What Versions of Autodesk Products Can We Use?

There have long been questions about what versions of Autodesk software we can run. For those who have been working with Autodesk products for a while, we saw quite a few transitions one after another, and it became a bit muddy as to what we could and could not continue to use.

Perpetual licenses were discontinued . . . but you could still use them if the license was not upgraded.

AND, for licenses that were “switched” or “traded in,” you could continue to use the perpetual license until one of the products in the collection was “activated” as a subscription license; then you had to “switch” all the products in the collection to the subscription license.

ALSO, since Autodesk Revit is not backward compatible, if the product suite you used included Revit and the license was continually on maintenance or subscription since the initial purchase, you were allowed to continue to use the perpetual license.

WHAT?!

Now it is easier.

As of March 10, 2025 – nothing 2016 or older – Autodesk will no longer supply activation codes for perpetual licenses.

If you have 2016 or older licenses installed and running, and those licenses have not been upgraded or switched to subscription licenses, you may continue to use those products, but you will not be able to “move” them to another computer.

Having this knowledge will help when budgeting for a new computer. In addition to the hardware, the purchase of a subscription license of the Autodesk software you need to use will be required.

In the Autodesk Account, users assigned a license will have “supported” access to the current version (2025) and the three previous versions (2024, 2023, and 2022) in the program square under All Products and Services:

Additionally, we are “allowed” to use two versions back past the oldest “supported” version (2021 and 2020). However, those two versions can only be accessed via the Autodesk Assistant: if you present to the Assistant that you need to download one of the “allowed” versions, you will be presented with all the available versions:

With each newly released version of your Autodesk product, the “supported” and “allowed” versions will change, and with that the available versions.

There are valid business reasons that users do not upgrade to the most current version of the software as it is released. But we at Graitec recommend that you stay more current, so when you must make the move, the learning curve will not be so dramatic.

As always, the support department at Graitec is happy to help with questions or program access.

There are three ways you can contact the Graitec support department:

Phone: (800) 899-2784

Email: support.namer@graitec.com

Online Form: https://graitec.com/us/support/