Emily Svensson
If you use any Autodesk products that require single-user access, you’re probably very familiar with user management in Autodesk Account. What you might not know is that we have two different sections for user management, depending on access type. Most admins are familiar with classic user management. However, based on feedback, we are replacing it with the new view of user management. If you’re new to Autodesk, you likely already have access to the new view. If you’ve been around for a while, you might still have all your products in the classic view, or some of your products in classic and some in new. Either way – soon all your subscriptions with single-user access will be managed in the new view.
Whether you’ve been newly onboarded onto the new view or you’re managing users in both classic and new view, you may want to know the key differences between them and the benefits of the new view.
What customers are saying: “It is all very easy to find. It is much more intuitive than the admin portal for Office 365.” –Craig Radiff, IS&T Manager
1. Assigning users by user or product versus by contract
In the new view:
You are no longer assigning users by contract. You have two options – assigning by user or assigning by product. Users in the new view are not tied to your contracts or subscriptions – if you have available seats they will not lose access. The main value is to see, at a glance, who is assigned to what product and how many seats are available to quickly take action.
By clicking “By user” in the left navigation you can see a complete list of all your users. Clicking on a specific user will allow you to view and manage their product access.
By clicking “By product” in the left navigation you can see a complete list of all your products. The top-level view gives you a summary of how many users you have assigned to that product and how many seats you still have left to assign. You can click on a product to view the specific users who are assigned to it. By clicking “Add users” you can bulk assign a lot of users at once.
Once assigned, users will get a detailed email listing all the products that they’ve recently been assigned to.
In the classic view:
In classic view you assign users by contract. The users are tied to this contract and when it expires they will disappear. The users are not tied to a specific serial number on the contract.
Once you add them to the contract you can choose a product on that contract to give them access to. Once you run out of seats of that product on the contract, your user will lose access automatically.
To see a list of all the products you have available for assignments, along with their seat counts, click on “edit access” next to any user. Try out the filter capability to assign access by role, contract number, product, etc.
Once assigned, users will get an email letting them know that something has changed. If they want to know what products they’ve been assigned to, they can sign in to their Autodesk Account.
2. Admin capabilities and role changes
In the new view:
You can have as many admins as you need. By default, the first admin in the list is the Primary admin. You can add as many secondary admins as you need to help manage your team.
- Admins can:
- Add and remove users
- Assign and unassign products
- Access support and downloads for all purchased products
- See details about the contract, if purchased through a reseller
To assign a secondary admin just click on the user that you want as an admin and select “secondary admin” in one click.
In the classic view:
Admins are called software coordinators. You can only have one software coordinator per serial number.
- Software coordinators can:
- Add and remove users
- Assign and unassign products
- See details about the contract
FYI: Software coordinators must be manually assigned to support and downloads if they need them.
To assign a software coordinator you can click the “Manage Software Coordinators” quick link in the left navigation, which will take you to the Autodesk Knowledge Network. Then, just input your serial number and choose a new software coordinator.
3. Users keep access to products regardless of contract
In the new view:
Your users are not tied to a specific subscription or contract, so you have the flexibility to make changes without a bunch of extra steps.
When you need fewer seats or fewer contracts, just un-assign anyone who doesn’t need the product anymore. You won’t have to worry about Autodesk removing the wrong person – you know better than we do who should lose access!
In the classic view:
In the classic view, your users are tied to your contract. If you want to increase or decrease your seat count and/or your number of contracts, you will need to be a little more strategic about which contract your users are assigned to. If you have multiple contracts and want to expire one, make sure to move any users over to a different contract first so they don’t lose access.Emily’s pro tip: In new view of user management, “by product” is the best section to invite new users and immediately assign them in one step.