Combining License Files Containing Package & PLIST Statements

[Anonymous]

Here's my situation:

2 seats of ACAD 2009 (on subscription, serial #A)

1 seat AutoCAD 2009 Mechanical (on subscription, serial #B)

All work stations have a deployment of vanilla ACAD 2009 and a separate deployment of ACAD-M
CAD users planning on using all 3 licenses for AutoCAD.
Combined license file.

When a third user goes to use vanilla ACAD they get an error "Licensed number of users already reached. (-4,342)".

Shouldn't PLIST roll this over to use the mechanical license?

[TravisNave]

Well, you would think so. But not really. The reason being is that a Mechanical license is perceived as 'more expensive' than a Vanilla AutoCAD license. The PLIST is supposed to use the cheapest available license. Since AutoCAD is already the cheapest and there are no other licenses less valued, you get your message. PLIST will not take a license up the line. The PLIST idea is a good one, but the reasoning for this is to prevent an AutoCAD user from taking an Inventor License, per se.

For that 3rd user, they can run the Vanilla AutoCAD profile using the Mechanical license deployment when that happens. That way you can still get to all 3 of your licenses.

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much TravisNave. I'm a huge fan of your insights on other threads.

So everything is working as it should, it seems.

(The irony is that the only reason that 3rd mechanical licence is out there is that it was cheaper than ACAD when they cross-graded from Solidworks. )

I'll make these fellers a shortcut to AutoCAD Mechanical as AutoCAD and stop pulling my hairs out.

[TravisNave]

Well, thank you for the kind words.

I can understand where you are coming from, though. Often resellers have promotions where they can sell crossgrades and vertical products at a discount cheaper than AutoCAD. This is to help increase the market share of verticals and help introduce the functionality of these products into the market. Make sense from a business stand-point from both sides.

In any case, AutoCAD is not considered part of the MSD product list, so the PLIST will not work with your product in the way you were hoping. The old fashioned way of running two icons on the desktop is about all you can do, as you mentioned.

Again, glad I could help clarify. Thanks!