GKA_Design Posted August 8, 2023 Share Posted August 8, 2023 Hi brains trust! I currently run x13, which I purchased outright a few years ago. To upgrade to x15 I am offered a discounted price of $995 for the first year. My question is, what happens after the first year? Will I need to pay an ongoing annual fee to continue using the program? What happens if I stop paying said fees? Do I still have full use of the program I paid up to? Hopefully someone out there can assist, cause I'm confused with what I should do. TIA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted August 8, 2023 Share Posted August 8, 2023 I would advise you to call Sales and get something in writing ( email confirmation) of what is discussed..... I believe going forward you would need to pay the annual subscription currently of $2000 .... I also believe you can use X13 with no Issues but am unsure of the situation if you go to the subscription Model and the stop paying again. https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/37322-chief-architect-software-licensing-changes-beginning-january-10-2023/ https://www.chiefarchitect.com/licensing/*** *** Chief has changed the link above to lead to the Upgrade Page now M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antoine Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 so how much would I have to pay to upgrade from CA X13 to CA X15 and does it include SSA? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 4 hours ago, antoine said: so how much would I have to pay to upgrade from CA X13 to CA X15 and does it include SSA? Best to Email Sales Direct (above) but SSA is no longer available as all Sales and Upgrades are now on a subscription Model Only since Jan. 9th 2023. Mick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AugurLiving Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 I’m starting to get very disappointed in CA. They are money hungry. I just finished my 22month rent to own “grandfathered” as they no longer will allow you to buy your licensee out right. To answer your question you are now being charged yearly. Since you upgraded. You lost your license when you did that! fyi, be mad, absolutely absurd! To answer others about SSA. This Doesn’t exist unless grandfathered in, but if you cancel your SSA at anytime you will never be able to get it back. Even if your “grandfathered”. So no more updating if you choose that route. All this is them using all their resources to ensure you pay a fortune yearly as a subscriber for CA. They know most will just keep dealing with the price, so they will continue down a power trip until we as consumers speak up and leave. Plenty other great programs that do the same and better without this foolishness 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M-Reed Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 On 1/16/2024 at 4:58 PM, AugurLiving said: ....They know most will just keep dealing with the price, so they will continue down a power trip until we as consumers speak up and leave. Plenty other great programs that do the same and better without this foolishness Unfortunately, that's not the case. Every program I have followed (Softplan, Datacad, Vectorworks, AutoCad, and many others) all have adopted the subscription model. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBCooper Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 Quote so how much would I have to pay to upgrade from CA X13 to CA X15 and does it include SSA? The short answer: $995, but that will only be for one year. More info here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/upgrade.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Del_Mar_Company Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 On 1/16/2024 at 5:58 PM, AugurLiving said: I’m starting to get very disappointed in CA. They are money hungry. I just finished my 22month rent to own “grandfathered” as they no longer will allow you to buy your licensee out right. To answer your question you are now being charged yearly. Since you upgraded. You lost your license when you did that! fyi, be mad, absolutely absurd! To answer others about SSA. This Doesn’t exist unless grandfathered in, but if you cancel your SSA at anytime you will never be able to get it back. Even if your “grandfathered”. So no more updating if you choose that route. All this is them using all their resources to ensure you pay a fortune yearly as a subscriber for CA. They know most will just keep dealing with the price, so they will continue down a power trip until we as consumers speak up and leave. Plenty other great programs that do the same and better without this foolishness I agree, in total I have paid over 7k for this program and training, i missed the oportunity be granfathered by 2 months, i asked for an exception and they told me to pack sand, i was offered a 1 year discount like the rest of the existing customers or told that I could try to make my X13 work for me which we are attempting to do while we look for a new software. Anyone have any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antoine Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 i have just sent an email back to CA sale and still waiting for a reply to mes below. Thanks for the info, but i'm still not sure what happens after the year runs out. does that mean the software will not work if not upgraded?rogd,antoine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey_martin Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 On 1/16/2024 at 5:58 PM, AugurLiving said: I’m starting to get very disappointed in CA. They are money hungry. I just finished my 22month rent to own “grandfathered” as they no longer will allow you to buy your licensee out right. To answer your question you are now being charged yearly. Since you upgraded. You lost your license when you did that! fyi, be mad, absolutely absurd! To answer others about SSA. This Doesn’t exist unless grandfathered in, but if you cancel your SSA at anytime you will never be able to get it back. Even if your “grandfathered”. So no more updating if you choose that route. All this is them using all their resources to ensure you pay a fortune yearly as a subscriber for CA. They know most will just keep dealing with the price, so they will continue down a power trip until we as consumers speak up and leave. Plenty other great programs that do the same and better without this foolishness I literally have no words...well, except for those... