Autodesk just dropped a bomb on us that may force us to change how we operate. We are a small boutique with a Flame Premium network license that allows us to have Flame, Lustre, Flame Assist, and Flare. We use Flare on set. We use Flame Assist for archiving and prep. We grade in Lustre with ACS panels, and Flame for everything else. Most of this is run on our Linux box, but the prep and onset are on a Mac. This new licensing program we were just notified about, essentially forces us to trade in our all in one license we pay for every year for 4 individual single node licenses. WHAT? We can’t afford this. It looks like a 300%+ increase in licensing fees. I understand from my rep there is still some details trickling down, but this could force us to not only drop Autodesk, but either learn new tool sets or the other option… Hopefully there is some middle ground. The discussion is we would get 3 Flame licenses for the trade in, but then we have to purchase a single Lustre. That is still quite a bit of additional dollars, which we currently are not able to pass along to our clients. Client already are squeezing us as is. Anyone know who at Autodesk to reach out to and start trying to get something a little more tolerable or something? My rep doesn’t know who to call, as they don’t know who at Autodesk to call themselves and get help for those effected by this change.
Every time there’s a licensing change some big announcement comes and everybody freaks out and these things typically get worked.
Usually. Maybe. Hopefully.
Any @FriendsFromCinesys know? @Gunpowder ?
Unfortunately named user licensing is the most anti-consumer thing these large companies are all doing. It SUCKS to admin and manage.
You should drop Lustre for Resolve. We did and it was one of the better decisions we’ve made. If ADSK doesn’t shape up, that same may happen for our conform and finishing services.
Exactly… floating licenses are great for enterprise style facilities. User Name accounts are great for the single artist.
If you own 50x of the same licenses they’ll let you stick with your flex licenses.
Womp, well we’re 40 short of that!
I was thinking about this more today. Our systems will sometimes run an early and late shift if we’re crazy busy. So, in that circumstance the one workstation will require two licenses…
My work around will be reassigning licenses as people stop/start, which will quickly become email based “user” accounts for each license rather than artist assigned as Autodesk intend.
That is exactly how we’ve done it, flame01@email / flame02@email etc etc
So now instead of having to spend 5 minutes once a year to enter a new license on the internal RLM server, we have to manage this on a bi-daily basis. Good fucking job ADSK.
Marc, you may want to get a second opinion on this. Our facility has three Flame Premium network licenses and we were able to renew them as usual a couple of weeks ago. See here Terms and conditions | Autodesk FY21 Transition to Named User Program in the " Trade-In Product Exclusions" section. But yes, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before named user overtakes all of their offerings, sadly.
Thanks for the info… I reached out to our rep and here is what they mentioned…
Your Logik friend is right-2 weeks ago when this was announced and until Nov 7, 2021 you can renew maintenance.
As of Nov 7th, 2021 and on–no maintenance renewals.
*If you read that carefully–the trade-in exclusion for Flame Premium has ****
if you click the learn more section below that for *** asterisks i it takes you to the site referring to those details.
XXXXXXXXX is trying to get more details and options beyond what is already stated.
It was recommended I turn the squeaky wheel, and did so.
response: get your friends and neighbors to do the same.
So, as it went when things went to maintenance renewals years back just after we paid premium dollars for perpetual, goes this new challenge. Hopefully, those of us who actually use Lustre will get some type of more equitable option presented in the near future.
We just moved off of Lustre to Resolve, and it was one of the better decisions we made. Lustre is all but dead.
You’re already working uncached off a NAS, right? We’re still doing most of our work off direct-attached storage, and keeping everything on Stonefs has been a big workflow plus for us. I don’t disagree that it’s a dead product walking in the slightest, though.
Wiretap workflow is the only thing Lustre has going for it. But actually, we’ve developed a NAS based workflow that we actually think is better than dealing with all the Lustre/Wiretap gotchas.
As far as our workflow, we are on a Quantum SAN with Stonefs for Flame and Lustre. Works well except for the bug we found in 2021.2.1 when wiring a project from an older version or restore. There is some bug with permissions that won’t allow Lustre to see the media, even when cached. Fabulous big red X. Only projects created in the current version of 2021.2.1 work properly. We reverted to 2021.2 for now. It is with Marta and support.
As far as Lustre licensing and the subscription trade in mess, Will has stepped in and connected me with Holly at Autodesk. They have confirmed there is no way for them to do anything within Autodesk’s current platform to allow for a mix of Lustre and Flame for this upcoming forced trade-in. I can either do 3 Flames or 2 Lustre subscription users. Holly is looking into trying to get us the 3 Flames and a discounted Lustre. Still will cost us more, but way more acceptable than having to go full price for a new Lustre to add to the Flames. We have some time, but it should work out in some fashion.
Not sure if you all saw my post about doing a live Q&A session with someone from Autodesk on this. Would you like to do it? I can set it up for one weeknight next week.
I did see that. I had started this conversation with my rep and Autodesk prior to your post and was sharing my update. I did respond to your survey on Facebook Logik about licensing and having a meeting with someone from Autodesk that I would be interested. I may be able to share some from what we are experiencing to help others as well. Seems we are one of a handful that actually utilize Flame Premium as a whole. I am not available Thursday or Friday next week if that matters. Thanks for the follow-up. Much appreciated.
I just renewed my license. Going forward I’m going to be paying three times as much. Thanks Autodesk.
What’s the math for your situation?
I used to pay $, now I’m going to have to pay $$$. Plus a few years back I switched my license from a multi-user license to a single user license so I wouldn’t have to deal with a license server anymore. So since I did that I also lose out on the two for one deal. Pretty lame.