Eagle licensing, offline use

Antti Louko wrote on Thu, 19 January 2017 14:12

Is it possible to use Eagle 8 offline (not connected to internet) at

all?

 

I just tried with the free license and it seems to require connection.

How is

it with a paid subscription?

 

There are times when one is not connected and still would like to make

some

editing, or even viewing of eagle files.

This has been covered in a couple of recent threads about the release and

specifically the licensing in the user chat section. From what I

understand, at the moment once the licence has been authenticated with the

Autodesk server, so long as you don't log out of your Autodesk account then

you can use that for up to 14 days. Beyond that it will need reactivating

again. This is the topic of a current debate in the other threads which you

may wish to take a look at here

http://www.eaglecentral.ca/index.php/t/52902/831880189254cc212f0ee13db45a0f5a/

Best Regards,

Rachael

--

http://www.eaglecentral.ca :: The original and best browser access to CadSoft EAGLE support forums.  Supported by EAGLE licenses purchased through us :: http://www.eaglelicenses.com

Hi Antti,

On 01/19/2017 09:12 AM, Antti Louko wrote:

Is it possible to use Eagle 8 offline (not connected to internet) at all?

 

I just tried with the free license and it seems to require connection.  How is

it with a paid subscription?

 

There are times when one is not connected and still would like to make some

editing, or even viewing of eagle files.

 

It is required that you be online at least the first time you launch

EAGLE.  At this time, enter your login details.  After that, you can go

offline up to 14 days.

Best Regards,

Ed

edwin.robledo@autodesk.com

Ed wrote:

It is required that you be online at least the first time you launch EAGLE.  At

this time, enter your login details.  After that, you can go offline up to 14 days.

Best Regards,

Ed

edwin.robledo@autodesk.com

I decided to try myself and purchase a $15 subscription.  Well, it seems

impossible because I am in Finland.  Billing address page requires US address.

How am I supposed to proceed?

Antti Louko wrote:

I decided to try myself and purchase a $15 subscription.  Well, it seems

impossible because I am in Finland.  Billing address page requires US address.

How am I supposed to proceed?

Apparently one must go to autodesk.eu page and subscribe from there.  Stupid.

After all, when one gets forwarded from cadsoft.de to autodesk.com and not be

asked where he resides, that should be asked later and not just allow to subscribe.

Now waiting for export screening!

I seriously think starting to use KiCad.  New subscription only approach is not

suitable for me as I am a hobbyist and now suddenly have to pay 545 euro per

year instead of about 100 euro to be able to design 4-layer boards.

It was fun as long as it lasted!

Ed Robledo wrote on Thu, 19 January 2017 11:16

It is required that you be online at least the first time you launch

EAGLE.  At this time, enter your login details.  After that, you can go

offline up to 14 days.

Something is still not clear to me even after all the descriptions of how

the new license scheme will work.  Jorge said something about not logging

out, which worries me.  It's not clear whether the 14 day period is valid

just for one session, or is a absolute 14 days.

Let's say I have a laptop connected to the internet.  I start up Eagle,

which checks into the server to verify the license.  All is fine at that

point and the 14 day clock is reset to 0.  Now I log out, shut down the

machine, and travel to someplace where I have no internet connection.  A

day later, (one day since license check-in), I power up the laptop, log in,

and try to run Eagle.  Will it run fully since there are still 13 days left

after the last check-in, or will it not run since this is a new login

session?

By the way, this is not just a hyopthetical scenario.  This is exactly what

I was doing last summer.  I drove from Massachusetts to Phoenix AZ and back

over 3 1/2 weeks, and did work on my laptop every day or two.  Sometimes I

had a internet connection when I used the laptop, sometimes not.  I spent

enough time in remote parts of various national forests in Colorado, New

Mexico, and Arizona that Eagle not working due to no internet connection

would have been a real problem.

Another real use case I have is a machine in a secure lab.  One of my

customers got Eagle on my recommendation for use in a lab where data is

only allowed to go in, never out.  There is a LAN inside the lab, but it is

not and never will be connected to the internet.  Even flash drives that go

in aren't allowed to come out.  I got Eagle in by burning the install file

onto a CD.  That CD can't leave the lab, but that's OK.  As far as I can

tell, your new license scheme simply won't work for this case, right?

