Chief Architect Software Licensing Changes Beginning January 10, 2023

[SabGroup]

8 minutes ago, HumbleChief said:

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? 

 

You may be reading more into my statement than what I am saying. There may be a Chief Architect user on a Revit forum somewhere offering a video demonstration of why Chief Architect may be a better fit for them. I don't know if Revit would be a better fit more me or not, which is why I would like to investigate and see a demonstration. I have also watched some tutorials for Archicad, and it has a number of features that interest me.

 

 

[Kbird1]

54 minutes ago, Archnot-Boltz said:

for those who can't afford the initial $2395.00 outlay

 

Chief is $3295 when not on Sale , not $2395.......   ( currently 10% off )

 

57 minutes ago, Archnot-Boltz said:

$4400 on Rental Program which is basically an interest charge

 

Yes it's always been in the same Range as using your Credit Card ie 20% - 22% , started at 18 months to get a Perpetual License and has slowly gone up as the price of Chief has, to 22 months.

 

But with no Perpetual license at the end of a Rental now , I agree the price should be halved.

 

M.

[Archnot-Boltz]

45 minutes ago, ChiefUserBigRob said:

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

Softplan is the only other program that I've tried that even comes close. I recommended that they get it on with Chief and make a badarse baby!

[Archnot-Boltz]

48 minutes ago, ChiefUserBigRob said:

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

I spent a month or so in an architect's office trying to wrap my head around Archicad. Nice program but one bad wamma jamma of a learning curve. Chief and Softplan are the only two that I can do. 

[HumbleChief]

40 minutes ago, SabGroup said:

 

You may be reading more into my statement than what I am saying. There may be a Chief Architect user on a Revit forum somewhere offering a video demonstration of why Chief Architect may be a better fit for them. I don't know if Revit would be a better fit more me or not, which is why I would like to investigate and see a demonstration. I have also watched some tutorials for Archicad, and it has a number of features that interest me.

 

 

I see and apologize for inferring what you did not mean to imply but there have been more than one discussion about the cost of competing software as if that might be the deciding factor other than its actual fit with the work to be done. I'm curious too about others' impression about Revit and its usefulness in their business. Best of luck either way and let us know what you learn/choose. 

[Archnot-Boltz]

10 minutes ago, Kbird1 said:

 

Chief is $3295 when not on Sale , not $2395.......   ( currently 10% off )

Sorry, typo is $2965.50 on sale. Softplan is currently $3395.00

 

Yes it's always been in the same Range as using your Credit Card ie 20% - 22% , started at 18 months to get a Perpetual License and has slowly gone up as the price of Chief has, to 22 months.

 

But with no Perpetual license at the end of a Rental now , I agree the price should be halved.

 

M.

One-Time Payment from SoftPlan version 2020

Upgrade to SoftPlan 2022 $1345- So, as you can see Chief's annual SSA at $595.00 is similarly priced with SP's upgrade cost.
Upgrade Extra Station to SoftPlan 2022 $995*
Upgrade Network Station to SoftPlan 2022 $795**

[winterdd]

2 minutes ago, Archnot-Boltz said:

One-Time Payment from SoftPlan version 2020

Upgrade to SoftPlan 2022 $1345- So, as you can see Chief's annual SSA at $595.00 is similarly priced with SP's upgrade cost.
Upgrade Extra Station to SoftPlan 2022 $995*
Upgrade Network Station to SoftPlan 2022 $795**

I have a fellow local residential designer who swears by SoftPlan but are the renderings as cool as CA?

[Archnot-Boltz]

45 minutes ago, ChiefUserBigRob said:

I have a fellow local residential designer who swears by SoftPlan but are the renderings as cool as CA?

Not quite but pretty decent, and they have GAF Shingles colors/textures and their stair railings are correct as well as having an automatic graspable handrail (to name a few of many). Their command structure and drawing method is more cumbersome but my coworker seems to like a lot of their features. I used it back in '96 or '97 for a couple months in a builder's office and then bought Chief  for  well under a grand while SP was closer to $2k, so economics and ease of use won out. Looking at the new version of SP, I still like Chief's intuitive commands better.

 

I'm hoping for some nuts and bolts stuff in x15 (stair framing, better railings and handrails, smarter library items like joist hangers, post caps, etc).

[ValleyGuy]

1 hour ago, Archnot-Boltz said:

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.

