Valid license required to run AI visualizer? (I assume I have it)

[Martin Jan Rosa]

I am an Archicad user with a perpetual license and an SSA contract with a local vendor, and I have access to all updates. However, when I run AI Visualizer in Archicad 28 I get a message that I need a valid Archicad license to use it.

I tracked down the information that AI Visualizer is only for Collaborate and Edu license holders. So am I to understand that if I have a license that I previously believed provided me with full use of Archicad with all its features (and I consider the AI Visualizer, which is now part of its standard installation, to be such a feature), that I can now expect to be gradually cut back on various features, only to be forced to switch to another licensing method?

 

Operating system used: Mac Apple Silicon

[torben_wadlinger]

It seems that out of the hundreds of thousands of users, I am the only one who reads the license agreement!
Here is the entry regarding the AI Visualizer

3.1.14. AI Visualizer
When using AI Visualizer, the User provides Graphisoft with a user prompt input. The user prompt shall not contain any personal data. It is the User's responsibility to ensure that the user prompt input is free from any personal data, as no personal data is needed for Graphisoft and its subcontractor (Vectorworks Inc.) to provide the AI Visualizer service. The User acknowledges and accepts that its user prompt inputs shall also be used by Graphisoft and its subcontractor for service quality improvement purposes.

Since the Vectorworks service is a web service, it only makes sense for Graphisoft to offer it to subscription customers, because the subscription price is higher than the SSA price and Vectorworks will want to earn something from it.

And it would probably be necessary to build a technical bridge for SSA customers so that they could access the web service, but that's probably not worth it because the service is being phased out anyway. And Graphisoft will probably pay extra if the SSA customer renders with Vectorworks.

But that's how it will work in the future and Daniel Czillag described it exactly the same way in the interview: Additional functions only via web service and thus for subscription customers.

[Karl Ottenstein · Accepted solution]

Hi Patrick,

A (the?) major new feature of Hotfix 28.0.2 is that they have changed the content of the warning pop-up that you show in your screenshot.  If you update, you'll see this instead:

I think this is at least clear now, whether we like it or not 🙂

[Patrick M]

yeah, I guess the only thing worse than losing a cool new feature to a paywall is not having 100% clarity on thats what happened

[Patrick M]

haha! it definitely makes sense to limit it to the people on the higher payment lease, because... the rest of us that have committed decades of our lives to the annual SSA just need to get on the 'pay 4x as much for the same product or lose access to new features' band wagon? 

good on you for reading the user agreement, I guess. 
the ONLY thing that makes sense about this is that it forces peoples hands who may want to stay current with the software and ALL the features to jump to the higher cost. This is a profit driven decision, nothing more.
I manage firms totalling over 100 licenses. Thats not to mention the nearly $15,000 I've spent on maintaining my own licenses over my career. But that cost is going to seem like NOTHING when I'm forced to switch to the annual lease payment. I'll make up that cost in just a few years. Good for graphisoft, I guess, as long as people don't start to realize R3v!t is going to be about the same price... anyway, reading the user agreement isn't going to make me happy about it, but thanks for trying

[Huracan Force]

This seems like what happened to Adobe's customers. My solution is switch to Revit + Veras, I rather spend a bit more than being fooling around. And this is my final year of AC subscription.

[weichiaheng]

If your company’s policy is to treat loyal customers this way—advertising extensive AI features but not actually providing functional AI capabilities—then as an architect and university professor, you are essentially driving me and "the students"  toward Rhino.

[Martin Jules]

I am not sure he's a practitioner in the field. 

[moovme]

We have just purchased a perpetual license of AC 28 at the end of 2024, fully expecting the AI Visualizer to be included just as it was in AC 27. Now we are told AFTER the purchase that the AI Visualizer is only for the subscription version of AC 28. Does anyone here find that fair, reasonable, or even ethical?? We are so disgusted by this, especially with our reseller who deliberately didn't inform us the Visualizer has been stripped out and completely removed from the perpetual AC 28 version, and that it wasn't going to be included just to push through a 10K sale including the compulsory Forward thingy..

In all honesty, what precisely is GS going to lose by allowing the inclusion of the Visualizer in the perpetual AC 28 versions when they have already gone full subscription anyway?? 

We find this to be an absolute dealbreaker considering how GS has gone about this, and the hugely unethical mindset it took to do this. We want our money back so we don't have to deal with this seemingly blatant disrespect from GS to its customers. 

[Barry Kelly]

If the perpetual license is not important to you, then try to return it and try asking for a refund on the proviso that you switch to a subscription license because you need the AI Visualiser.

Explain that this was the reason you wanted Archicad.

But be aware, you will not have a license to fall back on if you stop paying the subscription.

If you do want a perpetual licence for fall back in the future, then you would have had to pay for it anyway.

Now try asking if you can convert the Forward agreement to a Subscription.

Hopefully your distributor will be accommodating if you explain the reason.

Barry.

[moovme]

Thanks for your thoughts, Barry.

You are of course right about losing a perpetual license, however the alternative to step into a massively overpriced subscription (3-4 times the cost of annual FORWARD renewals) where you lose access to your own project files should you cease paying the subscription is not even close to worth considering from our perspective. Yes, we may be alone in this mindset, but it just feels so very wrong. 

With AI advancing as fast as it is, GS has put itself in a very poor position by doing this. Within a year or two there will be new AI architecture software that leaves ArchiCAD for dead and they know it. They cannot see it yet, but things are about to get very difficult for them because of their current actions (alienating its customer base with a massively overpriced subscription model), and now that advanced AI technology has come to the forefront and they have no control over what's coming.. The best they can do is to simply make AI add-ons (like Ai Visualizer) because AC is not designed to accommodate AI in its base programming. And that won't even be close to good enough. Just look at how the Affinity suite of products has severely cut into Adobes market share. Be careful Graphisoft, you're next.