Land F/X Licensing Explained
Additional resources
- What Am I "Licensing"?
- What Is a License, and How Does It Work?
- Types of Licenses
- How to Manage Your Licenses
- Related Webinars
- Troubleshooting
Although it may seem difficult to understand at times, our licensing system is actually pretty simple. Here's the breakdown:
What Am I "Licensing"?
Quick video
When you purchase, or start a trial of, our software, you are licensing one a plugin, also known as an add-on. We offer three license types for our AutoCAD plugin:
- Design F/X
- Planting F/X (also includes Design F/X)
- Irrigation F/X (also includes Planting F/X and Design F/X)
For a breakdown of what is included in each of our license types, see our Products page.
What's a plugin? It's a software application that adds functionality to another piece of software on your computer. In your case, you are installing a plugin that adds a series of tools directly into AutoCAD. For example, if you install Irrigation F/X, the F/X Admin, Site, Planting, Irrigation, and Details ribbon tabs (pictured below), will appear at the top of your AutoCAD screen in addition to the normal AutoCAD tabs.
What Is a License, and How Does It Work?
Quick video
A "license" refers to one installation of Design F/X, Planting F/X, or Irrigation F/X. To use the tools available in the license type you've installed, you'll need to have a license "checked out" on your computer. This process will work slightly differently, depending on your office.
Single-User Installations
If you're a sole proprietor who only plans to work on one computer, or you're the only Land F/X user in your office, you won't have to worry about checking licenses in and out. Just make sure you have AutoCAD or F/X CAD installed on that computer when you install the software, and your license should be available to use.
If you plan to use our software on two separate computers – like your desktop computer in the office and a laptop or home computer so you can work remotely – you'll need to have AutoCAD or F/X CAD and a Land F/X license (that is, Design F/X, Planting F/X, or Irrigation F/X) installed on that extra computer as well. You'll then "check the license out" when leaving one computer and then "check it in" on the other. More information >
Offices With More Than One User
If your office will have more than one user of our software, your office will have multiple licenses – ideally, one license for each designer who will use our software.
Licensing Rule of Thumb: You may install your license(s) onto as many computers as you’d like, but the number of licenses you have is the number of people who can use the software at one time.
Using Different License Types in One Office
If your office will be using multiple licenses of just one of our license types (such as Planting F/X), you won't need to worry about which user is using which license. For example, if everyone in your office is a landscape designer and nobody designs irrigation systems, everyone will likely have Planting F/X.
If you work in a multidisciplinary firm, or a company where some people do irrigation design and others do planting design, your office may have licenses for more than one of our license types.
You can have a mixed set of Planting F/X, Design F/X, and Irrigation F/X licenses. The License Manager allows you to share the functionality of the Irrigation license on multiple stations.
What to Determine:
- How many employees are designing planting plans or irrigation systems at one time?
- From there, you can work backward on how many licenses your office needs.
Example:
- 10-person office that includes 5 users who can do irrigation design.
- At most, 3 users might be designing irrigation at one time. The 5 people who would need the irrigation capabilities can share the 3 licenses. The rest of the office can be working with the Planting F/X licenses. So the office’s license total can be 7 Planting F/X & 3 Irrigation F/X licenses.
- That means 10 people can be working on planting plans, 3 of whom can have additional access to the irrigation tools.
Types of Licenses
We offer two main licensing options: Local licensing and Cloud licensing.
Local License
With local licensing, your installation of Planting F/X, Irrigation F/X, or Design F/X will be hosted locally – that is, in your office. If you have local licensing, you'll have one of two possible installation types:
• Single-User
A single-user, or standalone, installation is the most traditional type of licensing. Your license is stored on your computer, as well as on any laptop or other computer where you've installed it. To move from one computer to another (such as when taking work home to work on your laptop or home desktop computer), you'll release your license from one computer and then check it out when you're ready to work on the other.
• Multi-User
With a multi-user, or server, installation, you'll have Planting F/X, Irrigation F/X, or Design F/X installed on a central server in your office and accessible by mutiple users. Your office might have licenses assigned to the server, which means that users on individual workstations throughout the office will check out and release licenses automatically. Alternatively, licenses may be assigned manually to each computer on your office network. In this case, you and other users in your office will need to go into the License Manager to move licenses around as needed.
Cloud License
We've added cloud licensing as an option for offices with multiple installations of our software. In a nutshell, Cloud licensing means your installation – and your licenses – live online rather than on a single computer or office server. More information about cloud licensing >
If your office has cloud licensing, your licenses will be stored online (on the cloud). You'll need to retain a local copy of your LandFX folder on your computer (Single-User installations), or, for Multi-User installations, your office server or shared online folder location.
Checking out a license is much simpler with cloud licensing – all that's required is to open CAD and use one of our tools. However, you can still use the License Manager screen to check licenses out manually, as well as check licenses in. This option can be helpful if you have one or more licenses checked out but you need to use a different license type instead.
Clud Licensing and Cloud Data go hand in hand. See our Cloud page for information on these two options – and why we recommend them.
Do I Have a Cloud License or a Local License?
Don't know which type of license you have? See our section on finding out whether you have local or cloud licensing.
Academic License
We offer free licenses of our software to students and faculty at approved schools. If you received our software through a school where you study or teach, you have an academic license. For more information, see our Academic section.
How to Manage Your Licenses
You can manage your office's licenses from the License Manager screen, which lists all the information you'll need to know about your office's licenses of our software. You can find all the logistical information about managing your licenses on our License Management page.
Related Webinars
- Cloud Data: With our Cloud Data option, we provide security and convenience by giving you the freedom to access to your data no matter where you are – and you’ve been using it for years without even knowing it. Learn all about it here. (59 min)
Troubleshooting
Need help troubleshooting an issue with our licensing system? See our Licensing Troubleshooting section.
Contact
- Land F/X
Our software tailors AutoCAD® to the needs of landscape architects, irrigation designers, and other professionals. We automate your most tedious tasks and ensure accuracy, giving you more time to design.