Autodesk collection installation

[thomas_aardal]

A large part of my job is helping our costumers installing their Autodesk products.

Today was my first collection installation, and i was shocked how time consuming this was compared to the old suites.

There is no installer for the whole collection. I have to install each application, and only one application at a time.

Since there is no installer for the whole package there is also no deployment option. The setup for each application is not saved to C:\Autodesk so that

it can be shared from the server for installation on other clients.

If i am installing a complete AEC on ten clients, i need to install 17 different applications, manualy, one at a time on each computer.

My install time goes from about one hour to 2 workdays!

Can someone please explain how this is supposed to work?

Regards

Thomas Aardal

Focus Software

[Mark.Lancaster]

@thomas_aardal

Welcome to the forum and welcome to collections... 

Yes you are correct, there's no single install for the collections since most people are not going to install and use every single application that the collection offers.   The only thing that you can do is use the Autodesk Virtual Agent (link in my signature) and download each required application, extract the files to C:\Autodesk and then create a deployment of these applications.   Then push each deployment out to each workstation..  Yes not as user friendly but it will help you in the long run.

[asburyj]

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for your feedback, I have already passed it on to our Industry Collection project team. As Mark mentioned your best bet will be to create network deployments for each of the installs in your collection. That way you won't have to enter the configuration over and over and the installs can be done silently with just a double click. You would still need to install the software one at a time but it should save time vs downloading on each system and running the installation wizard over and over.  You can find additional information on deployments at the link below

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/customer-service/network-license-administration/network-deployment/cr...

In addition, if you are running Microsoft's SCCM software management suite you should be able to create a configuration to string together all the deployments packages you created to install in a row without having to go click on each one. 

[Anonymous]

I thought Autodesk Application Manager (AAM) was a solution.

After the first installs of several products to a client, I moved the folders from the client to the server. Then in settings in AAM, point to the main folder where the initial downloads are moved to the server.

I noted though that I cannot stack the installs by checking the boxes and going home. A myriad of pop-ups regarding AutoCAD installed with the Civil or MEP Architecture occurs and needs to be responded to keep the installs going. And warnings about installer already running.

AAM is not a good option though if you need to configure the install with templates and content and material libraries are on the server.

So a deployment is the best option for enterprise installs. However, the last time I looked Microsoft's SCCM is not particularly user-friendly.

Not many happy campers here.

David

[TravisNave]

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David_Metcalf wrote:

Not many happy campers here.

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This exactly.  The "Collection" is just a made up term for a bunch of software they are letting you install.  But there is no package like the Suites had.  And since you cannot create your own deployment by adding other products, you're kind of left with being creative.  I guess you can create all the deployments and then script them to launch consecutively?  I am sure there are going to be a lot of creative ways of doing this until Autodesk figures this out for 2019.  But I am not holding my breath. 

[Don_Kapetanovic]

As a side note about Autodesk Application Manager, these pop-ups notifying the installer that the products based on AutoCAD installs halt the install until the user acknowledges that is just another issue in streamlining users experience with installs.

Wasn't this wasn't all sufficiently tested beforehand?

David

[BlackBox_]

As a result of new hires, after many years of being on Maintenance for Infrastructure Design Suite (IDSP), we've just recently added AEC Collection (AECC; Civil punny)... And this SMB (10+ employees) could not be less thrilled at the ridiculous amount of additional work necessary just to install the same apps we've been using due to the segregation of licenses and (now) individual product keys.

Back when I worked at a large international design firm (when I left 3+ years ago, 10K employees, +5K CAD users), we had dedicated staff on overhead for the network deployment + SCCM malarkey... Not so much any more, since I was recruited to work for this SMB... I'm a full-time Civil Designer, and serve as CAD\IT Admin as needed.

My non-billable time to prepare + deploy the same products under AECC that we've been using with IDSP is exponentially more, which _really_ sucks.

Instead of me simply RDP into each workstation and installing all products as a 'suite', I now have to babysit each-and-every-single install, or instead invest the additional non-billable time to prepare network deployments, let alone SCCM for such a small office (SMB).

I'm pretty pissed about it, and so is the owner, frankly.

Autodesk had better fix this malarkey, and fast, or we'll be yet another firm leaving... the owner's already asked me to start exploring alternatives.

[RBG-UK-CAD]

Not only is Autodesk collections install a complete waste of IT and everyone's time as usual but the installation process was not thought through.

I understand this is a collection of multiple software but why are we not offered a one installed with check boxes?

The download process is a waste of time and so is the install and to top it all you're not offered an installation media considering the sum of money you pay for it.

[Anonymous]

@asburyj

This is infuriating. I wonder who thought that selling 25 products bundled together and having the users install all 25 products individually would be a good idea? Hopefully one of the 10% of the workforce that was let go from Autodesk a few months ago.

What customers would appreciate is a way to create a deployment that can install multiple products at once. I don't understand how this was never though through from a user's point of view. Who is the project manager that thought this would be a good decision or appreciated by anyone? It is also a deviation from previous Building Design Suites where we would do exactly this, install a series of software in one shot.

