Wishes
Post your wishes about Graphisoft products: Archicad, BIMx, BIMcloud, and DDScad.

Internet E-validation - No Dongle!

archislave
Enthusiast
To me this is one of the most important things. Most modern applications use an electronic validation method such as: Sketchup, Revit, Autocad etc.

Graphisoft is very backward on this issue and all it does is cause difficulty for those who choose to be legal. I have almost and have forgotten my key when rushing out for a meeting or a weekend...
Archislave

archicad 16.0 US, iMac El Capitan
10 REPLIES 10
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
archislave wrote:
I have almost and have forgotten my key when rushing out for a meeting or a weekend...
It is actually more challenging with an internet license I think, based on my experience with Artlantis. With ArchiCAD, your computer can be off... you just have to grab the keyplug. With Artlantis, you have to turn on your computer, if off, log on, if logged out, start the program, connect to the internet, if not connected, then de-authorize the license... so that the license can then be authorized on another machine (presumably your laptop or home machine). I've gotten used to this for Artlantis, but would hate to have to do it for a half dozen programs...

Either way, something to remember...

The alternative - authorization on-demand (when running the program) - is not an option for those of us without an always-on internet connection.

I don't mind the USB keyplug, but I'm going to wait to vote until I hear other people's comments... 😉

Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Personally, I would like to see some sort of a compromise between between the full version and the demo version that would be available relatively inexpensively.

I would use it for working remotely on an infrequent basis, or for client meetings where changes happen. Wouldn't need Teamwork, or even printing/plotting; just SAVE. Call it a "Mobile license". I'd pay maybe a few hundred dollars for this, but I can't justify the cost of a full license just for the convenience aspect.
Richard
--------------------------
Richard Morrison, Architect-Interior Designer
AC26 (since AC6.0), Win10
Erika Epstein
Booster
Richard,
Periodically Graphisoft has had pay-per-use keys. The name is a bit of a misnomer as you pay for a key that has a set number of hours. How many you use is up to you

Check with your reseller for availabilit. They are also useful when you need to add a person on a temporary basis or don't want to hassle with taking your full key on the road.
Erika
Architect, Consultant
MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch Yosemite 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Mac OSX 10.11.1
AC5-18
Onuma System

"Implementing Successful Building Information Modeling"
Erika,

This is a good reminder. I actually have an AC7.0 PPU key with a couple hundred hours on it. Unfortunately, it was not upgradable to the next version, and I think my annoyance with this aspect caused me to put the concept out of my mind.

EDIT: Another problem with PPU keys is that Cigraph and Cadimage add-ons don't play well with these. (i.e. not at all.) I would love a solution that considers add-ons.
Richard
--------------------------
Richard Morrison, Architect-Interior Designer
AC26 (since AC6.0), Win10
Geoff Briggs
Mentor
As someone who handles software installation, support and licensing for a broad range of applications in an architecture firm I have found ArchiCAD's hardware keys to be by far the easiest system to manage. I can build a customized ArchiCAD install on one workstation, store it on our server, and copy it out to as many computers as I want. It's a piece of cake to move, share, audit licenses. I use a PowerBook and never forget my key because you can't put the computer into a bag without removing the key so I just put it into the bag immediately. I would hate to have to rely on an internet connection to ensure ArchiCAD will launch or to move a license to another station, something that currently takes 10 seconds. Sure it's old school but that does not necessarily make it inferior.
Regards,
Geoff Briggs
I & I Design, Seattle, USA
AC7-27, M1 Mac, OS 14.x
archislave
Enthusiast
The problem with you guys - being in the upper echelon of well know power users of many years - is that you don't think outside the box or look at how other software companies do it. You have gotten so used to AC the way it has always been that it is hardwired into your behavior - so I don't think you see it like us more recent converts from Autocad or Revit. I mean Revit does somethink like this. Mayb Scott Davis could speak to how it works.

