Autodesk Licensing Changes - Home | Autodesk … Licensing Changes Date: April 2017 ABSTRACT With...

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Autodesk Licensing Changes Date: April 2017 ABSTRACT With the recent release of new (and updates to existing) Autodesk Knowledge Network (AKN) articles comes changes to the licensing aspect of Autodesk’s applications. Unless otherwise specified, information referenced in our article related to multi-user/network license is solely based on generating a network license for the 2018 product line. Author & Contributor Mark Lancaster Darin Green

Transcript of Autodesk Licensing Changes - Home | Autodesk … Licensing Changes Date: April 2017 ABSTRACT With...

Page 1: Autodesk Licensing Changes - Home | Autodesk … Licensing Changes Date: April 2017 ABSTRACT With the recent release of new (and updates to existing) Autodesk Knowledge Network (AKN)

Autodesk Licensing Changes Date: April 2017

ABSTRACT With the recent release of new (and updates to existing) Autodesk Knowledge Network (AKN) articles comes changes to the licensing aspect of Autodesk’s applications. Unless otherwise specified, information referenced in our article related to multi-user/network license is solely based on generating a network license for the 2018 product line.

Author & Contributor Mark Lancaster

Darin Green

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With the recent release of new (and updates to existing) Autodesk Knowledge Network (AKN) articles comes changes to the licensing aspect of Autodesk’s applications. Unless otherwise specified, information referenced in our article related to multi-user/network license is solely based on generating a network license for the 2018 product line.

Definitions: Previous Use Rights: Allows a user to install and access specified previous versions of

Autodesk products on an active subscription or maintenance plan

Subscribers: Customer who maintain monthly/quarterly/annual maintenance on their products

Point Product: Individual application such as AutoCAD, Revit, or Inventor

Clic License: Cloud based license type that’s activated using your Autodesk login. No serial number is provided

Multi-User License: Network licenses that are managed on an internal server for distribution of licenses.

Single-User License: Standalone licenses where users are required to sign-in to authenticate and activate their named user license. Contract Managers are responsible to assigning users access.

Previous Use Changes License Files - 2018 & Onward

All Collection Multi-User licenses ONLY will have the ability to use up to 4 versions back (2018 – 2014)

Current Version Only

Current + 3 versions back

Current + 4 versions back

Point Products Products not on

Subscription All licensing types

(Perpetual & Term)

Suites

Collections

Single-User Licenses (Standalone)

Multi-User Licenses (Network)*

*This is meant to help users upgrade their software to a non-retired version (current to 3 version back). That being

said, your Autodesk Account will not have that 4th version available for download.

IMPORTANT: Autodesk is starting to enforce Previous Use request of versions beyond your entitlements, which will

make it harder, if not impossible to continue using those legacy version licenses.

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License Cascading In the past, licenses would dynamically cascade depending on the application launched and/or opened.

Maintenance Only

If the user launch AutoCAD 2017 they would consume an AutoCAD license from the pool. Then, without closing

AutoCAD, the user launch Inventor Professional, the AutoCAD licenses would be returned to the pool and a Suite

License would be pull for the user resulting in 1 license for that user.

Point-Product (Maint. & Subscription) w/ Collections With Collection

Product Number of licenses

AutoCAD 5

Product Design Collection 5

With the 2018 release, this process changed and the license consumed by AutoCAD is NOT returned and the user

ends up consuming two (2) licenses (AutoCAD & Collection) when they launch a vertical product like Inventor.

Below are the results of this cascading behavior…

Without Collection

Product Number of licenses

AutoCAD 5

Product Design Suite Ultimate 5

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Order of launch Due to the new License Cascading behavior, users should launch the higher product first, then the lowest license

after (i.e. Open Inventor Professional first, then AutoCAD afterwards). That way, the user would only consume 1

license.

Launching the Lower Product First:

AutoCAD InventorResult in 2

licenses

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Launching the Highest Product First:

IMPORTANT: If a user intends to have two (2) applications open concurrently, be sure to open the higher product

first.