I totally understand the feeling that you are trying to mean here, maybe we should talk about that elephant in the room. Personally, I try not to put too much weight on past customers for my future growth in this manner. Future growth must come from future customers. By definition, a business (profitable business) provides a service / product in exchange for $. The transaction is a sale and the person exchanging $ is called the customer (a little watered down, but you get the idea). The money is then used to operate the business. Anyone who has NOT exchanged $ in the last three years hardly qualifies as a customer. I'm sure that you would agree, after all do you still have the cash sitting in your business bank account from a client three years ago to pay up your SSA fee? Now, somewhere along the way that past customer has actually turned into a "past partner", "associate", whatever term you would like to use. The "relationship" started at or before the actual transaction date, however, it too has most likely transitioned. Possibly from a mutualism (both parties benefiting) to possibly a parasitic (I use your help, training videos, blog, community chat site... but never actually contribute any $ to the provider), or even to a non-existing relationship (purchased once and done - no need to communicate).There are all kinds of "relationships" and sometimes the provider is actually the beneficiary from a "person of influence" (where the past customer provides even more to the business than they take. ... the X9 person that has 6K posts- making suggestions, helping with new CA member questions, as well as a few confirmed referrals or maybe did Beta testing).

 

Having said that, I would agree that CA is trying to balance the expense on the services that they currently provide as well as the future products / services they have yet to develop. CA needs "customers" to stay in business... and we are either "customers" or we aren't. We either have a giving "relationship", or a taking "relationship".  Maybe CA should put out a survey to get a better idea of future "customers", leading to future revenue predictions, and then maybe then they would have a better idea of what the new SSA pricing levels may look like? Least of all, it may force each of us to take an honest look at how good of a "customer" we really are and what kind of a "relationship" actually exists.

 

For all those at CA fostering ulcers and sprouting grey hair, I would like to encourage you to keep your heads up. It's hard to give your all and receive harsh criticism that you don't measure up, or to provide years of service support and product improvement only to have someone belittle your efforts because they never called for help or chose to upgrade their purchase. I don't get the feeling that you are out to price gouge me any more than I am toward my customers. I believe that you are still a company that has people behind it and not some corporate board only answering to the shareholders. Keep up the good work, and THANK YOU for helping me to be successful.

 

 

[Joe_Carrick]

29 minutes ago, ValleyGuy said:

For all those at CA fostering ulcers and sprouting grey hair, I would like to encourage you to keep your heads up. It's hard to give your all and receive harsh criticism that you don't measure up, or to provide years of service support and product improvement only to have someone belittle your efforts because they never called for help or chose to upgrade their purchase. I don't get the feeling that you are out to price gouge me any more than I am toward my customers. I believe that you are still a company that has people behind it and not some corporate board only answering to the shareholders. Keep up the good work, and THANK YOU for helping me to be successful.

[mthd97]

Hmm ! very interesting observations just above.

 

To be fair, comparing CA with SP is correct but for me CA wins hands down.

 

I agree that an amalgamation between CA & SP or a take over of SP by CA would create a very interesting mix ? 

 

If the extra money from a subscription improves CA’s development, then I am all for it.

 

Comparing CA to Revit, Archicad or Vectorworks Architect is not realistic. Those programs are designed specifically for Architects not builders or Architectural Drafters. No framing in them, you will need some add ons. Architects get paid much more than most of us and have more time to fudge around with the design concept and be more intricate with sculptural home design than most of us.

 

Just my observations of having demos of those products and seen much promotional information as well.

 

I was an Archicad user as well but only because they produced add ons that help do roofing, cabinets and other functions that we specifically do in Australia & NZ. Not to mention their Australian essential library of objects. If it wasn’t for those things I would stick solely with CA.

 

I take twice as long to produce a similar model in Archicad but it’s more correct to what we will actually build here in Australia. Others are much quicker with Archicad than I am.

 

If I was in the US I would stick to CA and see them go further forward with their excellent program that is very fast and it will get even more accurate. Hopefully they will eliminate some of those anomaly’s that some Revit users have found ?

 

Going from Chief Architect to othercad could be a big mistake ? My estimate is that it could take you twice as much time to do the same work with othercad. Not to mention the steep learning curves.

 

If you are not an Architect think carefully before choosing othercad. I could just about guarantee you that you will be glad you still have an up to date copy of Chief in the office. SSA is nearly a no brainer with this new subscription arrangement.

