Loss of Features with expired SSA/Forward

[MDunkin]

As many of us are being transitioned off perpetual licenses, I discovered today that PARAM-O and the Python Palette are no longer accessible without an active SSA membership. Graphisoft, this makes the decision for our studio to stay or return to Revit much easier.

We’ve purchased 11 licenses and consistently maintained our SSA membership since joining with version 24, now on version 28. Nowhere in any online resources or documentation does it state that certain features can be deactivated at will.

This is extremely disappointing.

Operating system used: Mac Intel-based

[Jody S Keppers]

I sent a request in to Graphisoft for information about the transition. As with MDunkin, I have only dealt directly with Graphisoft for the last 12 years or more. I have received no response whatsoever. 

[Laszlo Nagy]

The "Forward" page lists all the features and services that are part of SSA/Forward:

https://graphisoft.com/forward/

So, if you do not have/do not renew your SSA/Forward, these features/services will not be available.

[Karl Ottenstein]

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@Laszlo Nagy  wrote:

The "Forward" page lists all the features and services that are part of SSA/Forward:

https://graphisoft.com/forward/

So, if you do not have/do not renew your SSA/Forward, these features/services will not be available.

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Great link to a summary of provided features.  But, still, it seems unfortunate that individual pages on the web site are inconsistent… for example the links I provided earlier that show that the PARAM-O page says that it is a SSA feature, yet the Python page does not.   Such inconsistency makes it more frustrating for a customer who finds a feature stops working to realize why… as going to the feature page is a more likely first step than thinking of looking for the Forward page I think.

[Laszlo Nagy]

I will inform GS HQ about these.

[MDunkin]

This is an actual response we received yesterday from our new GS account manager. 

" It was nice to talk with Briana last week. We have not forgotten about you.  You are all set to move into the subscription deal we talked about last year. We are still updating our subscription portal for 2025 and once it is up and running, we will give you all the details on how to sign up. I will stay in touch. "

[bryanc85]

It's not so much a forced situation but more like a hostage situation. If you don't "upgrade" to a subscription license and give up your perpetual license, you get penalized financially over the long term to keep support. It's a financial incentive to push people away from products they have, even though they've been loyal customers. A money-grab is a money-grab, no other way to call it.

So we decided to switch our licenses as we were growing the company (apparently at the worst time to be an ArchiCad-based firm). After canceling our old BIMcloud SaaS, and changing to the subscription license under duress, we were given an extension since they can't get us our two new licenses to replace the perpetual onces. On top of that, the new User new can't access our old BIMCloud SaaS and they can't do anything for us except say sorry, we took your money but f*** you. So now we have a new hire, sitting at a desk, doing solo projects, when we've paid all this money for a bad service that has no timeline of being fixed.

Revit is looking more enticing by the day. And hey, I could actually just hire people at that point! So many incentives to not be an Archicad user anymore with this bungled money-grab rollout.