If the RIAA allows the iPod DRM to let you play your music on five devices and they are known as one of the most greedy next to the movie industry - then surely they could allow Archicad to run for say ... 10 hours. Would that be such a big loss for them? You guys are just afraid of lost sales, but Archicad is redily available as a hack. It only causes inconvenience to us legal users.

If they really wanted to make the subscription worthwhile then they could offer monthly improvements or updates and it would serve as a psychological reason to only leagally update a single paid for license over the internet or by download. You would feel better since always getting something delivered to you is nice. If you were illegal then you have to go out and searh, search, search every month.

Anyway, it would be ideal if they could tie an insallation to a particular computer and allow a certain amount of hours on a users mobile machine. I know this is possible if they choose to support it. If you had a server edition you could assign licenses to different computers at will.

My situation is that I have an iMac I use most of the time an occasionally grab the Macbook in a rush during the week or late on a Friday afternoon for the weekend. The dongle is in the back of the iMac and it is easy to not see. I imagine it would be just as bad with a dongle stuck in a tower under the desk .

Just shameful old school technology we are being chained to. It would be like the days of the movie industry afraid of the VCR. Oh! we can't trust the masses. We will loose power and money!
Archislave

archicad 16.0 US, iMac El Capitan
Aussie John
Newcomer
I dont like the dongle solution as
1 takes up a port
2 sticks out my laptop like a boil
3 have to remember to put it in my bag both ends of the travel itinerary
4 have to move it from computer to laptop depending which one am using
5 if I loose it very expensive

that said an internet solution is ripe for hair pulling if a connection is not available
Cheers John
John Hyland : ARINA : www.arina.biz
User ver 4 to 12 - Jumped to v22 - so many options and settings!!!
OSX 10.15.6 [Catalina] : Archicad 22 : 15" MacBook Pro 2019
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Geoff Briggs
Mentor
archislave wrote:
The problem with you guys...is that you don't think outside the box or look at how other software companies do it. You have gotten so used to AC the way it has always been that it is hardwired into your behavior..
Jeez, you act like ArchiCAD is the only software "power users" know anything about. If you read the argument in my post, as opposed to simply reacting to the fact that I do not agree with you, you'd notice that it is precisely because I am familiar with other licensing schemes that I favor the key. Sure there are other ways to do it. Some good some not so good. But I've yet to be convinced that a system of temporarily checking out licenses or internet validation or whatever is easier than simply moving the key. (Try any of your other methods after you've already packed up your laptop.) Clearly others are as revolted by the key as you are. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I do not appreciate however the inference that mine is the result of myopia, inertia or senility. When I joined the ArchiCAD camp I too viewed hardware keys as an inconvenient anachronism. It is my experience with them that has changed my mind.
Regards,
Geoff Briggs
I & I Design, Seattle, USA
AC7-27, M1 Mac, OS 14.x
archislave
Enthusiast
Well, that's not addressing the thinking out of the box that I brought up. I mentioined the RIAA that allow the music you purchased to be played on 5 machines. So, why are they still thinking in terms of some device that will not let you run archicad one minute once the dongle (boil) is removed? We paid a lot of money to not be trusted - when buying it shows we are trustworthy in the first place.

What about the installation being tied to particular processor id's somehow at installation and maybe one connection to the internet at that time to register it. You could also install it on a second laptop and register that processor id. No internet connection needed until you want to register another machine. How about this internet solution for people who are always on and a dongle for those who are not. So many ways.

How is it that Revit can make this work? I think you only have to register once and it embeds a key on your system.

Most times if you buy software say Autocad or MS Office you have the right in the license to install it on your desktop and laptop - at least that it what most people say - cause who ever reads the license agreement anyway!

There are many ways to do this without that stupid green dongle sticking out the side of your laptop. Getting lost, stolen, or forgotten is always a horrifying thought.
Archislave

archicad 16.0 US, iMac El Capitan