 

If I wasn’t retired I will still have CA SSA up to date. I get enjoyment at seeing the new features and updates and the development of CA. I occasionally do tests to see if things are better in the newer versions even though I am retired.

 

Have fun Beta testing X15 !

[M-Reed]

Anyone remember 2008? Pretty crazy time for all. I was in Colorado at the time and my business was booming with many high-end designs coming my way for the Northern Colorado area. Then the bottom fell out and almost all the local builders went bust. The few that kept afloat did so by changing. So, you ask, what kind of change? This is where most will disagree. 

The first thing done was to cut all expenses possible. And yes, that means some of the extra help had to go. These guys did their best to help them get other jobs too. Bottom line though, without trimming the fat, they would have been out of a job anyway. The builder's started wearing more "hats" and did a lot of the work themselves. Some scaled personal expenses down to save money. There are lots of things that can be done to cut costs for sure. 

Next, was something they did not do, a price increase. If anything, they dropped what they could. 

You ask why? No rocket science here. You have a market going south and homeowners losing their homes right and left. Many jobs were lost and people were having a hard time to make ends meet. The government bailed out the banks who caused the crash, but the builder, suppliers, and subs were all left holding the bag. That said, who had the finances to pay more? Seriously. But, obviously enough folks had the same mindset, and many did survive. When the market started coming back, guess who got the work. 

Now it's 2022 and the economy is shaking hard. There is very good chance the 2008 crash will be child's play in comparison. I know many feel that's simply not going to happen and so we continue on as before even though we were blessed with a warning! Did anyone learn from it? Makes me wonder.  

Chief Inc., you have a very large and loyal customer base that is getting shoved aside regardless of history with the company. I hear about how so many are cutting back to try and save money as the economic slowdown begins to really hurt. Several users here are encouraging the company to ignore them, making noise about how they are not buying SSA and because of that are not supporting the company. It would seem, for some reason, that would be their fault.

What is not considered is how so many have gone above and beyond that. Ask them, or even me, how many sales of Chief were due to theirs or my influence and referrals? Many times, I engaged in projects with other builders and developers where the software licenses were covered by a single group entity. Yes, they were upgrades for me, but many were new users and followed my lead. I hosted a CAD group in Colorado where users, first starting out with the home versions, ended up upgrading to full versions due to others and myself encouraging them as they learned and displayed the aptitude and desire to move up. 

I can see this slowdown being a very good time to cut back, eliminating the frills, and focusing on ways to save during the bad times. Imagine taking a few top programmers and focusing on eliminating so many of the bugs that continually get swept by. Taking a bad situation and making a good one for both Chief and for the users. I am willing to bet this sales direction did not happen easily, it sounds more like scrambling to make it all work out. Thing is, just like the builders I mentioned earlier, any company who focuses more on their user base and how to help them survive the economy will be the company whose user base will still be around as the financial picture improves. 

Please forgive me my writing tonight. I am tired and cannot see so good in this light, but I wanted to make this one last effort.... Maxie

 

[builtright3]

I have a second license that I let exspire in 2020.
Can I renew that licence and keep it under the Perpetual (lifetime) software licenses? 

Also,
I beleive I was paying 399 per year for the second license. Will it still be at the lower cost for the second licence?

 

[Joe_Carrick]

11 minutes ago, builtright3 said:

I have a second license that I let exspire in 2020.
Can I renew that licence and keep it under the Perpetual (lifetime) software licenses? 

Also,
I beleive I was paying 399 per year for the second license. Will it still be at the lower cost for the second licence?

 

That's my understanding but you should contact CA to verify.

[builtright3]

Thank you Joe, I will 

[ChiefArchitect]

@builtright3 You can upgrade your additional license on or before Jan. 9, 2023 and the upgraded additional license will be a perpetual license with renewable SSA.  If you already have a primary license with active SSA, the SSA renewal on the secondary license is discounted.  You can contact Sales at 208-292-3400 or make the upgrade purchase online.

 

 

[builtright3]

On 12/13/2022 at 11:16 AM, ChiefArchitect said:

@builtright3 You can upgrade your additional license on or before Jan. 9, 2023 and the upgraded additional license will be a perpetual license with renewable SSA.  If you already have a primary license with active SSA, the SSA renewal on the secondary license is discounted.  You can contact Sales at 208-292-3400 or make the upgrade purchase online.