Seriously, this is a major step back from Autodesk and an assault to customer's time and intelligence. I'm flabbergasted and shocked by this idiotic move. I hope you guys provide a proper solution to this ASAP and that whoever is responsible for this gets seriously reprimanded for being a nuisance to customers.

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Anonymous

If you have a network license of your collection you can create a deployment using a suite that's closely represents the application you need.  Again this only works if you have a network license of collection.

[Anonymous]

Hi @Mark.Lancaster

Do you have a clearer explanation or an article related to this? Neither I nor my IT guy understands the meaning of your previous sentence.

"If you have a network license of your collection you can create a deployment using a suite that's closely represents the application you need."

We do use a network license of collection for 21 users.

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Anonymous

See the bonus section of this article or the article that's attached here: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/article/61156.

If you don't have access to the suite products anymore in your Autodesk Account you can go here https://ava.autodesk.com/?input=Account_Software_Download_Redirect and follow the prompts to download (using browser download method) a suite or suites that closely represent the application you need from your given collection..  If in the deployment when asked for serial #, enter the serial number assigned to your collection and  the product key associated to the suite that you deploying.  Depending on what you need, you may have to do this using a couple of suites.

Hope that helps.

Update:  Also @Anonymous you may want to review in that article how network licensing works when launching mutiple application from the collection or borrowing a license for a collection product.

[Anonymous]

I will try to use this for now. But let's recap the situation.

• Autodesk had a proper solution, one click to install a customized set of application
• With AEC Colection 2018, they completely broke down the solution and gave us a terrible alternative of installing each of the 25 softwares individually
• Your solution is a partial workaround to the terrible mess that Autodesk has created with AEC Collection 2018

I hope we can go back to a proper way for users to install their software, as soon as possible. This whole ordeal is unfortunate.

[RBG-UK-CAD]

You're talking about a company that charged £5500 for a suite of software and when you asked for a USB installer they asked for an additional £25!

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Anonymous

I fully understand your frustration and others are in the same boat..

It has nothing to do with AEC Collection 2018.   This came about when the industrial collections were released over a year ago.  I know that you don't want to hear this but technically any of the Industrial Collection is not actual software like the suite was..  Its just a term used to group software together.  In addition not every customer who subscribes to the collection wants to

1.  Download a large single interface for products that they never will use.  This was a big complaint about suites, where users only wanted 1 or 2 applications from the suite (or collection)

2.  In addition to #1, repeating the statement, not ever user wants to use all of the application in the collection and take up disk space on their machines.

In the end there's 2 sides of this story..  No matter what's going to be done, someone or a group or a company or some organization is not going to be happy.  I'm not here defending Autodesk choice they made regarding the Collection installation but there are reason why they did it that way..  But like I said not everyone is going to be happy with it.   Hope that helps a little to lower the frustration level. 

[RBG-UK-CAD]

Adobe did it with the Cloud suite.

[Anonymous]

This is a basic UX problem and a time problem.

What is the user experience compared to last year? Terrible

Is this more complicated and time consuming than last year's procedure? yes.

From a UX perspective, the technical reasons are irrelevant. I appreciate your help, but Autodesk deserves zero pity or defense for their actions. They screwed up royally and deserve to feel the wrath of customers in its raw form. As you hinted at, we don't want apologies, we want solutions.

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I will let you know if I come across problems with your workaround. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

So, instead of just breaking up the "collection" into smaller, cheaper to buy, single packages, Autodesk forces us to continue to buy a large batch of products that you just admitted a lot of people don't want.....  Just to make IT people like me furious at the time we had to spend doing it?  Dude.......   Really hard not to be angry here.......  The giant download was an inconvenience, yes..  But really, just hit download on your way home for the night and install it in the morning.  I'd have been done with this by now.  The worst part is the whole "oh, well, it is what is is" attitude from Autodesk support...  Awful.

[karthur1]

I am in condition #1 (only use 1 or 2 apps in a huge download).  I was fine with that too because I could start the download at night and it would be done in the morning.  Disk space is cheap.  The time it takes to manually install and setup each workstation now with collections (we use standalone, not multi-user) is totally ridiculous. 

I tried installing as a network version and then updating the serial number.  Unless I did something wrong, I could not get this to work.  During registration, it says the serial number is wrong.  I think it is because the product key is different between network and subscription and there is no way to change it.  Had to uninstall/reinstall to get it to work.

It seems to me that Autodesk thinks that most users will individually manage there own software (download/install/configure) rather than a CAD manager or IT person install it for them. 

Autodesk needs/should provide a tool for CAD managers that will allow them to create a deployment like we had with Suites.

Thanks,

Kirk

[thomas_aardal]

Two years later... Not much is different. No changes from Autodesk.

I am now used to downloading just the apps the costumer need and i think its working out ok.

We dont make deployments for our costumers anymore. It is too time consuming. I would like another solution here, maybe a deployment-download option with checkboxes.

As an alternative i download the apps via the browser download and put them on a shared volume for access by the users. This becomes a problem when the costumer have multiple licenses with different SN or a mix of NLM/SLM, as the end user can not handle the input of this information.