On-Demand Licensing of Altium Designer
Altium Designer's On-Demand licensing offers you global floating license capability - within the geographic scope of your license and the conditions set out in the EULA - without the need to implement your own dedicated server. The system provides a flexible, streamlined approach to licensing, allowing you to obtain a license in a matter of mouse clicks, when and where you want it - the true essence of an on-demand system.
To further increase its flexibility, an On-Demand license can be used in two different ways, or 'modes' - On-Demand or Roaming. The choice of how you use your On-Demand license will come down to personal preference, and the way in which you work.
Signing In
Before you can access and use an On-Demand license, you must first sign in to your Altium account through the secure Altium portal - remember, On-Demand licensing is administered by an Altium managed server. For convenience, controls for account access are presented at the top of the License Management view (accessed by clicking on the control at the top-right of the design space and choosing the Licenses command from the menu). Click the Sign in link to access the Sign In dialog. Use this dialog to enter your AltiumLive Account Credentials and click OK.
Sign In Options
Third-party Sign-in
Providing more flexibility in how you can connect to Altium 365, Altium Designer offers popular third-party AltiumLive sign-in options. To link an alternative sign-in option to your account, click the desired connection (Google® shown here) and sign in to that service if required. Enter your existing AltiumLive credentials on the following page to establish the third-party link to your account.
Confirmation of the account linkage can be seen in your Altium Account, which also serves to remove the association if necessary (Unlink).
Single Sign On
To enhance compatibility with existing company systems, you can sign in to Altium Designer using your organization's Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication system. Along with the benefits of increased security and more efficient IT user access management, the application of SSO schemes provides the convenience of signing in to Altium software using the same set of credentials that apply to your company-wide systems and services.
The Altium Designer SSO sign-in capability supports the SSO infrastructure embedded in the AltiumLive account management application and Altium 365, which in turn hosts your Altium 365 Workspace. With authentication communications based on the standardized Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML 2.0), the system establishes authorized identities from your company's nominated Identity Provider (IdP) – for example Okta, OneLogin, etc. The SSO sign-in interface for your company, if not already in place, is usually based on a template or example provided by the IdP – this instigates the SAML-based authentication assertion exchanges and provides access to company services.
The Altium NEXUS SSO sign-in capability supports the SSO infrastructure embedded in the AltiumLive account management application. With authentication communications based on the standardized Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML 2.0), the system establishes authorized identities from your company's nominated Identity Provider (IdP) – for example Okta, OneLogin, etc. The SSO sign-in interface for your company, if not already in place, is usually based on a template or example provided by the IdP – this instigates the SAML-based authentication assertion exchanges and provides access to company services.
Account Management
The Connection, Sign in and portal Server details are all available on the System - Account Management page of the Preferences dialog. This page can be quickly accessed by clicking the Account Preferences link in the License Management view. Alternatively, access the Preferences dialog (click on the control at the top-right of the design space) and browse to the page within the System folder.
License Availability
In the example image below, On-Demand licenses that are available for the currently signed-in user are listed.
For each On-Demand license, the following information is presented:
- Product Name - what is being licensed. The name typically reflects a feature set and release.
- Activation Code - the activation code for the license.
- Used - reflects not only whether a seat of the license is in use on your installation of Altium Designer, but also who else is using a seat of the license (where the license is multi-seat) and in which mode they are using that seat. Another person using a seat in On-Demand or Roaming modes will display
In Use
andRoaming
respectively. - Assigned Seat Count - the total number of seats available on the license and how many of those seats are currently in use.
- Expiry - the date at which the license will no longer be considered valid.
- Status - the current state of the license. This entry can be one of the following states:
- OK - license is in-date and seat allocation has not been exceeded.
- Expired - license expiry date has been reached.
- No seats left - license is still OK, but all seats are currently being used.
- Subscription Status - details if the license is covered by subscription, or if the subscription has expired.
Mode of License Use
With flexibility in mind, On-Demand licensing has been defined to operate in two distinct modes, detailed in the following sections.
On-Demand
This is the simplest (and quickest) mode of use for an On-Demand license - the perceived default mode if you will. In this mode, a seat of an On-Demand license is acquired by any client computer, only while you are signed in to your account. When you sign out, the seat is released so that another user can acquire it.
To use a seat of an available On-Demand license in this mode, simply click on the license in the grid, then click on the Use link in the area below the grid, as shown below.
With a license in use, the following changes will occur:
- The Used field for the license will change to
Used by me
. - The Assigned Seat Count field for the license will update to reflect another seat of that license taken.
- The 'banner' for the Available Licenses region will change from
Available Licenses - Unlicensed
toAvailable Licenses - Licensed to <AccountName>. License subscription valid to <SubscriptionExpiryDate>.
- reflecting the account to which the license is associated, and the expiry of the current subscription associated with and purchased for that license. - The text in the lower-left of the region will also update to reflect your license usage.
Roaming
In this mode, a seat of an On-Demand license is acquired for a specified time. You do not need to remain signed in to your account to use the license in this mode - you can sign out and work offline, in essence roaming freely with your license seat.
To use a seat of an available On-Demand license in this mode, click on the license in the grid then click on the Roam link in the area below the grid. The Retain License dialog will appear in which you can define how many days and/or hours you want to roam with the seat.
With a license in use, the following changes will occur:
- The Used field for the license will change to
Roaming with me
. - The Assigned Seat Count field for the license will update to reflect another seat of that license taken.
- The 'banner' for the Available Licenses region will change from
Available Licenses - Unlicensed
toAvailable Licenses - Licensed to <AccountName>. License subscription valid to <SubscriptionExpiryDate>.
- reflecting the account to which the license is associated, and the expiry of the current subscription associated with and purchased for that license. - The text in the lower-left of the region will also update to reflect your license usage.
Working Offline
Of the two On-Demand licensing modes, it is the Roaming mode that enables you to take the license and work offline. When you sign out, the grid in the Available Licenses region of the License Management page will change from showing the available On-Demand
licenses to showing the On-Demand - Offline
license that you are currently using (roaming with). You will not see any Assigned Seat Count information while working offline, nor will you see any expanded grid details showing other users (for seats taken from a multi-seat license).
Releasing a License Remotely
It is possible to force-release a seat on a license that is being used in either On-Demand or Roaming modes. For example, if you forget to release your seat at work when you leave for the day, you can release it from your home computer then use the open seat at home. The extent of your 'release powers' depends on whether or not you have administrative rights to your licenses:
- Have Administrative Rights - you can remotely release a seat used by any user. The seat they are using will be released and they will lose the license.
- No Administrative Rights - you can only release a seat that you are using (on another computer). The seat will be available again.
To release a license:
- Select the license to be released, in the Available Licenses grid. For a multi-seat license, expand the parent license, then select the entry for the specific seat that is currently in use.
- Click the Release link below the grid, or right-click and choose the Release command from the context menu. What happens next depends on the mode in which the released license is being used:
- On-Demand - a dialog will appear asking for confirmation to proceed with the release. Click Yes to force-release the seat.
- Roaming - the Altium Honor Code dialog will appear. The dialog essentially asks for your promise, under the Altium Honor Code, that you will not use, or allow others to use, the roaming license on that other computer after its release. Read the text in the dialog carefully and, if you promise to honor the terms as stated - both in the dialog and the EULA - type "I Agree" in the available field. Then click the Release button to proceed with the release.