Revit 2012-Can't use after 30 day trial?

[Rosie the Reviter]

I just got done watching the videos about installing your 2012 Autodesk products, see link: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=16883173&linkID=9243099

I am EXTREMELY alarmed because they say in the video that if you don't activate your product after 30 days, you can't even run the trial anymore. Every previous release let you run in trial mode for an unlimited amount of time after 30 days. You just couldn't print or save, which was fine! I always encourage my students to download and play with the trial version at home. What about all of the clients and consultants that people have, who run Revit in trial mode solely as a "viewer".

Is running the software in trail mode after 30 days no longer going to be allowed in 2012?

Please tell me the Autodesk speaker-man was just misinformed?!

[StratCat]

Say it's not true.. can anyone illuminate the situation?

[bearden383]

When you install Revit 2012 it also installs a shortcut to Revit Viewer Mode. This opens Revit in Viewer Mode. Which is Revit without being able to save or use worksharing.

[Rosie the Reviter]

I'll be downloading the 2012 version tomorrow and trying it out; But for posterity's sake, are you meaning to say that the new "Revit Viewer Mode" includes all of the same tools, user interface, and functionality as the full Revit version (except for saving, worksets, & printing)? Meaning somebody that didn't want to pay for the full version, can completely learn the software from the "viewer mode" alone?

[Rosie the Reviter]

I believe the link below answers my previous question.

http://bimboom.blogspot.com/2011/04/revit-architecture-viewer-2012-new.html

What's that, I think I just heard a collective "whew..". Thanks for the input bearden383.

[jcoe]

When you install Revit 2012 it also installs a shortcut to Revit Viewer Mode. This opens Revit in Viewer Mode. Which is Revit without being able to save or use worksharing.
There is a serious flaw with this, however. One which we just experienced today. I had a user who was working on a project yesterday (thought to be in Revit); they worked all day and left the project open all night (user mistake). When they came in this morning, they tried to save and got the message stating they were in a viewer and could not save, export....So now he lost a day of work. In trying to troubleshoot this and review the licensing information, I kept getting the same message. After about half an hour, I finally noticed the difference in the icons. I was then able to piece together what had happened. Granted, a good portion of this was user error; however, I believe Autodesk could make the difference more clear to the end user.


The icons in the start menu for either application are nearly identical except for the tiny "v" in the bottom right of the icon. See attached. The user had pinned the viewer icon to his Windows task bar. Now, if the user had read the titles in the start menu, they would see that one is a viewer. But truthfully, I didn't even notice this until I was looking for it.
When you launch either Revit or the Viewer, the splash screens are identical. There is no indication of which one I started until the Recent Files list appears. (See #3 for comments on this). Refer to attached photos.
In the viewer, when the recent files list appears, you receive the message telling you that this is a viewer and you cannot save, export....If the user reads this message instead of mindlessly closing the warning, they would realize they are in the viewer. However, in the user's defense, at first glance this dialog looks really close to the message you receive when you open a local file for the first time, which was the case.

Anyway, just wanted to save others the aggravation in the event they run into the same issue. I was about 2 minutes away from reinstalling the software, thinking that something was wrong with my deployment.

[patricks]

ohhh yeah you''re right. I agree the splash screens should be NOTICEABLY different from one another, even if it's just a big fat "VIEWER" text there along with the image.

But there again, people need to pay attention more to dialogs that come up on the screen. I think that's one reason why dialog text was made MUCH bigger in 2011 I think, to help things be more noticeable and clear, as opposed to standard Windows dialog boxes with tiny text (which can be very tiny on a 1920x1200 24" display).

[patricks]

ohhh yeah you're right. I agree the splash screens should be NOTICEABLY different from one another, even if it's just a big fat "VIEWER" text there along with the image.

But there again, people need to pay attention more to dialogs that come up on the screen. I think that's one reason why dialog text was made MUCH bigger in 2011 I think, to help things be more noticeable and clear, as opposed to standard Windows dialog boxes with tiny text (which can be very tiny on a 1920x1200 24" display).

[jcoe]

I think the heart of the issue is that the "Viewer" is not really a viewer. With the issue I ran into today, the user had no idea that this was a viewer because the viewer allows full access to modeling tools. If this was a "viewer" in the true sense of the word, all modeling functions would be disabled, only allowing view navigation, panning, and zooming and not giving the illusion of a full, functioning version.

Granted, Patricks is correct that users should fully read and understand the messages before they accept them and by no means is my user exempt from this; however, I think previous installs were much less confusing in this matter.

[nextvkin]

I'll have to disagree with you on this, jcoe, because it's the only some people can learn to use the program, and with those functions disabled as you mention, they'd be disadvantaged. In any case when you open the viewer a warning appears which has to clicked off before you can enter. I believe Autodesk does not expect it to be used by anyone with a full program installed.