Autodesk cascade licensing and the PLIST.

Feature codes

When you start the network version of an Autodesk product, a request is made to the network for a license. The Network License Manager controls the licenses that are issued and handles license requests through feature codes. Feature codes are specific to the networked application; Each network version of an Autodesk product has a specific FLEXnet® feature code.

Cascade Licensing

Cascade Licensing allows a product to obtain a license from a network license manager pool when that license manager is servicing more than one product. Cascading was implemented primarily to address mixed-product environments where both suite and base products co-exist.

PLIST

For Autodesk products that are included in a product suite and are also sold as an individual product, licenses are allocated based on a sequence of priorities defined in a PLIST (priority list).
The PLIST increment section defines the search order and priority for network licensed products sold as a series or bundle.

This PLIST increment was included in the license file and needs to exist there only once. It should always include the most recently released Autodesk products; Deleting or editing this PLIST increment is not supported by Autodesk.

PLIST example:

The VENDOR_STRING is split into groups denoted by a letter and a number. For example, A07.
The groups contain feature codes for the applicable series or sets of products. These groups are subject to change as new product offerings are released.
At the present time the following groups are included in the PLIST VENDOR_STRING:
Autodesk® Land Desktop, Autodesk® Civil 3D®
A07:51600ACDLAND_2007_0F:52200CIV3D_2007_0F
AutoCAD® Mechanical, Autodesk Inventor® Series, Autodesk Inventor® Professional
B07:51900AMECH_PP_2007_0F:51300INVBUN_11_0F:52900INVPRORS_11_0F:53000INVPROSIM_11_0F:51400INVPRO_11_0F
AutoCAD®, Autodesk AutoCAD® Revit® Series—Building, Autodesk AutoCAD® Revit® Series—Structure
C07:51200ACD_2007_0F:52500REVITS_9_0F:53700REVSU_3_0F
Autodesk® Revit® Building, Autodesk AutoCAD® Revit® Series—Building
D07:52600REVIT_9_0F:52500REVITS_9_0F
Autodesk Internal Test Increment – not used by customer products
E07:51200ACD_2007_0P:51300INVBUN_11_0P
Autodesk® Building Systems, Autodesk AutoCAD® Revit® Series—Systems Plus
F07:51800BLDSYS_2007_0F:53100REVSYP_1_0F
Autodesk® Revit® Structure, Autodesk AutoCAD® Revit® Series—Structure
G07:53400REVITST_3_0F:53700REVSU_3_0F

ProductInformation.pit

For the 2010 products, the PLIST increment is no longer include in the license file but is now stored in a new external file named ProductInformation.pit. License files will still include PLIST increments for legacy products, however 2010 products will reference the ProductInformation.pit file for the required PLIST information.
The ProductInformation.pit file is automatically created on the local machine when a product gets installed and there will only be one ProductInformation.pit file, shared by all installed products. The file is created when the first 2010 product is installed and is appended to with each subsequent product installation. Likewise, when a product is uninstalled it unregisters itself from the ProductInformation.pit file. When the last product has been unregistered from the file, ProductInformation.pit is automatically removed from the machine.

With the exception of the PLIST, the ProductInformation.pit file does not contain PACKAGE information or any other information that is normally included in the license file.

Location

The ProductInformation.pit file is created on the workstation in the following locations:
XP: C:Documents and settingsAll UsersApplication DataAutodeskADLMProductInformation.PIT
Vista: C:ProgramDataAutodeskADLMProductInformation.PIT

Constraints

Just as with other licensing components, the ProductInformation.pit file should not be moved from its default location. In addition to the PLIST increment, the ProductInformation.pit file contains other licensing information for the installed products and a 2010 product will not run correctly without this file.
Since the ProductInformation.pit file is encrypted and unreadable, One could no longer inspect the PLIST to determine the cascade order for 2010 products.

