2021 - Teaser Tuesday: Collaboration Improvements Make Us Better Together

[Art V 405]

On 9/2/2020 at 9:33 PM, JuanP said:

For Architect users we focused our efforts on:

• Improving BIM workflows. This will be seen in a New Materials resource, Structural Grids, and improvements to documentation with what we’re calling Smart Markers. 
• Additional improvements to title blocks, space objects, railings, stairs, windows and doors.

 

For Landmark users we focused our efforts on:

• Improving BIM workflows for Landscape. This will be seen in Grade Object and Landscape Area improvements in particular.
• Additional improvements to railings and fences

Why does it seem that some basic tools (e.g. stairs) still different between Architect and Landmark? I'm using Landmark for civil stuff that may also include relatively simple structural things (platforms) which need to have access e.g. stairs in this example. Will the improvements to the stairs tool for Architect carry over into Landmark or will they still be two different tools?

 

Tools that are present in more than one Design Series should simply be the same, that makes it easier for VW to manage the tool's development, for the user who exchanges with users of another Design Series (e.g. a Landmark and an Architect user exchanging files) so that one of the two is not hampered by a limited version of what should basically be the same tool.

[Art V 405]

On 9/2/2020 at 11:26 PM, jmanganelli said:

did graphisoft cut their prices drastically or does this mean that they charge way more in the us than they do elsewhere?

Usually the US prices are lower, sometimes even substantially lower, than in Europe and Australia/New-Zealand and probably Canada as well. I can't speak for Africa, Asia and South-America right now, would have to do some searching.

 

This is the case for a lot of professional grade software. e.g. Adobe is roughly 20-40% more expensive over here than in the US depending on the software program.

[jmanganelli 65]

I did email graphisoft and call to ask about the pricing but still have not heard back. 
 

I did not know that they charge different amounts in different countries. In the immortal words of Kid President, “not cool, Robert Frost!”

[Art V 405]

It's not just with software, with other things the same happens as well. A common approach is to keep the amount number the same regardless of currency where the amount number of the currency with the lowest exchange rate of them is also charged in other areas. But there are also companies who charge as high as what they think the local market can bear or is willing to pay.

 

E.g. the euro is approx. 1,10 USD, so something that costs 900 USD in the US would cost 990 USD over here. For businesses the tax part does not play that much of a role, but for people buying something private it makes things worse as the VAT rates in Europe vary roughly between 19% and 25% whereas in the US this is much lower, which does increase the price difference even more.

 

For physical goods the additional costs for distribution, local storage etc. can explain for some of the difference but for electronically delivered products without localized versions it often creates irritations among the users. Some companies like Adobe say that there is also the cost of local offices and local support that needs to be charged, but sometimes the price differences are such that this doesn't explain all of the difference.

 

It's nice for the top executives and shareholders of such companies to rake in more money but in the end we're all paying for it as the business buying these products (software or otherwise) need to recover the extra costs and has to charge their clients/customers more.

 

When looking at CAD software Autodesk is really one of the greedy ones, to the point of being almost extortionate in some ways. E.g. they are increasing maintenance prices at such a rate that it is only a matter of time before you're forced to switch to their subscription plans to save money. Subscription prices have increased as well, it's now approx. 3 times the cost of the previous maintenance over here. Think of what that does to your revenue bottom line if you're a small company.

When Hexagon (of formerly Intergraph) took over BricsCAD they increased the upgrade pricing for BricsCAD from 20% of a new license to 30% of a new license because that "is more in line with the market" . It's how big(ger) software companies just work.

 

Compared to the likes of Autodesk I find the Vectorworks prices reasonable, I'm not saying VW is cheap but at least you don't get the feeling you're just a cash cow as Autodesk does make you feel.

[Pat Stanford 1,526]

The local distributors also add value (that has to be paid for) by localizing VW into languages other than English (and now Spanish) and providing additional features that are requested/required by the local usage.

 

Take a look at the posts of people who are used to the German or Australian versions of VW when they are forced to work with the generic US version. They know the added value provided by the localization.