I've recommended Eagle to quite a few customers over the years, in addition

to having three full licenses at Embed.  I've invested a lot of time in

ULPs, scripts, programs to make scripts, and other external programs for

BOM, custom part number handling, and various other features.  I don't

really want to start over.

However, a subscription model just isn't for me.  Not only is the overall

price considerably higher now, but the real issue is the vulnerability to

down internet connection, and worse, the unpredictable policies of

AutoDesk.  Basically, if I go with the subscription, then you own me.  You

can decide at any time to raise the price, force use of a particular

version, or even discontinue the product altogether.  That's a risk I'm

simply not willing to take, and will advise my customers not to take

either.  It's just plain bad business.

What I will do, and advise my customers to do, is to stay with version 7.7

until there is some need it can't meet.  I suspect it will be a long time

before there is some development in electronics that version 7.7 just can't

address, even with reasonable ULPs and additional external software.  If in

the mean time, AutoDesk comes out with a acceptable license mechanism, then

I'll update at that time.

The real issue is what I'll have to recommend to new customers in the mean

time that don't already have Eagle.  If you allow version 7.7 to be

purchased and licensed the same way, then I can go with that.  If you take

away version 7.7 so that the only option is the new license, then I will

unfortunately have to tell new customers not to go with Eagle.  I don't

know what the best alternative will be.  I don't really want to learn a new

package, but I'll probably put the effort into at least looking at KiCad.

It's not something I look forward to, and I'll wait until its really

necessary, but that's the plan at this point.

--

EAGLE support forums at http://www.eaglecentral.ca :: Where the EAGLE community meets.

On 23/01/2017 9:01 a.m., Olin Lathrop wrote:

Ed Robledo wrote on Thu, 19 January 2017 11:16

It is required that you be online at least the first time you launch

EAGLE.  At this time, enter your login details.  After that, you can go

offline up to 14 days.

 

.............Something is still not clear to me even after all the descriptions of how

the new license scheme will work.  Jorge said something about not logging

out, which worries me.  It's not clear whether the 14 day period is valid

just for one session, or is a absolute 14 days..............

 

 

Hi Olin

My thoughts:

I have reached a point where I believe that you may work offline for 14

days after being on-line.

The 14 day number has been repeated often and this is likely the true

number. What I did spot on the Autodesk website, in the same context,

was "30 days" quoted, which contradicts the 14 days. I suspect this is

an error.

What one might expect from a subscription model is that you should be

able to go off-line until the expiry date of your current payment. That

would give 30 day minimum and for buying larger lumps of time, even

longer. This would allay some of the fears people have regarding

reaching the server due to whatever reason. It gives less exposure in

any one year and more time for the recovery of that server/

infrastructure before you are compelled to access it.

It begs the question, where or what is the mechanism that stops your

local copy from working at full ability?

Say your subscription ends last day of the month. If I connect two days

before, will I be able to work locally for 14 more days effectively

having full abilities 12 days into the next month. Most likely you have

paid for the next subscription cycle so that's not a consideration but

should you have elected to stop the subscription, then this model will

give you a few more days. This model suggests your local PC does not

track the subscription but just needs to call home to get the status of

you subscription and switch between the limited free version or maintain

it at the version subscribed to.

Warren

--

... use NNTP://news.cadsoft.de and a functional news reader like

Thunderbird!

... or http://www.eaglecentral.ca browser access to CadSoft EAGLE

support forums.

Am 22.01.2017 um 21:01 schrieb Olin Lathrop:

Ed Robledo wrote on Thu, 19 January 2017 11:16

It is required that you be online at least the first time you launch

EAGLE.  At this time, enter your login details.  After that, you can go

offline up to 14 days.

 

Something is still not clear to me even after all the descriptions of how

the new license scheme will work.  Jorge said something about not logging

out, which worries me.  It's not clear whether the 14 day period is valid

just for one session, or is a absolute 14 days.

 

Let's say I have a laptop connected to the internet.  I start up Eagle,

which checks into the server to verify the license.  All is fine at that

point and the 14 day clock is reset to 0.  Now I log out, shut down the

machine, and travel to someplace where I have no internet connection.  A

day later, (one day since license check-in), I power up the laptop, log in,

and try to run Eagle.  Will it run fully since there are still 13 days left

after the last check-in, or will it not run since this is a new login

session?

