topic Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan? in Licensing

Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

Martin Jan Rosa — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 14:46:00 GMT

I recently came across a current comparison of the Archicad Collaborate and Studio plans, and I was surprised to see a note stating that the MEP Modeler will only be included in the Studio plan until this October.

Is this really the case?

Furthermore, there are rumors circulating in our local market that the Studio subscription will only allow the use of the localized version (and no other, including INT). This would be a major issue for many offices that frequently work in international teams and often use both the localized and INT versions. Not to mention that I personally also use the INT version of Archicad from time to time due to the very poor translations of certain parts (for example, when creating GDL elements, the localized version sometimes makes me feel like I’m under the Tower of Babel).

This seems like yet another unfair move related to the long-term transition to subscriptions. It doesn’t affect me directly—I’ve already switched to Collaborate—but I know several offices that declined last year’s offer to move to Collaborate precisely because they were counting on Studio. Now, they are quite unpleasantly surprised by these previously uncommunicated conditions.

On a positive note, though—I see that the AI Visualizer, whose exclusive inclusion in Collaborate last year caused quite a stir, is now suddenly listed under both plans… 😉

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

Karl Ottenstein — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 15:51:39 GMT

Excellent questions and post! In addition to the MEP and INT questions, I hope that we will hear more on the pricing strategy. From what I can see, each country will see a different version of the comparison page with local pricing, For the US, the Solo subscription is just $1 cheaper than the Studio subscription, making me wonder why they offer Solo at all since it is so limited compared to Studio.

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

Martin Jan Rosa — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 16:15:23 GMT

The Solo plan isn’t available in our market at all. And with only about a 10% price difference between Collaborate and Studio, I think most rational users will opt for the more expensive plan. (Honestly, I believe GS initially intended to "motivate" users toward this step by excluding AI Visualizer but later realized that removing MEP Modeler would upset users even more.)

The ironic part is that the Studio plan probably isn’t even available for purchase in our market yet. I had planned to switch to Studio as part of the discounted subscription transition offer from a perpetual license—luckily, I didn’t go through with it and was persuaded to choose Collaborate instead. If I had gone with Studio, I wouldn’t have been able to use it this year anyway, as my SSA expired in mid-January, meaning I would have lost access to Studio (and missed out on the better deal with Collaborate).

GS just keeps adding to its communication chaos…

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

StefanV_BCP — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 23:19:27 GMT

From the following link : https://bit.ly/3QJUEJ4

i can deduce that in Version 29. MEP capabilities will be only available for subscription, and even that its gonna be only available to full version of the subscription plan.

Which begs the question, what about SSA/Forward users that firmly said no to the subscription base? Are they being punished?

Truly gross approach, definitely lost a faith in further development, and makes me think what are my next step in tool usage.

Such a shame...

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

Barry Kelly — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 01:42:17 GMT

I see there is a new post in the insights forum telling us what Studio has.

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Graphisoft-Insights/Archicad-Studio-Empowering-Solo-Architects-and-Local-Teams/ba-p/653403

Maybe @Pelin Haynes , you could tell us what Studio does not have in comparison to the full collaboration subscription.

We know Collaboration has everything, we need to know what will be missing from Studio.

Barry.

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

jl_lt — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 06:45:31 GMT

I dont know, but surely there are some chinese or indian software companies paying attention to all this fiasco and getting ready to offer better stuff.

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

Pelin Haynes — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 15:44:13 GMT

Hi @Barry Kelly, thank you for your question and I am happy to elaborate.

Studio includes the full Archicad version (similar to Collaborate) with only one exception: MEP Designer will not be part of Archicad Studio starting from Archicad 29. (It will also be removed from Archicad 28 for Archicad Studio). All other feature sets are exactly the same in both plans.

In terms of BIMcloud, Studio will have BIMcloud Basic, so any BIMcloud SaaS related features will not be available. For more detailed comparison, please check this link: https://graphisoft.com/solutions/bimcloud/#compare

And finally, for BIMx, in Studio, you get the same BIMxPro features as Collaborate apart from BIMcloud messaging and sending issues directly to Archicad, which are part of BIMcloud SaaS.

I hope all these help you understand the difference between the two plans.

Pelin

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

StefanV_BCP — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 15:16:21 GMT

Hi @Pelin Haynes ,

What happens to the users that remained on perpetual licenses on SSA/Forward model? Will they retain the MEP or not? What are the restrictions?

