New AutoDesk licencing model

[gerardsweeney]

Folks..

I'm assuming someone has seen this?
https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/EDU-Network-and-Multi-Seat-Standalone-License-End-of-Sale-End-of-Life.html

 

Starting December 31st, 2027, Autodesk will discontinue offering new Network and Multi-Seat Standalone (MSSA) License Education entitlements globally. Here’s a guide for IT Admins to transition to the institution named-user subscription plan. 

 

Does this mean that the long running tried and tested model of having a licence server on the LAN that the PCs talk to is out the window?

Or is this referring to allowing students to download the software at home? (Which I neither know, nor care about).

 

Cheers,
Gerard

 

[mbedford]

We make use of Autodesk Fusion 360, that has moved over to a user based licensing model.  They still offer the free license for EDU but, in a similar fashion to MS Office and Adobe Creative Cloud, you now have to have a student account created beforehand to use the app.

 

You can have up-to 3000 named user licences, but you cant automatically sync against your directory unless you purchase a business license (read: EXPENSIVE!), have to do periodic CSV imports or manual account creation for students.

 

The impact isn’t huge for us as its quite a small cohort who require it, but still, its a pain for a solution that has really been set and forget for years now.

[gerardsweeney]

52 minutes ago, mbedford said:

We make use of Autodesk Fusion 360, that has moved over to a user based licensing model.  They still offer the free license for EDU but, in a similar fashion to MS Office and Adobe Creative Cloud, you now have to have a student account created beforehand to use the app.

 

You can have up-to 3000 named user licences, but you cant automatically sync against your directory unless you purchase a business license (read: EXPENSIVE!), have to do periodic CSV imports or manual account creation for students.

 

The impact isn’t huge for us as its quite a small cohort who require it, but still, its a pain for a solution that has really been set and forget for years now.

Hi.

That sounds... Ghastly.

There won't be any money getting spent on it, that's for sure.

When you say CSV imports - do you mean you can have a CSV of

Billy Smith | smithb@blah
Tom Jones | JonesT@blah

 

And then do Billy and Tom have to create Autodesk accounts linked to those email addresses?

Man... And I thought updating the licence manager on the school server every once in a while was a nuisance.
This sounds like a nightmare.

 

[mbedford]

1 minute ago, gerardsweeney said:

Hi.

That sounds... Ghastly.

There won't be any money getting spent on it, that's for sure.

When you say CSV imports - do you mean you can have a CSV of

Billy Smith | smithb@blah
Tom Jones | JonesT@blah

 

And then do Billy and Tom have to create Autodesk accounts linked to those email addresses?

Man... And I thought updating the licence manager on the school server every once in a while was a nuisance.
This sounds like a nightmare.

 

You can import a list of users to the user portal for Autodesk to pre-create the account, so yes using a CSV similar to your example.  The students wouldn't need to do anything, other than perhaps receive a welcome email and password reset, assuming you are not using SSO, if you are, then they just click login and present there standard credentials.

 

I agree with your license server woes, I despise that FlexLM software and used to send the air blue with comments about it when it broke.... looking back now, i should have stayed quiet.

[Gongalong]

Thanks for posting this. I hadn't spotted anything, but would have likely seen it the next time I came to generate a network license (assuming they're linking from that page!). I guess it's one faff replaced with a different faff.

[User3204]

I've already done this for our Autodesk.

 

Only the Primary Admin can do some things, so be careful who you pick.

 

If you do this, you can set up SSO, there's instructions.  We've linked to our Google Workspace, but EntraID is there too.

Directory sync needs money though.

 

You need a CSV per group, which I've done per year, and one for the staff - it tells you the format when setting it up.

Import them, then you can assign products to each group.

Each product gives you 3000 user licenses.  So currently we've got 8755 out of 18000 seats.

 

AutoCAD web, means no more installs.  It's possible to attach both OneDrive and GoogleDrive to the AutoCAD web - per person, not in bulk.

 

I think the students are able to download the isntaller that I have made available in the Team.

 

... Everyone here uses Solidworks instead.