Deploying AutoCAD 2018...installs fine but prompting for activation

[toffee_paul]

Hi all,

 

I'm trying deploy AutoCAD 2018 and followed, AFAIK, all the necessary steps.

1. Applied for educational licence (3yr) and received licence details in an email (attachment 1)

2. Downloaded and created a deployment share for the software on the server

3. Deployed it to a couple of test machines

 

It installs without problems then pops up with a notice about data collection then prompts user to accept a privacy statement but then another prompt (image 1) appears with two choices, either Run (in 30 day trial mode) or Activate. I thought by hard-coding the serial number and product ID into the ini file when creating the deployment would mean activation is automatic and users won't be prompted for activation?

If I choose Activate, the Product Licence Activation Options windows appears (attachment 2) containing the s/n and product ID from the deployment ini file so I know it's reading this fine. In this window, if I select 'Connect now and activate' if takes me to another window (attachment 3) where it wants me to log in or create an Autodesk user ID.

There's no way to run the software other an 30 trial mode so at the moment our pupils can't use the software at all and I'm stumped as to why

Anyone had similar issues? Any help would be great.

Thank you.

Edited March 2, 2018 by toffee_paul

[ITGuyNW]

PDQ recently did a webcast about deploying AutoCAD, your answer maybe in there.

[nicholab]

If it was like Solidworks you need to a registry key but also had to add in %username% %machine% to say it was activated.

[toffee_paul]

PDQ recently did a webcast about deploying AutoCAD, your answer maybe in there.

Yeah seen that and PDQ is what I'm deploying with but it's the licence part that doesn't seem to want to work, not the deployment itself. Thanks anyway.

[6Foot2]

@toffee_paul: I had similar issues. I contacted Autodesk Customer Support directly. They were really helpful, linking to my SCCM server and troubleshooting the package. All free of charge.

 

This might be worth a go for you also.

 

[toffee_paul]

Cheers Dave, I'll give them a try on Monday. As far as I know, the licence I applied for is good for 1250 devices and doesn't rely on the Network Licence Manager being installed so thought it would just work!

[dapaulio]

Our autodesk is installed using an NLM. The reason you are being asked for activation is because your license server is not available or the license file is incorrect.

Be warned The license file is MAC address specific. I had an issue where my license server stopped licensing autocaf suddenly one day. Worked it out to find the VM had dynamic MAC address which changed for some reason.

Make sure you Mac on the vm is set to static to avoid this happening to you.