Revit 5.1L

[davidwlight]

This is just a quick message to say that Revit licensing has changed...if you didn't already know! The license management of the product is now like all other Autodesk products. So rather than connecting to the web at various intervals to update your subscription; now you install, connect to the web or contact your dealer, to obtain an authorisation code. This does not effect existing customers; but my guess is that when v6 arrives we will all be moved over to the new license management.
In some ways it makes sense to follow the standard Autodesk license format, but the beauty of the current system is that you load the product twice...on say your laptop & a workstation. In the future this may not be made that easy, you will probably have to use Autodesks portable license utility. Although a clever piece of technology, I have spent many a day taking support calls to users of Autocad, who either don't understand how it works or who have trashed the code during transfer. This normally ends up with you having to re-authorise the product, not much help if you've got project work to get out the door! If you do need to re-authorise don't count on the online authorisation, your friendly Autodesk dealer may actually be able to gain the new code far quicker.

[aaronrumple]

The PLU of Viz is a bad piece of licensing technology. 100% of my clients trying to use this with Viz failed. Some were never able to get it to work properly no matter what they did.

The Revit was one of the cleverest licensing schemes I've ever seen. When working with Revit <pre-adsk> - all the resellers commented on how we wished all Autodesk software used this technology. It was fair to both Autodesk in protecting their rights and simple for the client to use.

Once again Carol Bartz is extremely short sighted in recognizing good technology when she see's it. Revit should be the model for the other Autodesk departments. There is one other bight note at Autodesk - Envision - a cleverly designed program that is a breath of fresh air for an otherwise stale assortment of AutoCAD regurgitations. Unfortunately this app is being killed prior to uses having a chance to discover it.

God save us from Volo View....

- an ex-reseller.

[gregcashen]

This all sounds like a convincing argument to engage the services of that guy in all of the newsgroups that keeps offering me "backups" of my "softwares".

As far as I am concerned, the first day that the Autodesk (or any company) licensing scheme actually encumbers my ability to work, I will consider it a breach of contract and do what must be done to ensure no downtime. It is not ethical to force users into one-way EULA's that offer no protection to the customer but prevent the software company from taking any liability for bad-code, unavailable software, etc. We need to have EULA's (end user licensing agreements) that are more like SLA's (service level agreements), where the software company is bound to provide a certain level of service or voids the subscrpiption payment for that month. I know this is a pipe dream.

Software companies have got to realize there is a reason people pirate software, and this is one of them. Dongles are another.

[BomberAIA]

Did you use Autocad R13? There were bugs in the program that caused you to crash and loose all your data. We should have filed a class action lawsuite then for all the down time. Now ADSK has screwed up Revit. Revit was going to update every 90 days...what happened? Revit sold us out...that's my 2 cents.

[aggockel50321]

Anybody happen to read this...

http://go.cadwire.net/?29793,1,101.335,1103

Looks like this might be the scheme.

[Chad Smith]

While I like being able to transfer a license to another computer, I hate the way that the ADLM goes about it.

I've lost count at the number of times I've tried to transfer an AutoCAD license and it has failed in one way or another.
This means that the computer that it has been exported from is now not working and AutoCAD needs re-authorising. Here in Australia, according to Autodesk Australia we don't have a phone number we can contact to get an instant code, so we have to either email or fax.
Last time this happened, I sent off an email asking for a code, and then a drone over in Singapore had the nerve to ask you why you need a replacement code and waste more of my time. It was 1.5 days before my unusable computer was fixed and running again.

And then there's the times when you are working away, and AutoCAD decides mid-command that your license isn't valid anymore and it must shut-down. A restart of AutoCAD usually fixes the problem, but what a pain in the a$$. Last time this license failure happened I had to get a new license, and had to go through the same BS as I described above.
Check out the attached screenshots.

I 100% agree with Greg on this one, I have considered keeping in my back of goodies a crack for the software, so when it does go down I can keep working. I then get the new code, un-crack the software and install the new license. Hackers could now have a legitimate use. They can keep you going when the software developer can't/won't.

To cut this story short, ADLM is **** and Autodesk needs to find a better way. Hackers are still defeating the licensing software (do a quick search on Google) and all it is doing is complicating and annoying the legitimate user.

[Steve_Stafford]

What software version(s) are you running now? We've been using ADTr3.3 and such for nearly two years now and I've never had an error or been unable to pull a license other than running out of them.

The ADLM currently uses FlexLM from Globtrotter...is this Cdilla related to standalone seats? I thought that Cdilla was the old ADLM system? I have a feeling if you were running newer software these issues would evaporate? Just wondering... (then again you aren't in the States so maybe my thoughts are irrelevant?)

[aaronrumple]

The ADLM of ADT 3.3 is the network version <...3.3 doesn't allow for checking out a license to a laptop - newer version of FlexLM should.> That looks like it will be the same.

However what is under discussion is the standalone scheme. This is very much unlike standalone AutoCAD/ADT.

[aaronrumple]

..oh yes. International versions of adsk software are "locked" US versions are "unlocked". However I expect that to start changing as all the demo disks are "locked" even in the US - so US customers are now getting locked versions.

Locked versions use the c-dilla LM.

[davidwlight]

To follow on....Its very interesting what Greg said about cracked software. I was recently speaking to a supplier of 3dsmax. They said that they had a customer with around 20 seats of 3dsmax, working on playstation games. They had so many problems with cdilla & the standalone license manager that at least once a week they had to apply for a new license!! It got so bad waiting for Autodesk/Discreet, that they where loosing hours upon hours of productivity time. In the end the customer got on the web, downloaded a code generator & by passed Autodesk/Discreet completely. Why I don't advocate this sort of thing...you can see the customers point of view, time is money & Autodesk/Discreet slow response times are costing the end user money.

[gregcashen]

There is nothing in most of the EULA's that I have read that disallows the use of key generators on software for which you hold a valid license. Likewise cracks, hacks, patches, etc., so long as I don't write them. I cannot change the source code, reverse engineer, or alter the software myself, but I am not prevented from going to a better software developer/consultant for a software fix if, for instance, Microsoft can't fix activation in XP (they already effectively disabled it, of course).

I am not condoning pirating software, but using the tools that are out there to solve problems is my job...I would be stupid to ignore that when it came to my software, wouldn't I?