Upgrading to ArchiCAD V13

[Anonymous]

Well my support subscription invoice has just arrived so with the current state of the economy I had to check, Is the upgrade to version 13 worth me having.

I checked with my reseller who said the only thing he can tell me is that ArchiCAD 13 will have better team work. That would be fine if I was a large practice, but I am not. So for now ArchiCAD 12 will do just fine and I can save the money.

Unless there is a significant improvement in the tools why bother?

[Anonymous]

Hi Darren,

Unfortunately, anyone who knows anything about AC13 can't talk about the new features yet as it hasn't been officially announced.

There are other reasons to stay on the subscription, the main being the substantial discounts on other software like EcoDesigner, Building Explorer, C4D etc. Training courses are also discounted, if you need them.

[Anonymous]

Of course we will never know, but this is a fascinating thread - how does the gfc affect subscription/ upgrades etc?

Interesting times for GS, as they must continue development so that the user base has confidence in the future of the product, and so that they have a competitive product into the future.

Here in Oz we had the whole reseller distribution sold to a new party over a year or more ago. More recently a number of the 'new' people who had just introduced themselves got sacked. We don't hear much from the local guys nowadays....

Like all of us it is the time to re-evaluate the business model- make it lean - but smart. Maybe leverage the internet....

lets hope GS is up to the challenge

[Anonymous]

Hi RWallis,

Things were good in Australia when Maurizio was steering the ship. Always felt confident about making the next purchase or investing my time in library development etc.

Since then, I haven't bothered with library development due to lack of feed back and whole time vs return issue hence that whole relationship died a death a few years ago.

The same could be said for paying out for upgrades. If the tools I use does what I need them to do, and there is currently no great new tools on the horizon then the cost of the upgrade vs return in productivity makes paying for a subscription pointless. I don't know about eco designer, but the virtual building explorer doesn't work on Mac so I have had to find an alternative.

It could be argued that I get support at the end of the phone, however I think I must still be one of the few who can still read a manual.

[Wokka]

Admittedly you always knew where you stood with Maurizio and he didn't release the upgrade till it was stable.
It all went downhill when ArchiCamp became a 'thought leadership forum'. What were they thinking!!

[Wokka]

Unfortunately I agree. All the socalled 'special addons' are r11 only and at least 2 years old and the special "arkiklub' library parts are free to most people around the world anyhow. As a small business though I don't want to get caught like some of my collegues that are still using R7 or R10 because they couldn't afford the full price to upgrade and are no stuck and it's easier to finance a few hundred bucks every now and then instead of taking a big hit every 12 months* (Well, it's suppose to be every 12 months.......)

[Laura Yanoviak]

SKETCH3D wrote:
Well my support subscription invoice has just arrived so with the current state of the economy I had to check, Is the upgrade to version 13 worth me having.

I checked with my reseller who said the only thing he can tell me is that ArchiCAD 13 will have better team work. That would be fine if I was a large practice, but I am not. So for now ArchiCAD 12 will do just fine and I can save the money.

Unless there is a significant improvement in the tools why bother?

TW2 IS the new feature -- other "new features" are pretty mediocre -- if you do not use TW, you might want to wait for AC14.

[Anonymous]

Full support 64 Bit does not make me have to wait long...

[Rakela Raul]

Improved Object Handling
Global model view options help control the display and handling of library objects at a project level. Project specific library parts can now be saved into the ArchiCAD project file itself, ensuring the complete integrity of the project now and in the future.

this seems a good improvement.....to be seen tho

I wasn't able to give solutions and big good news... I can confirm though that migration is a high priority issue for ArchiCAD development. I hope you'll see some improvement even for v14. Thank you for the feedback - there will be some serious thinking about it at GS HQ.

Regs,
Zsolt

[Anonymous]

Laura wrote:
TW2 IS the new feature -- other "new features" are pretty mediocre -- if you do not use TW, you might want to wait for AC14.

so i guess all of us that dont use TW paid the subscription in vain. Nothing for us!! Great. I really ask my self why i am so stupid to keep paying when GS simply makes the one blunder after the other.

If indeed the big feature is TW2, then i consider the upgrade stealling my money.

I am also pushed into paying a subscription for AC14... right now before knowing what AC13 will bring.

I hope you are not right and i have not paid for something that i really will never use.

EDIT: I just saw the new features on GS site.

A GREAT DISSAPOINTMENT
For everyone not using teamwork , this is a totall RIPOFF. So why have I paid? For rotating a view??? OK. i dont want that upgrade.. and my money back. This is EVEN WORSE than any previous upgrade. If i used TW i would be very happy ofcourse, but if this is the case, create a Networked version and charge it. Why do i have to pay and get NOTHING AT ALL.

This is a real nightmare.
So why do we solo engineers paid for? Please explain me!

Should i stop upgrading and get the product from torrents? Is this the solution? Stealing instead of being ripped of?? Is this logical??