June 21, 2018

Moving from Product Design Suite to Product Design and Manufacturing Collection

Aldred Boyd | Application Engineer - Technical

So you have been convinced to go the Subscription route and have changed over to the Collection from Product Design Suite (PrDS). What pitfalls could you encounter?

Firstly you will need to create an Autodesk account and assign the user to the software that will be required. The next hiccup that you might come across is the product key.

When installing the PrDS you use 1 serial number and 1 product key for all the products that you install. The installer also downloaded all the files needed for each product that came in the PrDS.

For the Collection, it has changed. You now need to download each product separately. There are advantages for this as it limits how much you download to exactly what you will be using, but activating it can be quite a process.

So back to the product key. If you have not uninstalled the PrDS software you will find that you cannot change the product key only the serial number. Why is this important you ask? Well if you cannot change the product key then you cannot activate your Collections software. One way to rectify this is to uninstall all your software and then re-install with all the correct serial numbers and product keys. (remember each software package will get the same serial number but DIFFERENT product keys).

If you are a little tech savvy and you do not want to go through the hassle of uninstalling and re-installing there is a workflow you can follow.

Install the Collections software on a new PC
Put in the serial number and product key and activate the software
Browse to the following location C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\AdLM
Copy the ProductInformation.pit file
Browse to the same file location on the old machine where the PrDS is installed
Rename the ProductInformation.pit to something else (eg ProductInformation.pit_old)
Paste the ProductInformation.pit file from the new installation into the old PC folder
When opening the Autodesk software it should now prompt you for a new serial number and product

There you have you now have access to the Collection and all its benefits.

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About the Author

Aldred Boyd | Application Engineer - Technical

Aldred is an Application Engineer with over 22 years of experience working with Autodesk products. His primary focus is in a consultative role for the manufacturing industry, where he identifies potential challenges within a company's workflow and processes. His extensive experience enables him to identify these challenges and resolve them through the addition of software, training, or further development to address the issues encountered.