Autodesk Design Suites – Skip the Hiccups

This year Autodesk released several new bundles of software called Design Suites. You can learn more about these great deals here. 

As with any new thing, there have been a few minor hiccups that we have seen in technical support. Here are the issues and what you can do to avoid them.

Standalone:

• Software can’t be split between computers. If you have one seat of the Design Suite you can install all of the software on one computer. You can’t install some items (Navisworks and 3ds Max) on one machine and other items (AutoCAD and Revit) on another machine.  In these situations we would recommend either a second seat or to buy a network version for computers that would not be in use at the same time.

Network:

• Don’t install the software as a trial. There is the temptation to install the software right away, even when your network licenses have not been set up yet. With the various Design Suites the software you choose is installed all at once. It is much quicker than installing the software one by one, but once it is installed, there is no way to uninstall all of them. So, the trials that were installed to get you started sooner must then be uninstalled one at a time so that they can then be reinstalled using the network license information.
• Request network licenses for all of your software at the same time. When using the Design Suite licenses in a license file it needs to have the same issue date as the other licenses or it will cancel out the other licenses.
• Order the licenses in the order they would cascade. In order to avoid any potential issues we  recommend reorganizing the license file in the cascade order, for most companies this will be point product, suite, design suite; for example – AutoCAD, Revit, Revit Suite, Design Suite.  A cleaned up license file will have these parts:

Server Lines (SERVER, USE_SERVER, VENDOR)

AutoCAD Package and Increment

Revit Package and Increment

Building Design Suite Package and Increment

PList Increment (only the highest version found in your licenses, e.g. ’adskflex 1.000’)

• AutoCAD 2012 should be installed using the Design Suite product key. Only an AutoCAD 2012 with a Design Suite product key will pull a Design Suite license. As a result, you might end up with a user who has opened Navisworks and AutoCAD and is using two licenses. If you reinstall that AutoCAD and use the suite information, that user would then only use one license (from the Design Suite). This does not affect the AutoCAD verticals; Architecture, MEP, and Structural Detailing.

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Jesika DiGregorio
Technical Support Specialist
Jesika received her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon where she worked on construction of a student-designed structure. Her work experience includes Junior Designer at an award-winning firm specializing in architecture and land planning, and Intern Architect at a firm that provides services in planning, design, construction documents and construction administration for projects of all sizes. Jesika provides online and phone technical support to Ideate clients from the Ideate Authorized Training Center in Portland, Oregon.

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