitely do that if I wasn’t retired. I will just have to be content with X10 just Incase I have to model up some cabinets for someone or a simple design concept.

 

Thanks for the use of Chief Architect software, it helped my company since version 6.

[Doug_N]

10 hours ago, DavidJames said:

 

If there's any interest from users in this forum, I don't mind creating a tutorial on how I use Revit for residential work. You'd be surprised at how quick, easy, and headache-free Revit is to use once you get over the learning curve and you set up libraries (families) etc. Everything about the user experience is extremely polished and all the tools provided are a godsend. You'll never encounter strange anomalies with the software that will require "work-arounds" to fix the issue, nor will the software ever fight back. Everything just works, and works really well. 

Ultimately Revit is insanely powerful for design and you can do just about anything. 

David,

 

Are you talking about Revit or Revit LT?  There is a big difference in the cost of the two.  I outlined in an earlier post the similarities and differences between Revit LT and CA.  For houses, I still think CA has a significant advantage, but I certainly will keep an open mind and would like to see any practical demonstration of the two of them in a head-on presentation.  That, as well as Rene's offer are very generous.

[winterdd]

On 12/9/2022 at 2:19 PM, Renerabbitt said:

Revit Comparisons..
For those of you that compare this product to revit(aside from their other professional tools), I will be doing a live stream in the next few months in attempt to hit an 8 hour design and condoc with editorial grade renderings...yes, within 8 hours.
Revit is a joke for blue-collar residential, if you are comparing the two, then you are likely unaware of the various power users here and their associate youtube channels

I tried Revit and do not like it.......CA is much faster for me and I do not have the time to learn a new software. I wanted to give it a try though.

[HumbleChief]

38 minutes ago, ChiefUserBigRob said:

I tried Revit and do not like it.......CA is much faster for me and I do not have the time to learn a new software. I wanted to give it a try though.

I've watched a few tutorials on line and thought it looked complex and cumbersome to do the simplest of tasks but maybe Chief looks the same to a long time Revit user? I have no intention of switching programs for my business but would love to be convinced otherwise just to see some possibilities I may have missed.

[SabGroup]

14 hours ago, DavidJames said:

 

If there's any interest from users in this forum, I don't mind creating a tutorial on how I use Revit for residential work. You'd be surprised at how quick, easy, and headache-free Revit is to use once you get over the learning curve and you set up libraries (families) etc. Everything about the user experience is extremely polished and all the tools provided are a godsend. You'll never encounter strange anomalies with the software that will require "work-arounds" to fix the issue, nor will the software ever fight back. Everything just works, and works really well. 

Ultimately Revit is insanely powerful for design and you can do just about anything. 

 

I would be interested in this. Autodesk has competitive pricing in international markets. Here in Mexico, everything from architectural services, labor, and materials are cheaper, and Autodesk has priced their software here accordingly. 

 

Not all of us have confidence in the future of SSA, and if a Revit full version subscription comes in cheaper for me than a Chief Architect subscription, it's at the very least worth investigating.

[HumbleChief]

53 minutes ago, SabGroup said:

...and if a Revit full version subscription comes in cheaper for me than a Chief Architect subscription, it's at the very least worth investigating.

I find this sentiment interesting and am wondering how many CAD design software users are concerned about price enough to switch to a tool that may or may not be the best tool for the job? I don't know that much about Revit other than video tutorials I've watched but it seems like an extremely bad fit for the kind of work I do. It seems as though even if I could get it cheaper wouldn't it still be an extremely bad fit? On the other hand if Revit is an extremely good fit for the work one does then wouldn't the price, at some point, become moot? 

[Archnot-Boltz]

On 12/7/2022 at 3:00 PM, DanielleDubuc said:

This is very sad news. I was pointing the SSA advantages to my students when comparing with the other drawing softwares. The lower price was more affordable for young people that start in life. Now that the SSA is not a point anymore what would be the advantage for them to learn another software than the one they studied at school?

 

I think it is important to target young clients since they are still experimenting with new softwares. Once they made their mind and get used another to another software, they won't be as willing to spend time in learn something else. It will be more difficult to convince them to change for Chief Architect. So if the price is not a point anymore, they will stay with what the already know.

 

I hope, no I beg Chief Architect to change their mind and keep the SSA for the new subscriptions. This would keep CA in an advantageous position compare to other drawing software.

I agree that what Chief is doing is a colossal mistake. 1) Chief's Rental program after January is $199.00 per month vs Softplan's $99.00 per month rental program. with no purchase options  #2) Chief's current Rent to Own should be kept because you would own the program after 22 months of continuous payments (about a grand more than an outright purchase) which is basically an interest charge for those who can't afford the initial $2395.00 outlay 3) $595.00 per annum  for SSA is a great deal when weighed against the $199.00 per month rental program (they also give you a break on the SSA for additional licenses- currenty $416.50 per ). So my annual  SSA for two licenses is currently $901.50). SSA is what allows Chief to continue improving and upgrading the program. I guarantee that part of the push to go to the Rental and eliminate the for purchase model is all the folks that sit back with older versions and don't contribute to the future of this program.

4) I do wish that Chief moving forward would offer the following options 1) Offer Purchase Option of $2395.00 plus require the payment of SSA annually or lose your license 2) Continue to offer the current Rent to Purchase option $199.00 per month with 22 consecutive week requirement 3) Offer a more reasonable Rent Only option at $99.00 per month  (to realistically compete with Softplan's subscription service  because, quite frankly at $199 per month, I think Chief is going to go out of business and I'd hate to see that!).

 

-BB

[winterdd]

1 hour ago, HumbleChief said:

I've watched a few tutorials on line and thought it looked complex and cumbersome to do the simplest of tasks but maybe Chief looks the same to a long time Revit user? I have no intention of switching programs for my business but would love to be convinced otherwise just to see some possibilities I may have missed.

I couldn't even get past the floor level settings on the properties box. CA flows easier.....