Remain license compliant with new AutoCAD and Revit access alerts

[cynthia_roberson]

As of today, February 5, users will receive a notification when they attempt to access AutoCAD and Revit on more than one device simultaneously, prompting them to pause the session on one device or sign in as a different user.

This notification ensures product access is limited to intended users, and helps your organization remain license compliant per the Autodesk Terms of Use.

With this update, this capability is now enabled for most Autodesk products.

Please reach out to your existing users to ensure they are aware of the change.

[GaryOrrMBI]

Yep...

Just had that little "notification" freeze up a laptop where I was getting ready for a Revit training session while I had an active project model open on my main workstation.

We were previously allowed up to two sessions for this purpose as well as allowing a software coordinator and/or helpdesk person to test solutions on one machine while performing actual billable work on another. It was also good for when someone left a workstation running with a model open to complete some task, but then have to work remotely the next day for whatever reason.

This is a productivity killer.

-Gary

[pendean]

---

@GaryOrrMBI wrote:

...We were previously allowed up to two sessions...

---

Apparently you were violating your license agreement without knowing it: now you will know right away without question.

Many folks who used to get surprise email from Autodesk Licensing demanding extortion fees will likely love this idea.

[GaryOrrMBI]

They might love it if it worked as advertised (let you pause the other session so you could work on the one you were trying to launch) and didn't completely freeze the computer.

But the license agreement, for the past several years (since a few months after the named user licensing started and everyone complained about the issues it caused with scenarios like the following) you could have two sessions on two different computers simultaneously.

I could run a session on one computer, walk away from it and launch a session on another computer to test something or to hold a meeting or whatever, and all was good. It wasn't until I accidentally tried to launch a session on a third computer (like I accidentally tried to do earlier this week while testing plotter configurations across different computer builds) that I would receive the message (which, that version would log you out of one of the other computers if you chose the option or it would close the session that you were trying to launch).

This version, which says that it will "pause" the other session if you choose that option (or you can end the session that you're trying to launch), froze the computer up entirely... I couldn't click anything in the dialog, I couldn't click on anything outside of the dialog, I had to completely restart via the good ole Ctrl/Alt/Del. I checked for and installed all Autodesk updates just in case I had something out of date. Tried it twice more after that, same result every time.

I understand what they're trying to do, and, if it worked it might not be so bad. The newer license agreement that I went in and checked said that you could have a second session on a second computer if the first session was sitting idle (which is the case in my scenario).

"For purposes of this section only, “access” does not include batch processing, renders, idle usage (i.e., when the Software is open but there is no user input) or similar activities that may run in the background of the Software (“Background Activities”). For the avoidance of doubt, Your Authorized User’s access of the Software to perform Background Activities does not count toward the concurrent use limits set forth in this section."

<Edit> to include date of agreement change >

"Last updated: January 15, 2025"

But what I got this morning did not work so I can't say whether it's a viable and/or workable alternative to the previous method or not.

-Gary

[pendean]

@GaryOrrMBI Your description of usage appears to be in-line with the original intent, but I suspect enough did not strictly adhere to it that this draconian measure now affects everyone all the time moving forward.

Remember, ultimately this is their software and their licensing agreements (and cash flow), they can change their minds and totally ignore all users any time they wish it. We all can dislike it all we want but it means nothing to any at Autodesk.

[GaryOrrMBI]

@pendean,

Yes, it is their software. It is also our money that pays for our subscription(s). When we give that money over to them it's with certain expectations.

But then there's the fact that the new notification/action tool hangs that second computer (I never had that issue with the old version the couple of times that I would end up with it popping up).

I was able to see it in action by trying different computers so there may be something about that Surface Studio (where I first encountered pop-up and the resulting the hang-up) that is having a conflict with the WebView2 interface that the tool uses... More RandD that I simply don't have time for, but that particular laptop is used for presentations, site visits and other "in-the-field" type uses so I'm stuck having to figure it out.

Even when it worked by testing different machines, the second computer would send the "Pause" to the first computer, and the dialog would pop up on it per design, and I was able to work on the second computer. However, ending the session on the second computer did not clear the dialog and reactivate the first.