Combining license files example

To add additional product licenses to the Network License Manager, you must combine the separate licenses into one license file and configure a single service in LMTOOLS to use this combined license file. This action involves the PLIST VENDOR_STRING, and as such is an example for its role in the license file.

To combine license files for Autodesk products into one license file, you must edit the existing license file and add lines from the new license file. Do not configure a separate service for the new Autodesk product.
To edit the existing license file, copy all of the lines from the additional product license file starting at the line beginning with PACKAGE.
The following is an example of how to add AutoCAD 2007 licenses to an existing AutoCAD 2006 license file:

Existing license file for AutoCAD 2006:
SERVER servername 0123456789ab
USE_SERVER
VENDOR adskflex port=2080
INCREMENT 48800ACD_2006_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 5
VENDOR_STRING=nfr:permanent BORROW=4320 SUPERSEDE DUP_GROUP=UH
ISSUED=01-Sep-2006 SN=123-45678900 SIGN=”06DE F4C2 998E ABD3
2413 D3A0 77EB 0CCE 203C 7BEA 73A3 25F5 0A8D EA5E E26D 1C18
968B BE2E 966D C293 AEF0 97F5 9776 057F 652C 6050 D904 A755
5A35 7909″ SIGN2=”1A49 5DFA 4C92 D6DC BD74 7D15 6B3F 730D A342
EEBC C63F 1838 FFBC 2CD8 B6E0 0113 0E3D 540F AE73 C8B4 C90C
BA1F 049D             9464 0477       8D53 06AD 0992 5B16 3A92″
License file received for AutoCAD 2007:
SERVER servername 0123456789ab
USE_SERVER
VENDOR adskflex port=2080
INCREMENT 51200ACD_2007_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 5
VENDOR_STRING=nfr:permanent BORROW=4320 SUPERSEDE DUP_GROUP=UH
ISSUED=01-Sep-2006 SN=123-45678900 SIGN=”19DA F1B9             2187 1910       
10DB 61CD 4013 BC85 40EE 6AAC F11C 8AA8 9E49 3833 FBDB 0E68
1172 C1FE 704F 611C EAF3 E008 14DC C713 35AB 6D33 7C06 0DE2
0A47 BDC2″ SIGN2=”0B1B 3967 DC25 1AA2 3DBA 4F29 E076             4472 9716       
5A38 9CA2 1A3E 2001 68CC 59D4 05CB 0699 9B5A F358 56B7 5056
DE42 7FBB ED04 AF77 CDB4 AC31 4564 88A4 5132″
INCREMENT PLIST adskflex 1.000 permanent 1
VENDOR_STRING=A07:51600ACDLAND_2007_0F:52200CIV3D_2007_0F;B07:51900AMECH_PP_2007_0F:51300INVBUN_11_0F:52900INVPRORS_11_0F:53000INVPROSIM_11_0F:51400INVPRO_11_0F;C07:51200ACD_2007_0F:52500REVITS_9_0F:54100REVITS_9_1F:53700REVSU_3_0F:54200REVSU_4_0F;D07:52600REVIT_9_0F:52500REVITS_9_0F;E07:51200ACD_2007_0P:51300INVBUN_11_0P;F07:51800BLDSYS_2007_0F:53100REVSYP_1_0F:54500REVSYP_2_0F;G07:53400REVITST_3_0F:53700REVSU_3_0F;H07:54300REVIT_9_1F:54100REVITS_9_1F;I07:54400REVITST_4_0F:54200REVSU_4_0F
SUPERSEDE ISSUED=01-Sep-2006 SIGN=”140B 330F 51E2 F3C7 BDCF
F34F 4FC6 40C5 1303 82A3 83EA 905B 975D 8E99 BACC 1843 6904
