There have been many changes in the Autodesk licensing landscape and one of the issues I have seen time and time again is just trying to get your license to work.

Autodesk has not made it easy but I think they started to iron out all the bugs and have worked out a very smooth (at least at the moment) workflow to activate your software.

Below is a brief history on licensing (because all the licenses I am chatting about here are still in operation)

Perpetual – The license that never quits. Punch in your serial number and product key and you are good to run forever and a day

Subscription – The license that quits.  These licenses are on a time limit, for South Africa it is 1,2 or 3 years.

Here is where it gets a bit tricky.  There are various ways to license depending on how you acquired your license.  Was it an upgrade, a new license etc.

The first is to put in your serial number and product key to activate your software.  Then you have to insert your Autodesk username and password.  The username name only works if you have been assigned the license.

The second way is to just use your Autodesk username and password.  This will get you in ONLY if Autodeks has assigned that type of license to you otherwise it is the first option.

A new option which is quite useful is to use the Autodesk Desktop App.  This is installed when installing your software.  All you need to do is log into the app and it will give you an option to launch any Autodesk software that has been installed as well as assigned to you.

When it launches it checks the Autodesk servers to see if you are eligible to use the license and presto..you are authorised.