One License Multiple Versions A multi-user Industrial Collection license will only consume a single license if the user launches different versions of

the product within the collection on the same machine. For example if AutoCAD 2016 is launched with a

Collection (multi-user) license and AutoCAD 2017 was also launched by the same user/machine, only a single

license would be consumed. Same holds true if 3Ds Max 2015 was launched along with AutoCAD 2017 on the

same machine, a single Collection license is consumed. Note: As per 2017 & 2018 generated license file.

Multi-user licenses of Point Product or Suites work as normal and will consume separate license to support the

launching of products across yearly releases.

Products that are no longer on Maintenance If you have a combination of Subscribe and non-Subscribe products, DO NOT combine licenses into one file. They

will need to be on different servers/workstations/virtual machines to avoid incorrect licensing count.

Revit AutoCADResult in 1 Collection

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Example:

Subscription and Non-Subscription licenses

AutoCAD 2015 (Non-Subscription) 15

AutoCAD 2018 (Subscribed) 20

Total seats if Combined: 20

Total seats if hosted on separate servers: 35

With 15 AutoCAD 2015 perpetual license not on maintenance and 20 AutoCAD 2018 perpetual license on a

maintenance plan, your total license quantity for AutoCAD 2015 will now be at 20 (coming for the entitlement

under 2018) and not at the grand total of 35 license for 2015.

In this case the product not on a maintenance plan should be defined on its own licenser server in order to

maintain the product quantity you are entitled to.

License Borrowing (Collection licenses only) When borrowing a license from the server where collection licenses are being issued, it will only borrow a license

for the product you choose. There’s currently no way of borrowing an entire collection license. If you borrow a

license while AutoCAD 2017 is opened, it will borrow a collection license of AutoCAD not the entire collection. So,

if you need access to the software offsite, you need to borrow a collection license for each product you intend to

use offline. Note: As per 2017 & 2018 generated license file.

Clic (Cloud License) Clic licenses are new, and only exist when purchasing from the Autodesk E-Store. These licenses are not issued a

serial number associated with the current version. When installing and activating these seats, you only need to

provide your Autodesk login information. However, previous versions, there is a serial number associated which

will be in the format of 919-<contract number>.

At this time, not all applications available through the Autodesk E-Store are Clic enabled. There’s no list of which

applications support Clic license, but the list is growing according to Autodesk.

IMPORTANT: Recommended to always go through a reseller/VAR to purchase software as they will determine the

right products and solutions for your organization.

General The Autodesk business rule is that a user can only have up to 2 Autodesk products open concurrently.

When Term Based subscription licenses were introduced, a given Autodesk ID can be signed in 3x simultaneously

performing different functions and duties. Unless otherwise specified, a given Autodesk ID can only be used once

to launch and authorize a single user subscription application.

A single user Industrial Collection subscription allows a user to launch a Collection application on one machine, go

to another machine, sign in, and use another (Collection) application as long as they stay within the Autodesk

business ruling and it’s the same person/Autodesk ID. The ruling does not permit a single Autodesk ID to authorize

applications on separate machines such that different end users are using the application.

A multi-user Industrial Collection subscription does not permit a given user to consume another Collection license

on a separate machine.

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Bonus This only applies to NETWORK / Multi-User licenses. If you have collection licenses and want to create a single

deployment package, you can use one of Suite packages (Building, Infrastructure, or Product Design Suites) which

includes multiple applications. This will allow you create and manage one deployment. When the software is

launched on a client machine, it will pull a collection license first.

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References

Understanding Package Licenses and Previous Version Support https://knowledge.autodesk.com/customer-service/network-license-administration/managing-network-licenses/package-licenses

What Is a Clic License https://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/What-is-a-Clic-License.html

How To Create The Previous Version For Clic License https://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-create-the-previous-version-for-clic-licenses.html

Combining License Files For Multiple Autodesk Products https://knowledge.autodesk.com/customer-service/network-license-administration/managing-network-licenses/combining-license-files/combining-license-files-for-multiple-autodesk-products

Industry Collections Licensing https://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Industry-Collections-Licensing.html