ARS and R implementation

[Steve_Stafford]

Now that I've toured a bit and settled into the more mundane deployment/licensing information, sorry but I'm going to complain a little...

I'm wondering if the new Autodesk Revit Series and Revit are going to create a licensing conundrum.

Since they are separate installs, I'm concerned that in order to allow access to Revit for anyone in our office using a pool of Revit and ARS licenses I'm going to end up having to install "both" on every PC. Or convert all Revit seats to ARS? I'll have to check this out with my reseller and support tomorrow.

We are all set to transition some seats to ARS this week but now I'm concerned I'm going to create a deployment hassle for myself. Hopefully my worry is misplaced...but this is a problem with the ADT and BS products too...which we'll be crossgrading.

Deployment in large offices is a significant issue that needs to addressed in future releases, and I'm not speaking only to the Revit product either. The new ADT was praised for now being possible to deploy a seat in 30 minutes WITH automation!! Holy smokes! That's significant potential down time (or at least after hours work for me) when you consider an office with 50 or more PC's.

We also need the Help file(s) download process eliminated, it's "bad"...we need to be able to create a deployment image in house and push it out via SMS or in our case with Powerquest's tools.

This in no way dampens my enthusiasm for the new release and features but part of me has to assess the "cost" of getting it rolled out and doing so as efficiently as possible. We don't possess a lot of "seats" yet, but we've got a lot of users...real, potential and/or imagined.

[Steve_Stafford]

It's been confirmed for me that I can not have Revit and Autodesk Revit Series installed on the same PC (not that I really wanted to either). They are identical except for two files that differentiate how they are authorized. As a result, I can only install one or the other which means that a group of users that have ARS installed can only run Revit within their pool and the same is true for Revit users.

This creates an implementation paradox, which users get ARS and which get R...invariably the choice will be wrong.

One solution, buy so many seats you'll never need to worry, which is okay for Autodesk, not so okay for our accounting dept. Alternatively, we only buy ARS... or R, which nullifies the "cool" value of using ARS...

Frankly, this stinks...I certainly don't need 20+ seats of ARS and I would like to have some but, I'm definitely not going to play the guessing game of which user should have access to which.

So...I guess at this point I'm going to have to avoid ARS like the plague or only use ARS! Nice try but it doesn't work for this customer, apparently I'm the only one whining?

Products should help business succeed, not chase their tales trying to figure out to use them. It's been hard enough to get Revit here, making it harder for me really is annoying!

Signed...Not impressed!

P.S. Apparently this issue was resolved for ADT and Building System users so hopefully it can be for us as well.

[cphubb]

I too am confused by the ARS vs R licensing. It smacks of Microsoft where you don't know what version of the product you have and whether it came with Office, Exchange, or by itself. Also if you have products thare are on subsctiption off subscription it can get really messy.

IMHO, it was not Autodesk's intention to utterly confuse us but I was told that when we renew our subscriptions in June we will recieve ARS instead or Revit. However if we purchase now we can only recieve ARS and we will have mixed licenses.

I am also disappointed that there is no silent install option with Revit. I am looking to push 6.0 to all the machines and uninstall 5.1 sometime soon. It would be helpful if that could happen at night when I am asleep.
Will there be any sort if silent install comming?

Chris

[Steve_Stafford]

....when we renew our subscriptions in June we will recieve ARS instead or Revit....

May I ask who told you this? I haven't heard this from anyone yet...If so, I definitely won't buy ARS.

I was just told it would cost us $595 per seat to change from Revit to ARS, that's ludicrous since the only reason I'd need to do so is to allow all my users unfettered access to Revit. There is only a $200 difference roughly between ARS and R when you buy a new seat, why the $$&&** would I pay $595 each?? Existing Revit customers should get a free pass...

This is getting me torque'd! :banghead:

[Dean Camlin]

Steve, please forgive my thickheadedness, but . . . What is this "Autodesk Revit Series"? I couldn't find a mention of it on Autodesk's website. How, besides the different 6.0 licensing scheme which we've all wrestled with lately, is the administration of the Revit program any different from what we had before?

[Scott D Davis]

Revit Series is Revit 6.0 and AutoCAD 2004 bundled together, under a licensing agreement.

[Steve_Stafford]

Click Autodesk Revit Series (http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=3761844&siteID=123112)

It is an attempt to help/encourage firms to transition to Revit by allowing them to have access to "both" applications. It is a product by itself apart from Revit or Autocad and as such, is licensed/authorized separately. It is a great idea for a firm that wants or needs both as it is basically "throwing" in AutoCAD for a song...

However as my lamentation indicates above, it brings with it implementation ramifications that you must carefully consider before going out and buying it or upgrading to it.

As ARS, one PC can run Revit and Autocad at the same time, however, user A can not run Revit while user B runs Autocad because ARS consumes the license for both applications when one is run. (except, as I said before, when run on the same PC.) For true concurrent use you must buy separate products.

HTH

[Wes Macaulay]

I can see your problem Steve - what if you have both Revit and ARS in one office? Revit licenses as a different bird than ARS - and it's a totally different license.

Since you can't install Revit (vanilla) and Revit (ARS) on the same computer, it does limit your options in that respect. They are two different license pools.

Bummer that!

[Dean Camlin]

Thanks, Steve, now I understand. And I had been considering getting such a license. This gives me a reason to be a bit more cautious.

[cphubb]

[quote:cf5c5f1428="cphubb"]....when we renew our subscriptions in June we will recieve ARS instead or Revit....

May I ask who told you this? I haven't heard this from anyone yet...If so, I definitely won't buy ARS.

I was just told it would cost us $595 per seat to change from Revit to ARS, that's ludicrous since the only reason I'd need to do so is to allow all my users unfettered access to Revit. There is only a $200 difference roughly between ARS and R when you buy a new seat, why the $$&&** would I pay $595 each?? Existing Revit customers should get a free pass...

This is getting me torque'd! :banghead:[/quote:cf5c5f1428]

Steve,

I heard that from our reseller after reading it on either zoog or the Revit newsgroup. I cannot find the thread yet. It was written shortly after the Revit series was released. Someone else asked the question and Autodesk replied. I asked the question of my reseller and they thinkthat is correct. Personally I find the whole mess confusing. Maybe next we will get the Autodesk Office. ACAD, Revit, Vis, Buzzsaw and it will only cost $10k. I'll take 2 thank you. LOL But that will be a whole new license and if you log on to Buzzsaw your partner can't open Revit.


Anyway I ramble.

Merry Christmas

Chris

[Steve_Stafford]

Thanks...it is annoying...but it's Christmas Eve, so Peace and goodwill toward all etc...

Merry (insert your holiday here) Christmas!

[cphubb]

Steve,

I remembered where I first heard the subscription thing. It was on the Lynn Allen webcast. In the chat someone asked if current subscription members would recieve ACAD '04. She said no but they would recieve them when they renewed the subscription. I asked my reseller if this was true and they said they think so. We were supposed to recieve the chat transcript by email but I haven't seen it yet. Maybe when (and if) we get that you can confirm it. Check wth your reseller also.

Happy Holidays

Chris

[Steve_Stafford]

When I checked with our reseller, at first they didn't know what ARS was, then they recalled that they got "something" in the mail. So...since our reseller is usually quite on top of things, I'm assuming that the big "A" hasn't quite gotten all the necessary information out yet??

I watched the webcast, but didn't stick around for the chat session. We renewed our subscription in Nov. so I've got a long wait if so.