 

 

Thank You!

[JKEdmo]

I'm a Chief newbie and I'd like to add that a big reason I bought X14 was its value relative to its competitors.

 

For what it's worth, that's my two cents!

 

Jim

 

[Doug_N]

4 minutes ago, JKEdmo said:

I'm a Chief newbie and I'd like to add that a big reason I bought X14 was its value relative to its competitors.

 

For what it's worth, that's my two cents!

 

Jim

 

When you say value, what do you mean?

[JKEdmo]

 

2 minutes ago, Doug_N said:

When you say value, what do you mean?

 

Price vs. features.  I felt it was very competitive compared to other products such as Vectorworks, Autocad Architecture, etc.  You might even say I made the jump because of the lower cost.

[Doug_N]

3 hours ago, JKEdmo said:

 

 

Price vs. features.  I felt it was very competitive compared to other products such as Vectorworks, Autocad Architecture, etc.  You might even say I made the jump because of the lower cost.

Decisions based on price can be good for casual users, but when it comes to serious professional practitioners, well then I think the metric changes.  For example, have you ever seen a professional carpenter use a Black and Decker power saw?  I bet they would have a Milwaukee or a DeWalt.  Same for auto mechanics.  A guy tinkering in his garage would probably have a Master Craft socked set, but an auto mechanic who earns their living with their tools may have Snap On or Milwaukee.  Why pay more for tools with similar features?  They are more reliable, have better features.    

[JKEdmo]

 

 

I'm a licensed architect so professional enough I suppose.

 

In my case I was quite happy with Autocad Architecture having used it for years.  However, the aggressive price of Chief convinced me to try their product.

 

Cost was not the only factor, but it sure helped. 

 

 

[portrait]

When the new subscription model was first introduced by Autodesk in 2016, we perpetual license owners didn't care about that much as the annual maintanance fee was relatively cheap. However Autodesk gradually increased the prices, and at some point the cost of staying 'up to date' became almost the same with the subscription prices. Finally, they announced that perpetual license owners will no longer be able to renew their maintanance plan as of May 2021.

$600 for SSA vs $2000 annual subscription cost reminds me the year when Autodesk stopped selling perpetual licenses.

[Chrisb222]

4 hours ago, portrait said:

When the new subscription model was first introduced by Autodesk in 2016, we perpetual license owners didn't care about that much as the annual maintanance fee was relatively cheap. However Autodesk gradually increased the prices, and at some point the cost of staying 'up to date' became almost the same with the subscription prices. Finally, they announced that perpetual license owners will no longer be able to renew their maintanance plan as of May 2021.

$600 for SSA vs $2000 annual subscription cost reminds me the year when Autodesk stopped selling perpetual licenses.

 

So perpetual licenses could be renewed for only five years after they stopped selling them. Interesting. My concern has been whether perpetual licenses of older and current versions of CA will still function down the road. It appears that legacy perpetual Autodesk licenses will run indefinitely, but only on the hardware system it was originally activated on. From the Autodesk website:

 

If you have a perpetual license for a version that has reached end of support, you still have rights to use the license for as long as you want.

 

However, for unsupported versions, you can't get a new activation code to reactivate that version for any device.

 

https://www.autodesk.com/support/account/manage/versions/support-lifecycle#

 

If CA follows this model and eventually discontinues allowing perpetual license renewal, I suppose our current license will run indefinitely, but only on the last system it was activated on...

[mthd97]

20 hours ago, JKEdmo said:

 

 

I'm a licensed architect so professional enough I suppose.

 

In my case I was quite happy with Autocad Architecture having used it for years.  However, the aggressive price of Chief convinced me to try their product.

 

Cost was not the only factor, but it sure helped. 

 

 

In this instance paying SSA makes good sense and be glad you started with X14 when SSA is still possible.

 

As for CA following the Autodesk model ? CA would have their own business model to follow not their example.

 

Revit Lt subscription in Australia is $665 AUD per year over 3 years. You can only render in the cloud with Revit Lt. So it’s good value down here. SSA is $1000 AUD per year, still good value for what you get with rendering in CA and framing and cabinet tools.

 

CA’s new subscription service will be proven over time if $2000 USD per year is too much ? They can always lower the price if people are scared off to other options.

 

Time will tell.