AutoCAD Licensing

[Bill Tillman]

As a long time user of AutoCAD who has worked for many different clients now I thought I had the license thing figured out. So here's the deal. Just started working for a new client and they have AutoCAD 2016 installed on all their workstations. My question would be that if they are all legal copies of AutoCAD, which I have no reason at the moment to think otherwise, and AutoDesk now charges by the month, quarter, year or 3 year lease, why wouldn't these guys have the latest AutoCAD which should be 2022?

 

I have a legal copy of AutoCAD at my home office which I have paid for for the past 2 years. When I first installed it (my legal copy) was 2021. So now since I've just renewed shouldn't I be automatically updated to 2022? I've noticed that AutoDesk peeks into my home computer from time to time and checks on various things. I don't have any clue what they are actually checking except for the licensing,  but we all know that by accepting the EULA this is going to happen. So why wouldn't my system automatically update to 2022 since I've paid for a full year of service?

 

I bring this up because several of the clients I've worked for in the past 3-4 years have different versions of AutoCAD. Some of them are outright EULA violations, especially those who use the 2018 Educational Version. Somehow those folks use the educational version but the stamp on the printouts does not happen. Those guys turned out to be a bunch of crooks and cheats and I no longer have anything to do with them. As they say, "Birds of a feather...".

 

[SLW210]

If you renewed 2021 you'll be on that until you go on the Autodesk Desktop App and select and install the 2022 version, they still seem to allow 3 years of versions, at least they did when I went to 2022.

 

Last I heard, old licenses are good, just if you do anything that requires an Authorization Code you will be SOL, like new hard drive, new computer, etc. I think we still have perfectly legit 2018 around here, I think they get the Authorization through a Reseller. I think ACAD 2016 has the  About under Help where you can usually check the license.

[nukecad]

You can get updates through the Autodesk Desktop app.

 

As for why 2016, is there a major customer who insits on it?

 

We had that where I used to work, mainly the work was for the UK Nuclear Authority and their specifications at the time said that all drawings were to be submitted as Acad 2004 format.

So although we had some boxes with Acad 2006, 2008 and 2010 on them (the latest at the time) most of us were still using 2004 LT daily to ensure full compatibility.
We would occasionally get drawings from other contractors with requests to convert them to 2004 and resave them on our 2004 machines, because later autocad versions didn't quite save them the same on a 'save-as 2004' so the Nuclear Authority software would sometimes reject them.

 

Or perhaps the edu plotstamp may (again) be the reason why they haven't updated?

With Acad 2015 it was removed altogether and nothing that you printed or saved would have the stamp. it even removed the stamp from anything that already had it.
That continued for a number of versions until Autodesk decided to enable it again with Acad 2019. (Which is why that other company was still using 2018 educational, it was the last educational version that didn't put the plotstamp on).

 

PS. I still have Acad 2000i, and a Win 98 machine to run it on.
Fully owned, perfectly legal, but that machine is not going anywhere near the internet.

[Cad64]

1 hour ago, SLW210 said:

Last I heard, old licenses are good, just if you do anything that requires an Authorization Code you will be SOL, like new hard drive, new computer, etc.

 

Yeah, I'm still using Photoshop CS6, which was the last release before Adobe went full subscription mode. But unlike Autodesk, Adobe allows me to keep my license and I was able to disable it on my old computer and install it on my new computer without any hassles or being forced on to subscription.

 

As for Autocad, I'm still using 2018. My client allows me to use their license under the agreement that I don't do work for anyone else. I suppose I could ask them to upgrade me, but I'm not bothered. 2018 works fine for me.

[BIGAL]

Re education use, as a ex Autocad rep know of a situation where Autodesk contacted the dealer principle and asked about pirate copies and why as there dealer rep we had not converted them to fully licensed copies, it cost the company 6 full copies of Autocad or face copyright charges. It came about it is thought as a unsuccessfull bidder on a big project lost so contacted Autodesk.

 

For Bill if the company know their account login at Autodesk then latest version can be downloaded, is it www.Autodesk/manage ? The account will show the ID number needed to install. If they have a Autocad dealer contact them for help should be free they get paid while they are the companies rep. Else go to www.autodesk.com

 

 

Edited August 3, 2021 by BIGAL