This is a follow-up to my previous article discussing using ACC for the storage of AutoCAD Resource files. If you’re using the Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) and publishing using the Sheet Set Manager (SSM), read on…
A little history first. The Sheet Set Manager has been available for many years, and it solves many AutoCAD organizations and efficiency problems. When Autodesk Docs and ACC were made available, and users stored their files in the cloud, they experienced significant issues with the good-old SSM. This document outlines the issues and their solutions.
Then we got the SSM for Web: a new cloud-based version of the SSM. At first, it was limited in what it could do, but with the latest version for AutoCAD 2023, it is much more robust.
Enough about history, how does the SSM for Web publish? Here is the SSM for Web with 4 sheets. Note the area surrounded in red, the Support file location. I have set this to a separate ACC project named CAD Resources. It has a sub folder that contains CTB files.
When you publish using the SSM, the publish action occurs online, not locally on a user’s computer. It’s not even publishing in the background. It just happens in the cloud. Understandably, your CTB files, and any other potential files AutoCAD needs when printing, must reside in the cloud and the SSM support location must be set to this folder.
Warning: even if your installation of AutoCAD uses a non-cloud CTB file, when publishing from the SSM for Web, it WILL use the one in the cloud. You MUST have a CTB file in the cloud.
Pro tip: Give the system plenty of time to synchronize changes to the CTB. Like, maybe 10-15 minutes. Do not expect changes to be as fast as drawing edits. Restarting AutoCAD after editing the CTB seems to help.
With the release of the 23.0.0 version of all the CTC Software tools, CTC has taken the opportunity to update their licensing model.
Licensing for any of the CTC suites of tools was broken up into tiers of licensing with maintenance attached or differences depending on how many employees were in the company. It was tedious to explain, and not too efficient to implement.
Starting with the 23.0.0 release of the suites, CTC is moving to a CSL model of licensing. This Cloud Shared Licensing is much more in line with the SaS model of software delivery. However, this is deliberately not the named user licensing that Autodesk has moved to. The CSL model is intended to simplify access to the tools while maintaining the flexibility of the network licensing style of license.
Put simply, the CSL model is a cloud hosted version of the network licensing most of us are familiar with. Which means there is no need for installing license managers on local servers, all users need is internet access to use the CTC tools. The CSL is hosted on the new CTC website that was launched in conjunction with the 23.0.0 suite releases.
With the new website, there have been additional efficiencies added by automating tasks like the option to renew automatically and automatic fulfillment of orders. The new website will also give administrators detailed insight into their teams’ suite usage and the ability to control the allocation of licenses with the creation of Groups of users on the website.
The move to CSL was done for efficiency for everyone. This simplifies and standardizes access to the tools, allows for instant license allocation, offers reporting on usage of suites and tools, and simplifies pricing models.
One thing to note is that the 2022 and older versions of the CTC Suites still only work with the legacy licensing and cannot use the CSL model.
If you have any questions regarding this new licensing model for the CTC Software, your SolidCAD Account Manager will be more than happy to help.
CTC Software has enhanced their licensing model in June 2022, all new licensing is facilitated through Cloud Shared Licensing (CSL) now. This shift to CSL means that moving forward the 2023+ releases of their tool sets will only be available through CSL. It marks a big jump in flexibility and tracking of license sharing and puts CTC ahead of the curve in the industry for license facilitation. All you need is an internet connection and access to their website to use your CTC tools now.
What is Cloud Shared Licensing and how is it different from the Network Licensing or Named User Licensing?
CSL is NOT at all the same as the Named User licensing that most software has migrated to. We can think of CSL as network licensing managed from the cloud. This is preferable to the network licensing because the license manager doesn’t need to be installed on your server and setup time is greatly reduced.
Named User Licensing ties the license of the product (A seat of Civil 3D for example) to a user’s email, this is intended to restrict the use of that product to that single user among other thing. CSL is still a pool of licenses that you would use a login to access. So 100 employees could have logins to access a pool of 10 licenses, but each license can only be used by 1 person at a time.
What does this change mean for my company and me using the tools?
As mentioned above, this will allow you to have access to your CTC tools with a CTC Account login and access to internet. No need to even be connected to your company network to pull a license from your pool of CSL license.
Importantly, CSL will still allow compatibility with the latest 5 versions of your Autodesk software.
On the IT and license management side of thing, CSL is incredibly easy to setup, manage, and report on license usage. Through the CTC website we can access the license portal to set up and assign licenses to user groups, borrow licenses to access offline, revoke licenses, setup auto-renewals, and manage roles & admin rights associated with your CTC products.
How do I manage my licensing now?
Accessing the licensing portal is done through the https://ctcsoftware.com website and clicking on the person icon next to the shopping cart.
After logging in, you will be directed to the portal dashboard where you can navigate to licensing to see all your CTC products.
From here you can invite user, add them to user groups, assign roles, and assign access to your various products.
From within the Autodesk software once the tools are installed on the work station, the user ill just have to click on one of the darker colored tools to bring up the “Product and Licensing Information” dialog box.
Once you click the Cloud Shared and click Apply, it will bring you to the Sign In window to enter your CTC Account credentials. You will only be required to sign in the first time you access the tools and will give you access to all the tools that you are assigned to in the licensing portal.
The new Cloud Shared Licensing is the future for CTC Software and I hope this article has shown you some of its benefits. CTC has done a great job with a couple webinars linked below to explain the picks and clicks in more detail for setup and management of the license portal, so I would encourage you to watch them as well.
Note for their Network and Standalone end of life:
May 1st, 2023: You will no longer be able to buy Network or Standalone Licenses. Only new seats of CSL.
May 1st, 2024: You will no longer be able to renew existing Network or Standalone Licenses. This marks the point where CTC tolls will only be available as CSL.
All these features are welcome, but two of them are great news to many, especially Civil 3D users. Specifically, the features related to point classification.
Notable changes are:
Scans are now imported and indexed in parallel, meaning faster imports.
Clouds can be displayed using their classification if any exist in the imported file.
Classifications appear in the Project Explorer. These can be managed as needed. All points except, ground points, for example, can then be exported for use in other apps, like Civil 3D.
Unclassified points can be Automatically Classified. Scans must be structured, or the classification will fail.
With the release of the 23.0.0 version of all the CTC Software tools, CTC has taken the opportunity to update its licensing model.
Licensing for any of the CTC suites of tools was broken up into tiers of licensing with maintenance attached or differences depending on how many employees were in the company. It was tedious to explain, and not too efficient to implement.
Starting with the 23.0.0 release of the suites, CTC is moving to a CSL model of licensing. This Cloud Shared Licensing is much more in line with the SaS model of software delivery. However, this is deliberately not the named user licensing that Autodesk has moved to. The CSL model is intended to simplify access to the tools while maintaining the flexibility of the network licensing style of license.
Put simply, the CSL model is a cloud-hosted version of the network licensing most of us are familiar with. This means there is no need for installing license managers on local servers, all users need is internet access to use the CTC tools. The CSL is hosted on the new CTC website that was launched in conjunction with the 23.0.0 suite releases.
With the new website, there have been additional efficiencies added by automating tasks like the option to renew automatically and automatic fulfilment of orders. The new website will also give administrators detailed insight into their teams’ suite usage and the ability to control the allocation of licenses with the creation of Groups of users on the website.
The move to CSL was done for efficiency for everyone. It simplifies and standardizes access to the tools, allows for instant license allocation, offers to report on the usage of suites and tools, and simplifies pricing models.
One thing to note is that the 2022 and older versions of the CTC Suites still only work with the legacy licensing and cannot use the CSL model.