Guess I'm just old school. I expect things that I (or my company) pay for to work the way they are promoted that they would work.

Oh well, back to work I reckon.

-G

[cynthia_roberson]

Hi @GaryOrrMBI,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Our product teams are currently investigating the issue, and we expect to have an update for you shortly.

[dan_dankert]

As part of my role as CAD\BIM Manager, I would often use a second computer to upgrade families, projects, repair crashed files or run stress tests and benchmarks to ensure that our computers and our programs are working correctly. It appears that this option was removed with this change. I am frustrated that I did not see any direct communication of this change from Autodesk so when I had this impact me and our firm this week I was "surprised". 

I understand that Autodesk is doing this to stop account sharing, but for many of us, this is going to have a large impact on our workflows.

I find this frustrating in how it was turned on and communicated out to companies. In my local peer group, not one company was aware of this. 

I hope there is a way to disable this on an account or two at our firm or a license type that we could subscribe to that would alow me to work the way I have for the past 20+ years. 

Like another has posted here, I had the dialog box lock up my computer completely to the point I needed to CTRL-Alt-Del and log out as I could not click on anything. I lost work in several applications I had open at the time because of this happening. 

Autodesk, please reach out to me on this topic direct.

Thanks,

Dan

[eschappe_flad_com]

Really the issue I have with this and our team has with this change is efficiency. Often, we are opening models that we are not in regularly and it takes up to 20 or 30 minutes to open a model from BIM360/ACC so while that is happening, I often will use another computer to do another task. Running multiple sessions of Revit on one computer can only work to a point as well, since the resources required for the larger models isn’t practical to have on a computer that needs to now open several of those at once. The other item besides opening models that we are doing troubleshooting on is model management tasks or long duration tasks like rendering or running dynamo graphs. Often its advantageous for us to have another machine that just sits and chugs for several hours to complete a task like updating a bunch of families, renumbering sheets, rendering a view that requires Revit run in the background (Enscape). All of these tasks will cause the machine they are running on to become nearly unusable due to the computation happening hence the need for a secondary machine.

Lastly, the way in which this was implemented with no to very minimal communication that I saw (and I do my best to read those emails) was unsatisfactory. I understand that there needs to be some guardrails in place so that people aren’t misusing software but frankly we haven’t been abusing this ability and it feels like those of us who relied upon this flexibility are being punished because Autodesk is trying to pinch pennies.

Its a shame there isn't more competition or legitimate competition in this space because monopolistic moves like these sure make me want to look elsewhere. 

[CADiva]

I'm glad I saw this thread before I encountered the message dialog.  As a BIM Manager, I too find the limit to a single computer frustrating.  

I am currently setting up deployments on a VM and it would be handy to be able to look at settings on my working computer to confirm I match them as appropriate.

[jan_sakoAW7C4]

How does one acquire the ability to use Revit on multiple PC's & stay compliant? Those on TokenFlex license will be fine, of course.
There are many more use(r) cases, including Automation (shameless plug) PDF, IFC & other exports that can take hours to complete so running them on another PC saves a lot of time. Simply buying another license is not really an option with project access etc. being tied to Autodesk ID. Or at least not a useful one.

[dtpeter2901]

Under this newly implemented policy, it makes publishing models painful since you need to have a seat or Revit open just to publish models.  Autodesk has been saying since 2015 that daily publish for ACC was going to be a thing.  Where is it?  Next are they going to implement a new policy for those on collections?  You can only have one session of a product open.  Open Revit, check the model, close Revit, Open Navis, check the model, Close Navis.....I'm currently running into issues jus trying to open 2 sessions of Revit on the same machine.  One worked and the other locked up.  Had to force close the session.  According to Autodesk they've been posting this on the Autodesk News Channel.  I'm not sure that's included with my YouTube Subscription.  It wasn't on my monthly Insights email, or any of the other 100 emails I got from Autodesk in the last month.  I get spammed with a number of other things, as an account admin a specific email regarding it should would be nice.  I'm also curious for those customers that renewed in the last 2 yrs if this specific license change was mentioned to them when they renewed.  Or was it another thing that was just not discussed because why discuss it?  "We did the 3yr maintenance on your car" and not tell you that in 9mths the back doors will never open again due to the newly added "Feature".  

