Graphisoft/ Archicad annual “membership”

[archigreen]

I feel there is a need to reward loyal members.

What if the more time you stick to the program the cheaper the annual membership is?

Does it make sense to you?

[SenecaDesignLLC]

I might have upgraded to 25 and even 26 if that were the case. 

Nothing in the last 3 or 4 releases has been that advantages for small residential designers.

[Djordje]

If it were so, after 27 years, they should be paying me to use it... 😄

I do not think this is a realistic option.

[DGSketcher]

With our 27 years experience I would be quite happy if GS started paying back, particularly for the last 3 years of non-delivery and all the free advice they have ignored. 

And who said anything round here was realistic anymore. It's all about sales BS & profit and less about product.

[Djordje]

Well, look at the world we live in... lots of appearance, little to none of substance. Why would Graphisoft be different? A traded company with shareholders, part of a large conglomerate. What do you expect?

The human touch days are long gone, and the newer users than us dinosaurs will never know the times when actual people who developed the software took part in the forum and discussed issues.

It is interesting, though, that, despite having at least three dedicated channels for feedback that I know of, they still were asking for a feedback in the Q&A session. It could mean a few things:

- the actual feedback is being filtered and only the feedback that supports the current path is passed on
- the actual feedback is ignored and the current path is decided based on the shareholders' and the holding group's interests
- the actual feedback is used to design damage control (current path vs. actual userbase requirements)

I will repeat that I am VERY happy with Graphisoft finally realizing that their offering should be multidisciplinary. Architects as such are the most ignored profession in the construction industry, and the money is with the developers and the contractors. They hold the purse strings. Why is that so is way beyond this forum, so let's not go there.

However, being multidisciplinary means connecting SEAMLESSLY with CURRENT workflows... I have no use for SAF, since none of the structural packages that are SAF compatible are used in the region of the world I work in, and the approving authorities will not accept the calculations and design done with any of those. End of SAF story.

IFC parameters for German building permit submissions? Why is that a feature in international new version presentation? Good for the Germans. Did you check the IFC requirements for Dubai, or any other place, where the submissions are also done in IFC format?

Yes, the BASE has to be cleaned up and a "no feature" version (or update... it should be quarterly, right?) should be happening for or before 27. The long standing issues have to be cleared. They will only exponentially grow with the introduction of more structural and MEP tools, since they are in the base of the software.

We have seen a modular software structure for the future. This is good and efficient, PROVIDED the base is sound and bulletproof. Otherwise...

I probably have a few more years with the software, and then can continue being even grumpier old man 😄 You youngsters, do not keep quiet. That is all you can do.

[Eduardo Rolon]

As it stands AC27 will be my last paid SSA update.

The rest of this year will be spent in re-learning VW and testing how to run AC26 within a Virtual Machine in macOS. If I get it to work then I will be upgrading every 6+ years which looks like the correct time frame for GS to provide an useful version.

[archigreen]

Isn't VW pat of the same Nemetschek Company? I think the same policies will be in place over all their products. But what's the alternative then?

[Eduardo Rolon]

Nemetschek lets each company run independent so VW does not have to use the same policies. Betting that they will learn from the mistakes of GS.