Subscription + 3 versions back + Product Matrix + Network License Count + Pre-Suite Licensing

There are lots of concepts here for this blog post so I wanted to explain it in tiny bits....[Network licensing & Suites]....

Subscription + 3 versions back

When the licenses are on Subscripton that means that your license will support the current version and 3 versions back.  This can be confirmed using the license parser.

Example of a license file that is on Subscription and not on Subscription
http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2012/10/understanding-licenses-on-subscription-and-not-on-subscription.html

Requesting a license that is paste 3 versions.  It will look like a license that is not on Subscription.
http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2014/01/previous-use-license-request-running-software-that-is-more-than-3-versions-back.html

License parser limitations.  Don't combine a 2014 license with a 2013 license that is on Subcription.
http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2013/11/license-parser-limitations.html

Product Matrix

For example, if you have the Autodesk Product Design Suite Premium, I would start using the 2014 version if possible because it now includes Inventor Professional.  

http://www.autodesk.com/suites/product-design-suite/included-software

Because Inventor Professional 2013 was not included in the Autodesk Product Design Suite Premium 2013, you will not get the Professional features when running Inventor 2013.

 

The cascading sequences for the 2013 and 2014 product lines:

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/2013-Cascading-Sequences-for-Autodesk-Products.html

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/2014-Cascading-Sequences-for-Autodesk-Products.html

The features available between the Inventor family of products:

http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-inventor-family/compare

Network License Count

If you run the same version of the software in the Suite, it will use 1 license.  This means that you can run AutoCAD Mechanical 2014, Inventor Professional 2014 and Mudbox 2014 on the SAME computer and it will only use only 1 license in your pool of network of licenses.

Search for How do network licenses for Suites differ from individual product network licenses? 

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Autodesk-Subscription-Use-of-Previous-Version-FAQ.html

If you run AutoCAD Mechanical 2014 and AutoCAD Mechnical 2013 on the same computer, it will use 2 licenses.

Pre-Suite Licensing

This can can a bit tricky if you are running older versions of the software.  If we use the license parser to check the license file for the Autodesk Product Design Suite Premium 2014, you will notice some older licenses (Feature codes) are indeed listed.

For example, looking at the highlighted sections (red underline), this means that you can run Inventor 2011 and AutoCAD Electrical 2011. You will notice that the Feature codes are separate and this will cause it to use 2 licenses.  The reason for this behaviour is because the Product Design Suite did not exist in 2011. Please check out License Consumption noted here:

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Understanding-Previous-Version-support-for-Autodesk-Suite-products.html

Reference:

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2011/11/general-licensing-subscription-suite-and-previous-version-licensing-support.html