Frustrating is the nicest possible things I can say.  Autodesk needs to do Better.

[Simon_Weel]

Gave it a try with Revit and it seems the message only pops up for the versions using the browser logon. Older versions don't trigger the warning.

[CADiva]

You can have multiple sessions open on the same computer, just not on more than one computer.

[CADiva]

I've made an interesting observation (hopefully sharing it won't trigger someone blocking this method too): If I connect to my VM using Hyper-V (my VM is on my desktop machine, not a server), I don't get the license in use pop-up message and am able to work locally & in the VM simultaneously.  But if I Remote into the VM as I would another physical computer, I do get the pop-up.

Edit: I spoke too soon. After stepping away from my VM and returning to it a bit later, the license in use message had popped up.

[dtpeter2901]

So really what I need is a super duper workstation with say 1TB+ of ram and 10 processors.  Then I'm one users on one machine right?  Or why stop there?  IBM makes one capable of handling 354,000 individual users.  That's still one computer right?  

Also I did crash several times trying to open multiple sessions on the same computer.  One session worked and the other locked up.  Not consistently, but it's happening. 

[jan_sakoAW7C4]

That is less helpful than seems at first glance, at least for those that need to export an 800 MB IFC file or the equivalent in PDF :). At least until Revit becomes 'truly' multi-threaded & can take advantage of all cores on a modern CPU. Or at least more than one or two. (Yes, fix your models & all that!)

If the solution is money, then allow an assignment of more than one license to a single user & increase the number of allowed workstations for a given ID that way. Having to manage multiple Autodesk ID's is a hassle. 

A 'standard' Revit user does not need this but there are plenty of Revit Power users that do.

[CADiva]

Yes, you might need a more powerful computer if you're crashing with multiple sessions of Revit, but not necessarily anything extreme.  My processor has 8 cores (Intel i7-10700K) & 32 GB RAM.  The main reason for the higher cores & RAM is having enough to delegate to my development virtual machine. 

I run multiple sessions of Revit regularly don't have issues with crashing (at least not due to that).  All other production machines in our office have 16 GB RAM and fewer processor cores & still manage to run multiple sessions without issues. 

[dtpeter2901]

I'm running a 13th Gen i7-13800H, 14 core and 64GB or Ram.  But I have no VM.  Which is why I was half joking that I could simply build a VM and spin up how many ever user accounts I need so I don't have 2 folks working on the same project at the same time.  Of course that breaks the no shared account rule.  Which is really the thing they should be cracking down on.  And they're fairly easy to find.

[dan_dankert]

I apricate the discussion here and hope that Autodesk is reviewing this conversation.

I understand what several are saying here but throwing more hardware at one location will not resolve all the impacts to this change or the use cases that we may have.

My thoughts below are from my support perspective supporting hundreds of employees at our firm. 

1.  "Appropriately silly" hardware and many instances of Revit running on one computer is an answer for some cases, but we have many "large" projects that that take up quite a bit of our resources. When tasks are running that take 15 or more minutes, the silly hardware still can become slow causing impacts on other running software. I have had one Revit crash take out other instances of Revit running on the same computer. We already have computers with current i9 and i7 multicore processers, 64-128GB of memory with current workstation class Nvidia video cards so I am not sure what else we could or should throw at this issue. 

2. There are times I am verifying Autodesk updates on our different hardware. I can no longer do that side by side but one at a time. Stress testing software and hardware is critical for me to test before it hit our production staff as we have seen stability issues at times with some updates from Autodesk. 

3. I also benchmark our workstations and can only do one at a time now when new versions of Revit or major updates come out.

4. If I am working on updating families, templates or any other standards within Revit, in the past I would jump to another computer to troubleshoot a project.  This way I don't accidently push the wrong button and load content into a project or file that it does not belong. If using only one workstation, if it crashed just like had done for our employee, I could lose my other work.

There are several other use cases that I could continue to list here, but don't feel that it will help.

I truly understand by Autodesk has made this change, but I wish it was actively and directly communicated out to firms as I know many other firms that also did not see this coming, and Autodesk would provide a solution for use cases that my fall outside of direct billable production work. 

Thanks,

Dan