Borrow license until Midnight? of which day?

[ROBinHI]

We're in a little debate in the office of how AutoDesk software checks out licenses. When I check out a license for Revit I select the day in which I plan to return the license sometime the day I select is also the last day I will need the software. If today was my last day I would have checked out Wed May 12th and would be able to use it until midnight tonight, right? . The way its displayed in the software it seems as I can use the license on that day selected up until midnight (11:59pm)? or does it mean midnight for the day selected (Today) which was actually midnight Tuesday? Can someone clarify?

[dzatto]

We're in a little debate in the office of how AutoDesk software checks out licenses. When I check out a license for Revit I select the day in which I plan to return the license sometime the day I select is also the last day I will need the software. If today was my last day I would have checked out Wed May 12th and would be able to use it until midnight tonight, right? . The way its displayed in the software it seems as I can use the license on that day selected up until midnight (11:59pm)? or does it mean midnight for the day selected (Today) which was actually midnight Tuesday? Can someone clarify?
I'm pretty sure if you selected to check it out until May 12 (today), you would be able to use it until today is over, which is at midnight. It doesn't really matter, though. Just check it out for a few months. When you are finished, you can return the license early. You don't have to wait for it to expire. Plus, what does it matter if its 11:59:59 or 12:00:00? It's only a second difference!

[ROBinHI]

I'm pretty sure if you selected to check it out until May 12 (today), you would be able to use it until today is over, which is at midnight. It doesn't really matter, though. Just check it out for a few months. When you are finished, you can return the license early. You don't have to wait for it to expire. Plus, what does it matter if its 11:59:59 or 12:00:00? It's only a second difference!

I don't think you understand what I'm trying to get at. The difference is a possibility of the license expiring a day earlier than expected. If "May 12th (Midnight)" meant expiring on May 12th as the day occurs at 12am then I might be screwed if I had needed the license to work on the day of May 12th. This is the way some in my office are thinking it works. I understand it as I have an active license for the whole day of May 12th until 11:59pm.

I haven't had a chance to really test this which is why I am asking. I'll run a test tonight and see.

In response to your suggestion about checking the license out for months that is not a bad idea, but. I've had issues before where I could not return a license to the license server early. It shows as being returned on the laptop but on the license manager its still checked out. I have just updated my license manager after upgrading to 2011 and this new license manager seems to return the license just fine so I don't really have the problem anymore. Before I would always try to borrow the license as close to the estimated return time as possible because if the license never returned properly we would have to wait for the borrowed license to expire and be able to use it the following day. I ain't waiting months to get my license back.

This is just an out of the blue question that we had a small debate in the office about so I don't mean to turn this into an argument or anything. I was hoping to get a quick answer which I will eventually get myself in a few hours. These days are almost over anyways with my license manager working properly and VPN access that we just set up so as long as we have internet access we should be alright. Thanks.

[eric.piotrowicz]

My gut reaction is that it would be available for the full day that you selected and expire as the clocked rolled from 11:59pm May 12th to 12:00 May 13th. Please post the results of your test though.

[DaveP]

Just check it out for a few months. When you are finished, you can return the license early. You don't have to wait for it to expire.
STOP THAT !!

We have several people in our office with that atitude. "I need Revit this weekend and maybe next, so I might as well just check it out for 6 months." (No, I'm not exagerating - 6 months)
Then they "forget" to check it in- or are just too lazy to bother - and pretty soon someone who is legitimately trying to get work done in the office can't get a license.
Also, if the FlexLM server is rebooted while someone has a license checked out, it is very easy for that licenseto get locked out. I just had someone this week with that problem, and they were unable to return their license.

Regarding your original question:
Think about if you just wanted a message for this evening. You'd click on today, right? It would make no sense to click on today's date and have Revit tell you it's already too late.

[dzatto]

STOP THAT !!

We have several people in our office with that atitude. "I need Revit this weekend and maybe next, so I might as well just check it out for 6 months." (No, I'm not exagerating - 6 months)
Then they "forget" to check it in- or are just too lazy to bother - and pretty soon someone who is legitimately trying to get work done in the office can't get a license.
Also, if the FlexLM server is rebooted while someone has a license checked out, it is very easy for that licenseto get locked out. I just had someone this week with that problem, and they were unable to return their license.

Regarding your original question:
Think about if you just wanted a message for this evening. You'd click on today, right? It would make no sense to click on today's date and have Revit tell you it's already too late.
Sounds like an employee problem to me. ;)

I wouldn't normally do that, but if the OP is needing a license until the 15th, and is unsure if the license will actually work on the 15th or be returned, then just check it out a few days past, then there is no worries.

[eric.piotrowicz]

Sorry I have to agree with Dave. I'm not saying all users would be the problem type but it doesn't take many to make a big problem. Getting a license locked out could happen even if users picked the correct days but its less likely if they don't have a license checked out for months. Also our office is still transitioning to Revit so we still have teams not using Revit or not using it full time. Therefore we only have enough licenses for what we typically need on a daily basis and purchase more as it becomes an issue. We would quickly have no available licenses if our laptop users were checking out licenses for months on end. If you are on the road for a few days or have a need to work from home then check out a license but those are cases where you have a plan for when you are returning so pick that return day as the expire date. Otherwise everybody would wind up saying "oh I'll just return it on the first morning I am back" and then Bob stops by to ask about your trip and Susan needs you to answer a question and you desprately need a cup of coffee and some jerk took the last cup and left the pot empty and before you know it Kelly comes by to remind you about going to lunch in 15 minutes and then at 3:30 in the afternoon you finally get started on your own project and the last thing on your mind is checking in the license now that you are done using it. :lol:

[DaveP]

I have to agree with me too!

Not to be too picky, but in your first post you said "Check it out for a few months"
The follow-up says "a few days"
I'm fine with a day or three. It's the three or four months I have a problem with.

And, yes it is an employee problem. I only wish everyone was as perfect and thoughtful as we are!

[dzatto]

I have to agree with me too!

Not to be too picky, but in your first post you said "Check it out for a few months"
The follow-up says "a few days"
I'm fine with a day or three. It's the three or four months I have a problem with.

And, yes it is an employee problem. I only wish everyone was as perfect and thoughtful as we are!
I knew you would pick up on that! I wrote months, but meant days. Months is a bit extreme.

I guess it's easier for me since we have 2 seats of RAC, and 3 seats of ACA. Yet, I'm the only one here! So I can borrow 4 licenses and still have one to work with. lol

You're right though, why can't everyone be as perfect as we are? lo

[mschuster638082]

This drives me nuts too. My opinion is the fundamental misunderstanding of "midnight". Midnight is the FIRST second or minute (12:00:00am of 00:00:00) of the day, rather than being the last at 11:59:59pm. However I understand most people's concept of the latter.

The only way I keep this straight is to understand "the expriring license remains active throughout the day that it expires". This is somewhat supported by the fact the license manager operates on whole days only. See the "MAX_BORROW_HOURS" in the Autodesk Licensing manual. Fractions of 24 hour increments are not supported.

For the matter regarding the user "requiring" a 6-month...why not set the Max_Borrow_Hours to something like 144 (equal to 6 days)?