 

By the way, this is not just a hyopthetical scenario.  This is exactly what

I was doing last summer.  I drove from Massachusetts to Phoenix AZ and back

over 3 1/2 weeks, and did work on my laptop every day or two.  Sometimes I

had a internet connection when I used the laptop, sometimes not.  I spent

enough time in remote parts of various national forests in Colorado, New

Mexico, and Arizona that Eagle not working due to no internet connection

would have been a real problem.

 

Another real use case I have is a machine in a secure lab.  One of my

customers got Eagle on my recommendation for use in a lab where data is

only allowed to go in, never out.  There is a LAN inside the lab, but it is

not and never will be connected to the internet.  Even flash drives that go

in aren't allowed to come out.  I got Eagle in by burning the install file

onto a CD.  That CD can't leave the lab, but that's OK.  As far as I can

tell, your new license scheme simply won't work for this case, right?

 

SNIP

As far as I have understood that new licensing stuff is that the

computer has  to be "refuelled" every 14 days by internet connection to

the AD-server and it doesn't matter what kind of license you have, even

if it is one for a year.

Even if AD does extend the internet connection to the length of the

valid license no one can predict that it  will not be changed 6 month later.

As Olin has already pointed out, if one works in a secure lab those

computers never see a internet  connection.

--

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / With best regards

Joern Paschedag

On 1/22/2017 2:01 PM, Olin Lathrop wrote:

Ed Robledo wrote on Thu, 19 January 2017 11:16

It is required that you be online at least the first time you launch

EAGLE.  At this time, enter your login details.  After that, you can go

offline up to 14 days.

 

Something is still not clear to me even after all the descriptions of how

the new license scheme will work.  Jorge said something about not logging

out, which worries me.  It's not clear whether the 14 day period is valid

just for one session, or is a absolute 14 days.

 

Let's say I have a laptop connected to the internet.  I start up Eagle,

which checks into the server to verify the license.  All is fine at that

point and the 14 day clock is reset to 0.  Now I log out, shut down the

machine, and travel to someplace where I have no internet connection.  A

day later, (one day since license check-in), I power up the laptop, log in,

and try to run Eagle.  Will it run fully since there are still 13 days left

after the last check-in, or will it not run since this is a new login

session?

 

By the way, this is not just a hyopthetical scenario.  This is exactly what

I was doing last summer.  I drove from Massachusetts to Phoenix AZ and back

over 3 1/2 weeks, and did work on my laptop every day or two.  Sometimes I

had a internet connection when I used the laptop, sometimes not.  I spent

enough time in remote parts of various national forests in Colorado, New

Mexico, and Arizona that Eagle not working due to no internet connection

would have been a real problem.

 

Another real use case I have is a machine in a secure lab.  One of my

customers got Eagle on my recommendation for use in a lab where data is

only allowed to go in, never out.  There is a LAN inside the lab, but it is

not and never will be connected to the internet.  Even flash drives that go

in aren't allowed to come out.  I got Eagle in by burning the install file

onto a CD.  That CD can't leave the lab, but that's OK.  As far as I can

tell, your new license scheme simply won't work for this case, right?

 

I've recommended Eagle to quite a few customers over the years, in addition

to having three full licenses at Embed.  I've invested a lot of time in

ULPs, scripts, programs to make scripts, and other external programs for

BOM, custom part number handling, and various other features.  I don't

really want to start over.

 

However, a subscription model just isn't for me.  Not only is the overall

price considerably higher now, but the real issue is the vulnerability to

down internet connection, and worse, the unpredictable policies of

AutoDesk.  Basically, if I go with the subscription, then you own me.  You

can decide at any time to raise the price, force use of a particular

version, or even discontinue the product altogether.  That's a risk I'm

simply not willing to take, and will advise my customers not to take

either.  It's just plain bad business.

 

What I will do, and advise my customers to do, is to stay with version 7.7

until there is some need it can't meet.  I suspect it will be a long time

before there is some development in electronics that version 7.7 just can't

address, even with reasonable ULPs and additional external software.  If in

the mean time, AutoDesk comes out with a acceptable license mechanism, then

I'll update at that time.

 

The real issue is what I'll have to recommend to new customers in the mean

time that don't already have Eagle.  If you allow version 7.7 to be

purchased and licensed the same way, then I can go with that.  If you take

away version 7.7 so that the only option is the new license, then I will

unfortunately have to tell new customers not to go with Eagle.  I don't

know what the best alternative will be.  I don't really want to learn a new

package, but I'll probably put the effort into at least looking at KiCad.

