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Autodesk | Perpetual Licensing Explained and Defined

Updated 2016-09-29: Revit 2016 and AutoCAD 2016 will be the last versions offered with Perpetual Licensing for Stand-Alone Desktop Software.

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Autodesk Software Licensing for standalone desktop software will transition from perpetual licensing to desktop subscription licensing on February 1, 2016.

Perpetual Licensing for Autodesk Suites Licenses Will Remain Available After February 2016.

February 1, 2016, marks the end of “perpetual licenses for standalone desktop products,” clarified Andrew Anagnost, Autodesk Senior VP. “The suites [such as Building Design Suite, Product Design Suite, Entertainment Creation Suite] will continue to be available as standalone desktop products for some time, but that won’t last forever.”

Customers with perpetual licenses purchased prior to the cutoff date can continue to use their products with support from Autodesk. If these customers are on maintenance contract, Autodesk is expected to keep their perpetual desktop titles current with updates.

Robert Green's February 2015 article; How Will You Buy CAD Software in 2016? -- defines the terms of what licenses will be affected on February 1, 2016.

Defining License Terms and Costs

Perpetual License: A software license you own that runs with no time limits. A perpetual license for one seat of standalone AutoCAD 2015 is $4,195.

Maintenance Subscription: An annual maintenance contract that you can purchase with a perpetual license to keep the software up to date. Maintenance Subscription for AutoCAD is $545 per year.

Desktop Subscription: An annual or monthly rental contract that entitles you to run the latest version of the software. At the end of the rental period, if you don't renew, the software stops working. Desktop Subscription for AutoCAD is $1,680 per year or $210 per month. View Robert's complete article with sample cost structures.

Three Winning Advantages of BIM Software Rental Licensing

My April Sourcceable.net article highlights three financial situations; where current BIM-CAD software licensing; became an extreme financial liability. It recently affected hundreds of firms and thousands of design, engineering and construction professionals.

BIM and CAD software licensing has been transitioning toward subscription-only programs. These programs are best described as pay-as-you-go, software rental, subscription or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) programs.

In 2016, Autodesk Subscription Licensing Programs begin a major transition to BIM-CAD software rental or pay-as-you-go licensing programs. As new licensing is incrementally rolled out, this model will eventually become the standard software delivery-access process for design professionals.

If Revit-AutoCAD software rental licensing had been available prior to 2009 --the financial and employment impact on the AECO market would have been different.

These 3 perpetual license situations affected hundreds of my clients, colleagues and my career.

1. Firms Had More Revit \ BIM Software Licenses Than Employed Staff

2. Firms Assumed Long-term License Costs (Ownership) for Short-Term Team Projects

3. Firms' Revit \ BIM Software Start-Up Costs and ROI Payback Time Were Painfully Long

After I highlight the affects of perpetual licensing of these 3 situations, I review how the availability of Rental \ Subscription Licensing could have avoided the financial chaos:

Three Winning Advantages of BIM Software Rental Licensing

Daniel Hughes April BIM Article for Sourceable.net

Autodesk Licensing Over 30 Years - It's Time for a Transition

My first PC CAD software license was AutoCAD 1.x (1984) and my first BIM software license was Revit 4.0 (2002) The AutoCAD software was a perpetual license but the Revit license was an annual subscription (rental) license.

The AutoCAD perpetual license worked 24\7\365 --and allowed us to choose when or if we upgraded to the next software version. The Revit subscription (rental) license worked for 12 months and then required payment to run for another 12 months.

There was the infamous AutoCAD 2.5x software license; that included a hardware lock (licensing) device. The device connected to the computer’s parallel port (printer) to verify that it was a legal license. Without the hardware lock, the CAD software license would not to run. Eventually, Autodesk issued authentication codes with software licenses; that needed to be entered at the time of installation.

--- Revit 2016 – AutoCAD 2016 Software Licensing | Reducing Cost of Ownership ---

My Revit subscription (rental) license periodically “pinged” the Revit Corporate web license server to authenticate my laptop license. However, a few times when Revit tried to authenticate the license; I was not connected to the internet.