 

Lots of things involved in setting pricing besides greed.

[Art V 405]

With VW the added value of local distributors with localized versions is obvious, no disagreement from me on that nor the additional cost that comes with that.

 

But for e.g. Autodesk this is hardly the case, and hardly has been the case over the past 20+ years, yet you do pay more for the same thing. My reply was more about pricing differences in general and not specific to VW.

[jmanganelli 65]

I guess since DBrown indicated that he pays about 1/2 for archicad in Argentina compared to what I was quoted in the us, and since others are indicating that archicad can cost even more in the eu, this suggests that graphisoft charges people 2-3 times as much for the same product in some places compared to other places. Is this correct?  
 

Even if vectorworks varies price by country when optimizing localized versions, is vectorworks charging 2-3 times the price in some places compared to other places?  Does it cost that much to make a localized version?  
 

If yes, I just had no idea that the localization cost was so much. I was aware of variations based upon exchange rates of currencies. 
 

 the outsourced localization premium makes sense. 
 

but does it explain why archicad was 50% cheaper for dbrown in Argentina than what it costs in the USA?  

Edited September 21, 2020 by jmanganelli

[Art V 405]

3 minutes ago, jmanganelli said:

 

but does it explain why archicad was 50% cheaper for dbrown in Argentina than what it costs in the USA?  

To some extent the living standards are a factor, the sales price has to be such that people can afford to buy your product. So it may be that pricing in Argentina could be lower in USD than in the US, combined with exhange rate (and tax if applicable) differences this could cause a substantial percentual difference in pricing expressed in USD.

 

With software that is distributed digitally through downloads the "fortunate" thing is that once it has been written you barely have additional costs other than servers for downloads and some software infrastructure to make it possible and a bit of administrative costs for invoicing etc., this unlike distributing physical products. Th

is allows for easier "redistributing" the costs across different regions, so part of the higher price in other "richer" areas could be used to somewhat subsidize the costs in "poorer" areas.

Which to some extent is ok with me, it's part of doing business, the more customers a company has the better for all their customers in general as it increases their viabilty in the longer run.

 

[DBrown 33]

29 minutes ago, jmanganelli said:

I guess since DBrown indicated that he pays about 1/2 for archicad in Argentina compared to what I was quoted in the us, and since others are indicating that archicad can cost even more in the eu, this suggests that graphisoft charges people 2-3 times as much for the same product in some places compared to other places. Is this correct?  
 

Even if vectorworks varies price by country when optimizing localized versions, is vectorworks charging 2-3 times the price in some places compared to other places?  Does it cost that much to make a localized version?  
 

If yes, I just had no idea that the localization cost was so much. I was aware of variations based upon exchange rates of currencies. 
 

 the outsourced localization premium makes sense. 
 

but does it explain why archicad was 50% cheaper for dbrown in Argentina than what it costs in the USA?  

I've asking and the price I got for Archicad is for all Latin American countries, regardless of the economy and Vectorworks is the most expensive of the lot..

[Art V 405]

That is a bit of a surprise, because over here ArchiCAD is clearly more expensive than Vectorworks to the best of my knowledge. At least that was the case last time I looked at how much ArchiCAD would cost. It is still cheaper than e.g Revit though when it could still be purchased.

[jmanganelli 65]

Yeah, when I got vectorworks architect two years ago, graphisoft quoted me a price for archicad that was about exactly twice what it cost to buy vectorworks architect, and revit’s and open buildings’ prices were similar to archicad’s price, and I did not feel that archicad, revit, or open buildings offered enough additional features and functionality and efficiency benefits compared to vectorworks architect to justify their price premiums. 
 

if I were in a country where vectorworks architect cost twice as much as its competitors, I would have made a different decision. 

[_c_ 892]

Germany here. It seems that now Archicad's yearly fee is cheaper than the one for Vectorworks EN, something that I support in form of two licences since a couple of decades, or just about. Vectorworks EN is the USA version, but more expensive.

 

This is a game changer.