Activating AutoCAD LT 2016 with Perpetual License Purchased After 1/31/2016

[kurt]

I'm trying to purchase a perpetual license of AutoCAD LT 2016 (to match all our other workstations) for a new CAD employee, and I've found it on a few websites but they do not appear to be the usual (or even authorized) sellers.

If I purchase AutoCAD LT 2016 perpetual license (on disk with license key), will I be able to install and activate it even though the perpetual license hasn't been sold since 1/31/2016? I don't want to buy it only to find out that AutoDesk is no longer allowing activations of perpetual license for AutoCAD LT 2016.

I have no interest in a maintenance subscription so that is not a factor.

I'm just looking for an official answer before I take the plunge and buy AutoCAD LT 2016 w/perpetual license and wast our money if we can't activate it.

Regards

[Anonymous]

Autodesk has stopped selling perpetual licenses of Autocad LT on Jan 31, 2016

if you found a copy it is most likely an illegal copy

[kurt]

The website that is selling it (I can provide the website to you via private message upon request) has told me that it is brand new, never opened or used, and that they purchased lots of copies of the software from other sources (such as Amazon) prior to 1/31/2016 in order to meet the demand for it (knowing AutoDesk was going to stop selling it)
They say it is no different than if I had purchased it prior to 1/31/2016 and waited till now to install and activate it.
They do back it up with a money-back guarantee, so it is probably little risk, it is more of the hassle if AutoDesk's activation system won't let me activate because we're now almost 5 months past 1/31/2016.

A second question regarding subscriptions.
If I have to go with subscription for AutoCAD LT, can I choose to download and install AutoCAD LT 2016 and stay on 2016 to match our other systems? Or does it force us to use 2017 and always stay on the most up to date version?
My CAD manager is very picky about upgrading ... she doesn't want to support different versions.

Thank you for your help!

[matthew.d]

Hi @kurt,

Welcome to the community!

Excellent questions! So although they may have perpetual licenses, there actually is a bit of a difference from trying to purchase those now instead of from us. It's that this will be a violation of your license agreement, as these cannot be resold.

As for your second question. If you were to buy a subscription you are entitled to the three most current versions of the software, so yes, you could stay with AutoCAD LT 2016 to match all of your other licenses via a subscription.

[pendean]

May I ask why you are afraid to post a link to this "legit" website selling "legit" licenses? Or are you that reseller and this is your way of fishing to see if you can do sell boxed products?

Just curious... .

[kurt]

Matt, I'm just trying to understand how subscriptions work, so if we were to purchase a subscription (assume we purchase annual and renew each year for the foreseeable future), download & install AutoCAD LT 2016 and activate it. Provided we keep the subscription active (ie; renew each year/term), do we then have to upgrade to a newer version of AutoCAD LT once 2016 is no longer one of the three most current versions? IE: when AutoCAD LT 2019 comes out and 2017, 2018 & 2019 are the three most current versions, do we have to upgrade to any of those from 2016 at any point? Or as long as we renew our subscription can we keep using 2016 that we previously downloaded and activated?
Our CAD Manager prefers to upgrade every 5-6 years rather than the every 3 we have budgeted in our software budget.

And to answer Dean's question, the website is: The website is: http://www.nottoooldtobesold.com/AutoCAD-LT-2016-p/057H1-AB5111-1001.htm
I didn't want to post a website that was illegal or banned without permission first.

[pendean · Accepted solution]

>>>...Our CAD Manager prefers to upgrade every 5-6 years ...<<<
Since you are giving Autodesk money every year with an annual subscription, it's up to you all to decide to either waste that money by not getting new software or upgrade every year or every couple of years. Are you sure your corporate bean-counters will think this is a good idea?

>>>...every 3 we have budgeted in our software budget....<<<
You pay for annual subscriptions now: you can buy three years ahead of time if you want.

Once LT2016 is no longer on the list of "older' versions you can use in your Accounts log-in, that does indeed mean you have to give up LT2016.

In your case, that would be when LT2019 comes out OR when Autodesk decides to give up the idea of letting you access older versions (they can do that), whichever comes first.

Thanks for the link: read this about them http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-2013-2014-2015-2016-2017/is-this-website-legal/td-p/5984892

[kurt]

Many thanks Dean for your help!

The main reason I'm trying to get as much information as possible is our other designers are all on AutoCAD LT 2016 with perpetual licenses so our CAD Manager wants the new designer on the same system. She's concerned about compatibility down the line if we have one designer on a newer version of AutoCAD LT and herself and the other 4 designers are still on AutoCAD LT 2016. 

Budget-wise it makes no difference to me as the overall budget won't change, what we actually use will change. I'm sure our CEO will be upset as I'm guessing he's been happy with the CAD department's software expenditures being about half what I have on the budget every year.

Thanks again for all your help!!

[matthew.d]

I think it's important to note here, if you have an active subscription with say 2016 enabled and you always keep it active, even in 2020 you will have access to the 2016 version. If you have entitlements you keep them, we don't drop them off your access if you are keep auto-renewing the subscription.

The new subscriptions only get the 3 most current.