C47E 3C16 8806 F386 8BD5 BA5E 283E 1568 D2F0 4CFE 223C DF91
1A38″ SIGN2=”0C71 73DD 721F F07E 7202 CBB9 CBAB E834 99F1 2C45
2719 3F00 58EF 63E6 B9F1 11C3 687F 4861 70F4 ABE5 B9FF F23A
53F1 71D7 CD26 E984 145A A86B 62C2 5F6F”
Combined license file for AutoCAD 2006 and AutoCAD 2007:
SERVER servername 0123456789ab
USE_SERVER
VENDOR adskflex port=2080
INCREMENT 48800ACD_2006_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 5
VENDOR_STRING=nfr:permanent BORROW=4320 SUPERSEDE DUP_GROUP=UH
ISSUED=01-Sep-2006 SN=123-45678900 SIGN=”06DE F4C2 998E ABD3
2413 D3A0 77EB 0CCE 203C 7BEA 73A3 25F5 0A8D EA5E E26D 1C18
968B BE2E 966D C293 AEF0 97F5 9776 057F 652C 6050 D904 A755
5A35 7909″ SIGN2=”1A49 5DFA 4C92 D6DC BD74 7D15 6B3F 730D A342
EEBC C63F 1838 FFBC 2CD8 B6E0 0113 0E3D 540F AE73 C8B4 C90C
BA1F 049D             9464 0477       8D53 06AD 0992 5B16 3A92″
INCREMENT 51200ACD_2007_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 5
VENDOR_STRING=nfr:permanent BORROW=4320 SUPERSEDE DUP_GROUP=UH
ISSUED=01-Sep-2006 SN=123-45678900 SIGN=”19DA F1B9             2187 1910       
10DB 61CD 4013 BC85 40EE 6AAC F11C 8AA8 9E49 3833 FBDB 0E68
1172 C1FE 704F 611C EAF3 E008 14DC C713 35AB 6D33 7C06 0DE2
0A47 BDC2″ SIGN2=”0B1B 3967 DC25 1AA2 3DBA 4F29 E076             4472 9716       
5A38 9CA2 1A3E 2001 68CC 59D4 05CB 0699 9B5A F358 56B7 5056
DE42 7FBB ED04 AF77 CDB4 AC31 4564 88A4 5132″
INCREMENT PLIST adskflex 1.000 permanent 1
VENDOR_STRING=A07:51600ACDLAND_2007_0F:52200CIV3D_2007_0F;B07:51900AMECH_PP_2007_0F:51300INVBUN_11_0F:52900INVPRORS_11_0F:53000INVPROSIM_11_0F:51400INVPRO_11_0F;C07:51200ACD_2007_0F:52500REVITS_9_0F:54100REVITS_9_1F:53700REVSU_3_0F:54200REVSU_4_0F;D07:52600REVIT_9_0F:52500REVITS_9_0F;E07:51200ACD_2007_0P:51300INVBUN_11_0P;F07:51800BLDSYS_2007_0F:53100REVSYP_1_0F:54500REVSYP_2_0F;G07:53400REVITST_3_0F:53700REVSU_3_0F;H07:54300REVIT_9_1F:54100REVITS_9_1F;I07:54400REVITST_4_0F:54200REVSU_4_0F
SUPERSEDE ISSUED=01-Sep-2006 SIGN=”140B 330F 51E2 F3C7 BDCF
F34F 4FC6 40C5 1303 82A3 83EA 905B 975D 8E99 BACC 1843 6904
C47E 3C16 8806 F386 8BD5 BA5E 283E 1568 D2F0 4CFE 223C DF91
1A38″ SIGN2=”0C71 73DD 721F F07E 7202 CBB9 CBAB E834 99F1 2C45
2719 3F00 58EF 63E6 B9F1 11C3 687F 4861 70F4 ABE5 B9FF F23A
53F1 71D7 CD26 E984 145A A86B 62C2 5F6F”

Once the license files are combined, click ReRead License File on the LMTOOLS Start/Stop/Reread tab to make the changes effective.  Sometimes it may be necessary to stop and restart the license manager before the new license file will be read.

References:

The information in this paper was gathered from the following Autodesk links:
Without a Net
PLIST Increment Vendor_String
How to combine license files for multiple Autodesk products