Autodesk Application Manager

As you may have already noticed, Autodesk recently added a new Autodesk Application Manager desktop component included with the most recent line of 2015 products.

So, what exactly is the Autodesk Application Manager?

The Autodesk Application Manager is a cloud-centric software delivery solution, which includes a desktop software component that self-installs with all Microsoft Windows-based Autodesk 2015 products and suites. Autodesk Application Manager actively keeps users informed of product updates associated with your particular product, by sending alerts about new Service Packs and other assets (such as Product Extensions for Subscription Customers) as they become available—eliminating the need to independently search for updates from multiple sources. This solution replaces previous product update components, specifically LiveUpdate, portions of InfoCenter / Communication Center, and CAD Manager Control Utility, although these components will remain in production to support previous product versions.

How does it work?

After the Autodesk Application Manager is installed, you will see the icon highlighted below:
A shortcut will appear in the notification area of the task bar, in the lower right-hand corner of a Windows machine, letting you know that the Autodesk Application Manager is loaded. After right-clicking and opening the app, you will see this dialog box:

Alternatively, when new updates for your installed applications become available, the Autodesk Application Manager will alert you via a pop-up window: 

Clicking on View Details in the pop-up window—or Update Software in the previous dialog box—will open another window showing new updates (if any), along with a list of previously-installed updates: 

If configured to do so, the Application Manager will automatically check for updates every 4 hours, which is the default, and notify the user when one becomes available for any of the 2015 (only) products installed. 

While some users may not install this feature, we recommend that you do because it is a really helpful way to be automatically notified when your 2015 product(s) has an update.

If for any reason you wish to not install Application Manager on your own machine, or in cases where the deployment workflow is not used, it will be necessary to remove or comment out references to Application Manager in the setup.ini file, found in the cdrom1 directory. Open setup.ini, and delete ADAPPLICATIONMANAGER from all 3 instances, specifically from the following lines:

EXE_SEQUENCE, INSTALL_SEQUENCE, and UI_SEQUENCE.

Also, customers do NOT have to be on Subscription to benefit from the Autodesk Application Manager. Regardless of whether or not products are on Autodesk Subscription, any customer with a licensed 2015 Autodesk product can use the Autodesk Application Manager client. Customers who are active on Subscription will enjoy access to “entitled” updates such as Product Extensions as they become available, which deliver incremental product functionality between major annual releases.

If it is still unclear what exactly the Application Manager can do for you, feel free to watch the following video, visit the following FAQ page, or give us a call at 888-768-7568.