No longer possible to upgrade from Standalone to Network?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

We have a client that purchased 5 copies of Autocad 2018 about 4 months ago.  They now need to switch over to the Network license version to solve PC reliability issues affecting work.  And they want to start using interns as well.

In the past, there was an upcharge to convert the standalone licenses to a network license.  We have had many customers do this in the past.

Now we are being told this is no longer allowed?  We contacted two different Platinum resellers that told us the same.  They say it requires all new licenses and there is NO refund/return on the old orders?  

Tell me this is not true?   If so, this is just bad for 

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Anonymous

Welcome to the Autodesk User's Community..

As far as I know with subscription based license, there's no upgrade path from single user to multi-user since its a different contract.  What terms did you apply to your single user subscription based licensing?

[DarrenP]

yes Autodesk got rid of this last year when they stopped selling perpetual licenses

the new subscription model you cannot convert from single user to multi user or vice versa

you would have to cancel that subscription and buy the other

[Anonymous]

Except they won't let you cancel past 30 days, even to just modify the subscription?

It really seems like a company ought to be able to cancel/change a subscription when we are moving to a higher cost item.

Essentially they just want us to throw away the current subscription and get a fresh one....who would do that?

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Anonymous

Can you clarify this statement: "To solve PC reliability issues affecting work"   Just wondering why a network license would make a difference if there's something wrong with the PC.   Need to understand the root cause for this switch.

[Anonymous]

When a PC is having an issue, users need to be able to jump on any other PC and keep working.

Or when you have an interns in and out, its very helpful to have Autodesk loaded on multiple PC's, but still be restricted to the number of licenses.

Basically all the uses cases you use a network license for.   When non-technical staff are the ones buying from resellers, they aren't told the reasons to upsell to the multi-seat.   The reasons why it wasn't originally purchased as multi-seat is irrelevant.   Autodesk is a big product and its very common to take longer than 30 days to figure out how employees will get into a regular business pattern.  And Business patterns change too.

In the past, it was always possible to fix this undersell, but apparently not anymore.  Which again, seems very odd as the customer is trying to move to a high cost SKU but can't.

[natasha.l]

Hello @Anonymous,

If you have questions regarding your options for purchasing or changing Autodesk software, please contact the Sales Team for these questions regarding this option from Standalone to Network. 

Thank you for posting. 

Please "Accept As Solution" if a reply has helped resolved the issue or answered your question, to help others in the community.

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Anonymous

With single user term based licensing you can install the software on numerous machines.  If a person needs to jump onto another machine, they close out the application on one machine and go to another machine and log in with their credentials.   Are you saying numerous people are accessing the same machine at different times?  How often do machines break down in this organization?  I can understand the interns in/out requirement but I still think you can work with your current license type. 

[Anonymous]

Ah, yeah, we have.

Thats why I asked in the forum.  Autodesk sales says you have to buy all new subscriptions and the current ones are wasted money.

[Anonymous]

Actually it happens pretty often.  1 or 2 a month.

Users leave computers on overnight....gets a virus or stops functioning or blue screened, bad windows update....etc

Of course, Autocad wasn't shutdown cleanly.  

Now try and login at another PC and it doesn't work.  Business losing money.

Of course, sales and tech support says, "oh you should be using the network license if you don't want that to happen".

[Mark.Lancaster]

Sounds like other infrastructure issues are going on beside what type of license you have.. 

The log in issue can be taken care of easily..

You can log out of desktop app, a360, and the application and start it again or your can do a license reset

Please note, folders of C:\Programdata and C:\Users\[Username]\Appdata (listed below) are hidden folders and you may need to adjust your viewing settings.

First make sure you're signed out of the desktop app and A360 (both are located in your Windows system tray

On your computer, navigate to

2017 Version: ​​C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\CLM\LGS\<Product_Key>_2017.0.0.F  [<Product Key> is the product key of the application you have]

2018 Version: ​​C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\CLM\LGS\<Product_Key>_2018.0.0.F  [<Product Key> is the product key of the application you have]

Delete the LGS.data file.
Navigate to C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ folder
Delete the ADUT folder and it's contents

When you start the application, it will prompt you to choose one (that matches your license) of the following:

Login - 30 day trial or CLIC (Cloud Based) licenses
Serial Number - Students, Standalone and Single-User Term Based activation
Network - Network License server for obtaining licenses from a machine on your network

Yes having a multi-user license would help you out but I'm just throwing out ideas to save the cost of getting a multi-user contract.

[Anonymous]

I see my last response was removed/flagged due to content of me stating my last alternative.

Deleting files and resetting the license data is hardly usable for CAD drafters when they are not IT...nor want to wait for IT.

We are not looking to get around the multi-seat cost.  We see the value in multi-seat and want to pay for it.  But Autodesk is not flexible enough to change a subscription term and wants us get all new multi-seat subscriptions and let the single-seat subscriptions go to waste.

We just made this change with Adobe subscriptions and AlphaCam subscriptions.  So other companies get it.

[pendean]

Autodesk may get it later, but for now, it is what it is.

How many users do you have trying to use 5-licenses that a system hiccup every 2-months renders their ability to move to another PC impossible? I mean, with or without a network license they already have to go to another PC, right? So this hardware is already there, right?

[dgorsman]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I see my last response was removed/flagged due to content of me stating my last alternative.

Deleting files and resetting the license data is hardly usable for CAD drafters when they are not IT...nor want to wait for IT.

We are not looking to get around the multi-seat cost.  We see the value in multi-seat and want to pay for it.  But Autodesk is not flexible enough to change a subscription term and wants us get all new multi-seat subscriptions and let the single-seat subscriptions go to waste.

We just made this change with Adobe subscriptions and AlphaCam subscriptions.  So other companies get it.

---

That's where having a good relationship with your reseller comes in.  They may be willing to eat part of the upgrade cost, especially for so few licenses.

[natasha.l]

Hello @Anonymous,

Please "Accept As Solution" if a reply has helped resolve the issue or answered your question, to help others in the community. 

Thank you.