I have had problems with my main workstation for days now and finally had to do a system image restore. Heaven help you if you do not archive your license with Autodesks portable licensing tool ahead of time. Without thinking I assumed that it would be as simple as Solid Edge to do and blithely went ahead like normal. I had no idea of the licensing tool and the subsequent maze I was about to get into.
I have spent hours now trying to solve this. The Autodesk web site sends you in circles where pithy things like portable licensing tools can be found. How about you are past that point? You are doomed. Live chat drops me and I can’t get them back. I can’t even FIND live chat again and after clicking repeatedly through the web pages maze don’t remember how I got there. One would think a Google search would get you back there but no. I spent a half hour clicking, clicking, clicking and clicking everything I could find on the Autodesk web site and never could find Live Chat again. It never dawned on me the one time I did find Live Chat that I should immediately bookmark the link. I mean after all isn’t help supposed to be robust easy and useful? Who would imagine that once found forever hence lost?
Fill out a form and send it in and we will get back to you within two days is also not a good answer. I am sys admin over the account but I can’t actually DO anything so I guess I can be happy with the grand sounding title that has no authority. So I call NEXGEN who is my VAR. Now we get into another fascinating aspect of this journey.
I had the gracious NEXGEN lady sit there with me through Webex where we went through page after page of circle logic that arrives nowhere. She was a bit amazed at how useless it was too. To add to this for some reason Autodesk does not trust VAR’s with your account information nor give them authority to edit it at your request. So we had to go there using my credentials and then WEBEX so the NEXGEN people could try to get an idea of what was going on. Neither of us could find Live Chat again. I am used to Solid Edge and my VAR there where these kinds of issues can be handled quickly and easily.
So questions for the day are A, Why is it so hard to provide a live warm human body to take care of this kind of problem without me having to spend at least five hours so far getting no where on a website that provides no worth while solution for my problem? B, Whats the deal with not allowing my VAR to work on this problem on my behalf? C, Why am I a sys admin if I can’t contact a real human to fix problems? Sys admin’s whose only recourse is email and wait two days and hope and pray for an answer is not adequate.
NEXGEN and others from the HSM world I have talked to have made references to how complicated and convoluted this licensing can be through Autodesk and how they were a little surprised at it. I can see exactly what they mean now. Anybody have any suggestions on where to go and who to speak to besides the fill out a form and wait or the we will lose you live chat bots?
UPDATE
I was sitting here right after posting this and going through a suggestion from NEXGEN for a new bread crumb trail when I get a call. Looks like the solution from a warm body will be in hand soon and THANKS CW for reaching out.
Machined Audio Horn Lens 
We’ll get this fixed for you ASAP.
I hear you are back up and running! Have fun with the software and keep an eye out for some fabrication (water jet / laser) workflows coming in the near future.
Yes it went quickly once I got to the right place. Hmmmm, does this mean we can talk about Laser and Water Jet soon?
Color me interested regarding laser options…
Hi Dylan,
It will be interesting to see just what makes it in 2016. There has been a minor delay in release of Inventor HSM 2016 but from what I hear the next week or so will see it out for use.
Dave,
Regarding VAR access to account info. We do get access to a lot of the info. But its possible the level of access changes depending on your partner tier. Silver, Gold, Platinum etc. I’m not sure what NextGen are but they may not be high enough up there ladder yet.
There are definitely issues with the rental licensing system. I believe that will change in due course… As you would expect. However the best tool you have in your arsenal for many Autodesk installation and licensing issues it’s the Virtual Agent. I link to it here https://designandmotion.net/autodesk/autodesk-2016-products-download-links-including-suites/
Hi Scott,
Thanks for the info. I am not sure what was up with my VAR and while they may not have stacked up as a large level dealer in the Autodesk world I am certain they were in the US HSM world.
It would be nice if this automated robot answering system was not so entrenched and such a barrier to a real human though. Things went quickly once a real human was there to interact with me. I got to Live Chat once and when I was transferred to another department that was the end of that. Do you know how to get to Live Chat?
No disrespect to Nexgen, but while they are definitely big players in the US HSM world, we sure look up to them at CADPRO. To the best of my knowledge they aren’t experienced Autodesk VAR’s yet. Most licensing issues we deal with before Autodesk gets a looking. Occasionally it’s because Autodesk have cocked something up at their end and we have no hope of fixing it.
In the same way we have a lot to learn about HSM & CAM, they probably do with boring licensing matters.
Live Chat? Dunno, it’s gone burger. I suspect something is up, I’ve noticed the Knowledge Network Sign In isn’t working. That could be something to do with it. In any case, I’ve asked the excellent Autodesk Help team: https://twitter.com/ScottMoyse/status/585406922855022592
Hi Scott,
They are somewhat new at the Autodesk way of things and have also just merged with another company. I am certain there is a learning curve here but I have to wonder why Autodesk did not make sure new VAR’s are fully informed. One of the big problems for Solid Edge back in the day when growth was desired was the recognition that VAR’s needed to be better informed and in many cases told what to do to correct bad past habits. It seems that there is enough blame to go around for both sides of the equation.
Quite likely…. communication is a problem in most companies. Regarding the Live Chat, it seems it’s having teething problems with the new Autodesk Account system launch early in March. It must have gone offline just as you were using it!!
FYI this is also a great resource for manual activation’s of Autodesk software: https://registeronce.autodesk.com/
Thanks Scott