Managing Autodesk Subscription Single-User Licenses

Many of you are well aware by now that Autodesk perpetual licenses are officially a thing of the past. If someone wishes to purchase a new license now the only option is to purchase a desktop subscription.  The desktop subscription includes two options. . .single-user licenses (similar standalone) or multi-user (AKA network licenses). We will focus on single-user licenses here.

With this new licensing model companies will have to assign licenses to specific named users.  This named user can technically go to any computer and install and activate the software (so long as the system meets the requirements to run the software) from anywhere.  Once there has been an activation on one computer the software on the others are rendered useless until the user signs in again.  With that said, the company must also remember to unsassign the software and remove users from their account should the named user leaves.

There have been some instances we’ve seen where users are having issues activating their licenses. This issue usually happens because the contract manager (the person purchasing the software) is the same person to whom the licenses are originally assigned.  This means that this contract manager needs to first unassign the license from himself/herself and then reassign the license to the named user.

So how to manage this. . .

1. When the contract manager (person purchasing the software) completes the order Autodesk initially assigns all licenses to that person.  That person must first access their Autodesk account to begin managing the licenses.
2. The contract manager must then add users to their account.  The first two steps can be better understood by reading this:  Add Users in Autodesk Account. This short video should also help: Adding Users & Assigning Software within your Autodesk Account. Please note that it is recommended to created accounts for employees using your company domain rather than an individual’s e-mail address. Educational software should be assigned to and individual’s personal e-mail address and not their corporate account. This due to the fact that educational software licensing supersedes and assigned software. So if a person uses a personal e-mail address to obtain educational software and the same e-mail address is used when the contract manager assigns the software then the educational software license will be what is activated on the users system.
3. The contract manager must then grant the user access to the software:  Managing User Access. The same video in step #2 will also walk you through this process: Adding Users & Assigning Software within your Autodesk Account.
4. When the contract manager creates the user account (in step #2) the user will then receive an e-mail from Autodesk asking them to verify their e-mail address. At this time they will also be asked to create a password for their Autodesk account.
5. The user will then launch the software for the first time and be prompted to select how he/she wants to activate their software. The user will select the “Sign In” option and enter his/her e-mail address and Autodesk password to activate the software.

If you need a deeper dive explanation of how to manage Autodesk users and permissions here is a much more in depth video:

If the contract manager prefers to have someone else manage the software they can change the contract manager or assign a software coordinator (AKA secondary admin in the new view):

• Changing the Contract Manager
• Changing the Software Coordinator

NOTE:  If your contract just renewed you will have to reassign the the software coordinator/secondary admin.  By default the renewal resets the software coordinator/secondary admin rights back to the contract manager.

If you are in need of assistance for installing muliti-user (network) license software please read this: Autodesk Multi-User (Network) Licensed Software Installation Guide