Cheers,

Stefan

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

runxel — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 14:52:10 GMT

@Pelin Haynes schrieb:

MEP Designer will not be part of Archicad starting from Archicad 29. (It will also be phased out in Archicad 28).

Excuse me, but: "huh"?

What do you mean, "phased out"? Are you saying you're taking away features that already are in the software?

That sounds very shady. I'm really trying to give GS credits, but this is such an absurd direction it is taking....

Will the MEP Designer remain in the "Collaborate" version, or will it be axed completely?

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

Karl Ottenstein — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 15:32:01 GMT

@Pelin Haynes wrote:

MEP Designer will not be part of Archicad starting from Archicad 29. (It will also be phased out in Archicad 28). All other feature sets are exactly the same in both plans.

Hi Pelin,

Could you clarify what is meant by MEP being phased out of 28? And not available at all in 29?

Does that mean that a future hotfix/update to 28 will both remove MEP functionality and fix some bugs at the same time, making it challenging for users to decide whether to apply the update or not?

And by not available at all in 29… does that apply to perpetual licenses as well as Studio and Collaborate subscriptions? If so, is MEP moving to a different add in product then?

Thanks… and thanks for jumping in here as quickly as you have 😊

Karl

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

Pelin Haynes — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 15:58:14 GMT

Hi @StefanV_BCP ,

Users who stayed on perpetual licenses on SSA/Forward will continue to use MEP Designer.

Pelin

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

Karl Ottenstein — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 19:40:19 GMT

@Pelin Haynes wrote:

Hi @StefanV_BCP ,

Users who stayed on perpetual licenses on SSA/Forward will continue to use MEP Designer.

Pelin

In 28 ... and 29? So, then MEP is not being phased out of 28 and eliminated in 29 as you had said earlier? Please clarify - your posts have actually only made this entire matter much more unclear.

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

Pelin Haynes — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 09:09:37 GMT

Hi @Karl Ottenstein,

My original post was only about Archicad Studio plan, sorry if this has created confusion. To clarify:

MEP is included in both Archicad 28 and 29:

-For users with perpetual licenses on SSA/Forward

-For Archicad Collaborate

MEP is currently included in Archicad 28 for Archicad Studio, but will not be included in Archicad 29 for Archicad Studio.

Hope these help,

Pelin

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

laembert — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 09:21:05 GMT

And users who choose not to switch to a subscription, after SSA/Forward option will be terminated by graphisoft ?

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

Barry Kelly — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 09:26:51 GMT

So Studio is not going to have any of the collaborate cloud license features like MEP, BIMx messaging, AI Visualiser (I assume), plus other future collaborate cloud license features?

It will be a 'lite' version with no collaborate cloud license features?

SSA/Forward does not have these collaboration cloud license features (AI Visualiser) either but you can confirm it will have the full MEP as it does now?

Hopefully until version 30 - the last perpetual licence?

But from version 30 there will be no SSA/Forward subscriptions any more, so I assuming we will lose all of the SSA/Forward only features as well (additional libraries and materials, add-ons, etc.).

Hopefully MEP is not one of those (although I personally do not use it).

This is so confusing - I don't know why Graphisoft have to make it so complicated!

Barry.

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

laembert — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 20:59:01 GMT

MEP is not listed as Forward/SSA feature.

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

Martin Jules — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 22:29:59 GMT

This can only be possible if we accept it!

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

Cracker — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 03:56:51 GMT

Archicad is on path to oblivion. No proper business strategy, no pricing strategy and absolutely no appetite to serve its users.

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

jl_lt — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 05:45:56 GMT

So if the 29 studio version does not incliude MEP and other stuff, it will be cheaper, right? because that is what logic and fair business practices would dictate, right? that if you take away features from something that previously included them, it should be cheaper as a base product; and you then you can add those features as needed with an aditional price, which would be fair as long those features are now MUCH BETTER than what you offered before taking them away.

Because if not, and now we would have to pay extra for the same products we previously had, without any improvements, it would seem that you just want to GRAB SOME FREE MONEY from your customers, which of course you wouldnt do, right?

Re: Will the MEP Designer no longer be part of the Archicad Studio plan?

Jp1138 — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 09:06:33 GMT

The prices are on the web, with a frightening text on top of it 😅

That shows you thew new prices:

It seems Studio stays the same and collaborate price goes up around 10€/month - no doubt because of the new exclusive features it already had 🙄

It´s also funny how the three year plan gives you no advantage, just locking the price for the time, so price increases should be expected for everyone else every year...