Bangalore, India
The release of BricsCAD V14 is about a month away but here is some heads-up information from Bricsys on licensing mechanism changes in the upcoming version.
"BricsCAD V14 will have a new licensing system"
This new system will provide a flexible and modern licensing environment with support for major platforms including Linux, Mac OS X and Windows, as well as 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The new system does not require any change in the type of licenses currently used by BricsCAD but will however cause a one-time break in the use of license keys, with the old keys valid for V13 and earlier versions, and the new keys used for V14 and later versions.
How does this affect you?
After the rollout of V14 in October, customers will not be able to use the standard V14 key they receive to also run V13 or earlier versions. I asked Guy Vancollie about licenses for earlier versions and he said "A V13 (and earlier) key will either automatically be provided together with the V14 one, or will be made available through a web-based self-service system". This is in keeping with the current practice of allowing users use of all pre-current versions of BricsCAD.
The new licensing system for BricsCAD is based on technology from Reprise Software. If you would like to pre-educate yourself with the licensing mechanism, you can read more at the Reprise Software website here.
What is going to be different?
- The new licensing system allows for up to 2 installs (activation of 2 nodes / machines) with a single license key, which normally translates into a user’s desktop and laptop or home systems: the new system now enforces this limit.
- A volume key within the new system will be a single key valid for a specific number of installs.
- A network license will now be a single key valid for a specific number of simultaneous uses, and will furthermore be delivered with a single support contract. Within the Reprise environment network licenses are called floating licenses and have features very similar to Flexera's Flexnet license manager.
- For Standard or Volume licenses, each end user will need to activate their license online with the licensing server hosted by Bricsys; for Network licenses only the customer-hosted license server needs to activate its license, then an unlimited amount of nodes can connect to the server but it will only allow as many nodes at the same time to run BricsCAD, as the count in its floating license.
My take on this - BricsCAD has moved from an open, self-administered licensing method (V13 and earlier) to a managed, cloud-based service where usage is better administered and more importantly, monitored. In other words, the method followed by Bricsys for V14 licensing is in line with contemporary, popular practices for software license management.
Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/rakesh_rao
Discover BricsCAD, discover GeoTools-AutoCAD , GeoTools-BricsCAD, CADPower-AutoCAD, CADPower-BricsCAD, discover TechCenter. Brand new ways to work smarter in CAD!!
Comments