Local file name and syncing with central file

[Jmhanby]

Our firm has one account for our Autodesk log-in for our subscription. We have to log on to this account to do updates and loading new programs. When using Revit 2019 I was able to log on to my Autodesk account and open the program and save a local file with my account username. After loading Revit 2020 I am not able to open 2020 when logged on to my Autodesk account. I now have to log in to the group account as do the others. My question is can we all have separate local files with the same user name and still sync with the central file? We are about to start our first project in Revit and want to make sure everything is going to work well with the work sharing aspect of Revit.

[CAtDiva]

Are you running with standalone licenses, network licenses or BIM 360 Design?

If standalone, then each license has it's own username associated with it. That user can have a variety of privileges which may or may not include access to install products and updates, but should provide permission for the software license to run. I first encountered this with 2019. Before that we authorized the seats with the serial number and product key. With 2019, the account administrator had to assign an email address to each license that was used to log in and authorize the software.

If network, then you should be checking out licenses through the license server and local files tag the computer username (not ADesk account username) to the end.

If BIM 360, like the standalone license, each user should have their own login access.

Not sure how the central file would keep track of local copies if all are under the same ADesk username and that's what's being tagged on the end ... I suppose Revit could also store computer IP or other information with the username.

[Jmhanby]

[QUOTE=CAtDiva;1345315]Are you running with standalone licenses, network licenses or BIM 360 Design?

When I look at the Product & Services information in the Autodesk Account, it says 5 seats . single user but I am pretty sure we have a network license to check the seats out. When we had just the 2019 version I could log in under my user name and get a seat. But since downloading the 2020 version everyone has to log in under the boss's user name as he is the admin. So if we all have to do that I am afraid the central file will get confused when several of the same name users are saving from different computers. I did find a tab under user management to add users. Is this something we need to do so we can log in as our own user names?

Update: I went in and added myself and it works. So I guess we will have to add all the users. :)

[david_peterson]

Short answer is Autodesk dose not allow Shared Accounts for anything. Read the EULA.
Having 2 users with the same username in Revit, working on the same project at the same time, equals very bad results. You really don't want to do that.

I've seen lots of companies try to cheat and use Shared Accounts for BIM 360. It really won't affect much, it'll just take longer to update your local files. You're just limited by the number of accounts you have for people to work on the project. Seats for 360 are relatively cheap and can be switched around pretty quick, so it's really not worth it in the long run if that's a product you're going to continue to use.