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antoine Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 I have been informed by the sale department that we will have to pay every year just to keep the program running regardless where we want to upgrade to a later version or not Quoted from the sale dep;- (Antoine, Correct, the software would be shut off the following year should you choose not to renew. If you need access to the software for another year, another year of the subscription would be required.) Myself like many others are holding the CAX13 License which for the moment works without paying any more dues, but it’s not without its problem. I started with 3D Homes which I think was the start of CA years back but have been using CA since 1997 seeing its ups and downs but everyone work out the problems that were found. Personally I think that when we pay for an upgrade, it should stay for as long I we would wish even if the period runs into years. It does not seem like good business practice to be grabbing fees on a yearly bases like this, and also refrains people wishing to upgrade whenever they wish, as being in a bullying tactic. I’m an Architect for more than 50+ and can take many directions, but CA once upon a time looked to advance it’s software for people to use and advance into many directions. CA will lose lots by this direction taken of this yearly money demand. but thanks CA for the previous years when you were popular. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDzine Posted February 21 Share Posted February 21 On 2/11/2024 at 12:13 PM, joey_martin said: I literally have no words...well, except for those... What other programs out there are similar without paying subscription fees? I just want a program I can buy and use for odd projects not a professional biz running 24-7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mthd97 Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 Hi @TDzine, Home designer Professional by Chief Architect is an option to look at. I don’t think that is subscription based at least last time I looked anyway. You could probably just keep using X13 till enough new features are in HDP ? https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/home-designer-pro/ I hope the decision to go subscription only for CA full doesn’t lead to a mass exodus to other CAD products. Subscription based is a pretty level playing field there in the USA at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antoine Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 when you go buy a car or a land plot you run your car runs years after you bought it. your land plot stay until you sell it. CA is or was a global software that was popular for its library's and its functioning, and above all looked to advance in it's software updates which CA users contributed to the said. CA will loose a lot of its clientele because of this yearly payment. if i want to rent it, then that is a different matter. but if i pay outright for it, it's mine regardless. CA.......... You need to re-think good about this one if you want to keep existing and future CA users intiseing users is better than loosing or dissuading them. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey_martin Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 15 hours ago, antoine said: when you go buy a car or a land plot you run your car runs years after you bought it Apples & Oranges, and you don't have to buy the subscription. You are free to use your current version for as long as you like. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mthd97 Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 8 hours ago, joey_martin said: Apples & Oranges, and you don't have to buy the subscription. You are free to use your current version for as long as you like. Hi @joey_martin, that is exactly what I am doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mthd97 Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 23 hours ago, antoine said: when you go buy a car or a land plot you run your car runs years after you bought it. your land plot stay until you sell it. CA is or was a global software that was popular for its library's and its functioning, and above all looked to advance in it's software updates which CA users contributed to the said. CA will loose a lot of its clientele because of this yearly payment. if i want to rent it, then that is a different matter. but if i pay outright for it, it's mine regardless. CA.......... You need to re-think good about this one if you want to keep existing and future CA users intiseing users is better than loosing or dissuading them. Hi @antoine, time will tell but we were given fair warning about the changes coming. Many are still on the old SSA system and that’s cool for CA to do that for those loyal customers. After all many of them were paying SSA year after year. I believe it would be good to offer upgrades to the old system SSA and upgrade fees to customers but they would have to keep paying SSA every year after that or you must go onto a subscription. A year’s notice would have been better than just a few months. It’ no good crying over spilt milk as the saying goes but we must all move on. Just pay as you go from now on and the USA is mainly yearly subscriptions including Revit, AutoCAD, SoftPlan & Vectorworks. Archicad is still perpetual licensing and excellent software for Architects. Chief Architect is great for Architects and Project Home Builders because of its building quantity and estimating system including automatic framing. I am happy to pay a subscription if I ever have the need to use the upgraded version in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchroust Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 On 8/8/2023 at 12:00 AM, GKA_Design said: Hi brains trust! I currently run x13, which I purchased outright a few years ago. To upgrade to x15 I am offered a discounted price of $995 for the first year. My question is, what happens after the first year? Will I need to pay an ongoing annual fee to continue using the program? What happens if I stop paying said fees? Do I still have full use of the program I paid up to? Hopefully someone out there can assist, cause I'm confused with what I should do. TIA! This is my current Experience. I have X 14 upgrade for which I paid $599.00. I upgraded to X15 for which I had to pay $995. Big jump. I thought that I was able to keep X15. NO, No, No. My X15 expired and I do not have an access to X15. I did a design in X15, but now I do not have access to that software and it is not Compatible with X14. Now if I want to upgrade to X15 I have to pay $1955.00 Does that make any sense? I think that with their new pricing policies they will start loosing lot of customers. I have Been Chief user since Version 6. (not X6, but 6). Once the one year subscription of X15 expire, you will not be able to use it unless you fork out $1995.00 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mthd97 Posted June 26 Share Posted June 26 They did give us time to choose if we wanted to upgrade to the latest version and to continue with legacy SSA. That time has unfortunately expired. Lots of 3D cad software is now subscription only so there are not many other options to choose from. Vectorworks has become subscription only and Archicad is in the process of doing the same for new users. There are 3D cad products out there that can be used that do not require a subscription and are perpetual. As long as we don’t mind the learning curve and there is no guarantee that these products will not also become subscription only in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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