It's not something I look forward to, and I'll wait until its really

necessary, but that's the plan at this point.

 

I agree.  Between the online requirement and the new pricing model, I

will not be moving from 7.7 anytime soon.  Our company currently has 3

professional licenses.  $1500 per year is not going to fly.  I am

currently downloading KiCad for evaluation.  I tried it years ago and

didn't think it was quite up to snuff.  I found this gentleman who has

already made the switch:

http://www.kaibader.de/i-made-it-i-switched-from-eagle-to-kicad-to-make-my-pcb-designs/

On 1/22/2017 2:01 PM, Olin Lathrop wrote:

Ed Robledo wrote on Thu, 19 January 2017 11:16

It is required that you be online at least the first time you launch

EAGLE.  At this time, enter your login details.  After that, you can go

offline up to 14 days.

 

Something is still not clear to me even after all the descriptions of how

the new license scheme will work.  Jorge said something about not logging

out, which worries me.  It's not clear whether the 14 day period is valid

just for one session, or is a absolute 14 days.

 

Let's say I have a laptop connected to the internet.  I start up Eagle,

which checks into the server to verify the license.  All is fine at that

point and the 14 day clock is reset to 0.  Now I log out, shut down the

machine, and travel to someplace where I have no internet connection.  A

day later, (one day since license check-in), I power up the laptop, log in,

and try to run Eagle.  Will it run fully since there are still 13 days left

after the last check-in, or will it not run since this is a new login

session?

 

By the way, this is not just a hyopthetical scenario.  This is exactly what

I was doing last summer.  I drove from Massachusetts to Phoenix AZ and back

over 3 1/2 weeks, and did work on my laptop every day or two.  Sometimes I

had a internet connection when I used the laptop, sometimes not.  I spent

enough time in remote parts of various national forests in Colorado, New

Mexico, and Arizona that Eagle not working due to no internet connection

would have been a real problem.

 

Another real use case I have is a machine in a secure lab.  One of my

customers got Eagle on my recommendation for use in a lab where data is

only allowed to go in, never out.  There is a LAN inside the lab, but it is

not and never will be connected to the internet.  Even flash drives that go

in aren't allowed to come out.  I got Eagle in by burning the install file

onto a CD.  That CD can't leave the lab, but that's OK.  As far as I can

tell, your new license scheme simply won't work for this case, right?

 

I've recommended Eagle to quite a few customers over the years, in addition

to having three full licenses at Embed.  I've invested a lot of time in

ULPs, scripts, programs to make scripts, and other external programs for

BOM, custom part number handling, and various other features.  I don't

really want to start over.

 

However, a subscription model just isn't for me.  Not only is the overall

price considerably higher now, but the real issue is the vulnerability to

down internet connection, and worse, the unpredictable policies of

AutoDesk.  Basically, if I go with the subscription, then you own me.  You

can decide at any time to raise the price, force use of a particular

version, or even discontinue the product altogether.  That's a risk I'm

simply not willing to take, and will advise my customers not to take

either.  It's just plain bad business.

 

What I will do, and advise my customers to do, is to stay with version 7.7

until there is some need it can't meet.  I suspect it will be a long time

before there is some development in electronics that version 7.7 just can't

address, even with reasonable ULPs and additional external software.  If in

the mean time, AutoDesk comes out with a acceptable license mechanism, then

I'll update at that time.

 

The real issue is what I'll have to recommend to new customers in the mean

time that don't already have Eagle.  If you allow version 7.7 to be

purchased and licensed the same way, then I can go with that.  If you take

away version 7.7 so that the only option is the new license, then I will

unfortunately have to tell new customers not to go with Eagle.  I don't

know what the best alternative will be.  I don't really want to learn a new

package, but I'll probably put the effort into at least looking at KiCad.

It's not something I look forward to, and I'll wait until its really

necessary, but that's the plan at this point.

 

I agree.  Between the online requirement and the new pricing model, I

will not be moving from 7.7 anytime soon.  Our company currently has 3

professional licenses.  $1500 per year is not going to fly.  I am

currently downloading KiCad for evaluation.  I tried it years ago and

didn't think it was quite up to snuff.  I found this gentleman who has

already made the switch:

http://www.kaibader.de/i-made-it-i-switched-from-eagle-to-kicad-to-make-my-pcb-designs/