ADSK AEC Updates

Recent Updates (Last updated: July 28, 2020 at 17:24 pm)
RVT 2021.1 (22.07.2020), RVT 2020.2.2 (06.05.2020)
 

Currently I am unable to get access to the full suite of Autodesk products. I attempted to use ADN (Autodesk Developer network) but that was a waste of money. I am looking for alternatives, but in the meantime this page will not be updated as often as I would like. But, as I can gather information on updates from alternate channels, I will update here. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Autodesk is now providing us with many different ways to get at the stuff we need to extend and maintain an install. Knowledge Network (AKN) is your goto resource for updates, and the App Store (AAS) should be your first stop for addins. Subscription Account Portal (SAP) will be needed for subscription only downloads, which are mostly post R2/####.1 updates. And Virtual Assistant (AVA) is a great place to find installers you may need. Lastly, the blog What Revit Wants (WRW) often has links sooner than even Autodesk’s web sites.
But you should be aware of all the options, and some of the idiosyncrasies associated with those options (I’m looking at YOU, Subscription Account Portal!), as detailed in the links.

Also included here is a select Update History of the most commonly used Autodesk Products. Service Pack history is tracked, and AKN links provided for quick access.
Note that Hotfixes are not included in the History here as they are just too numerous to track. However, the AKN links will get you to Hotfixes and other updates, as well as the Service Packs.
For products that have Px Tools recipes, links are provided so Px Tools customers can get to them easily.

 
 

 

AKN is the most direct resource for most updates. The only time you will need to go anywhere else is for Revit R2 and later updates. All other products still provide all their updates via AKN.
The most direct route to those updates will be the AKN links for each product above.

Or the link in the section title will take you to the AKN home page, where you can click the Browse Customer Service button and then the Download Finder link on the right. In the resulting popup, choose your Product and Version (year) then click the Show Downloads button to finally get to a list of available downloads.

 

AAS provides a means of acquiring most of the addins available for various Autodesk products. Just pick your host product in the Product Stores menu on the left. From there you can pick one of the Categories to open the filter view (not exactly intuitive, is it). From here you can revise the category or even eliminate it, and also filter by Version, App Type, etc.
Once you are looking at a particular app, you can also select the Vendor, to get a list of all apps they provide.
Once you have downloaded an app, most likely it will be an MSI, which is easy to silently install. But this is not always the case, even with Autodesk’s apps. Where apps have been validated for use with Px Tools, you will find appropriate recipes and unpacking information in the Addins section for the host product. For other addins you will need use your experience to test install options, or get in touch with the vendor for silent install details.

The one place where AAS doesn’t do the job any more is with Autodesk’s First Party Subscription Only addins like eTransmit. As of Revit 2017 you now need to use the Subscription Account Portal to download the Subscription addins.

 

AKN works for getting to most updates, and AAS works for getting most addins, but there are some exceptions, seemingly all Revit related.

• As of Revit 2015 a new mid cycle release (R2) is available only for subscription customers and requires SAP to download.
• As of Revit 2016 only subscription customers get patches after R2. Pre R2 patches are called Service Packs and can be downloaded from AKN, while post R2 patches are called Updates and require SAP to download. Revit 2015 is still being patched for both R2 and non R2 installs, and both sets of patches can be downloaded from AKN.
• As of Revit 2017 Subscription Addins like eTransmit and Site Designer are no longer available on AAS and require SAP to download. Previous year Subscription Addins can still be downloaded from AAS with a Subscription logon.

Additionally, SAP will be the best resource for downloading the initial install media.

SAP, previously known as Subscription Center, has had some real issues in the past, with poor way finding, late updates and more. The way finding is still a mess, with too many paths to things, but with the right thread to follow it is at least more consistently updated now. There are three places within the Subscription Access Portal where you will find updates and addins.

Product Updates
Under Products & Services choose Products Updates. At the top of the list you will find “Recommended” items, which includes all the way back to original release Subscription Addins for versions going back a few years. However, scroll past this to find the “Recent” items like Revit 2017.1, Revit 2016 R2 UPD 7 and Navisworks 2017.1. Messiness at this point is that this approach is the new “Autodesk preferred” location, at least for this week.

All Products & Services
Under Products & Services choose All Products & Services, then the Download link below your specific product. For most of us this means a Suite.
When the gratuitous popup shows up (with a gratuitous animation, no less!) you may be tempted to select a version and click Browser Downloads, but resist the urge. Instead click the Updates and Add-ons link. Now you have a massive list to go through, so you will likely want to click the Add filters link.
Here you can select at a minimum a version and product, then click the Close button. This button should really be named Filter, as it applies the filters you have chosen. The “Close” X button in the upper right actually Cancels the Add filter process.
Once you are back in the filtered view you’ll see all the available Subscription only Updates, like R2 and the current R2 updates. But notice that the list here is much more restricted than in AKN. In SAP the only updates available for 2015 are UR3 which is required to install R2, R2 itself, and UR14. Technically this is all you need to be “up to date”, but it doesn’t support the best practice of ensuring all machines get all updates. For that you’ll need AKN to get some of the legacy updates. Of course regularly checking SAP and downloading new updates will keep your own asset library up to date, so you don’t have to depend on Autodesk for the legacy stuff.
In Revit 2017 you also see the Subscription addins that you can’t get any other way.

Product Enhancements
Under Quick links choose Product Enhancement, which will open a new page with download links. However, it seems as if this location has been abandoned by Autodesk as the most recent items I see are from late 2015.

 

Autodesk Virtual Assistant provides an easy means of downloading FCS installers for previous years, as well as products you may want to test. Use the link above, click the Download links link, then the desired Product. You’ll get links there to all available downloads, sometimes going back a number of years.
NOTE: Previously we could link directly to AVA downloads, but in Autodesk’s zeal to outsuck Microsoft Clippy you are now required to actually type downloads in the input box at the bottom of the AVA page.

 

ADA is nothing more than a desktop front end to the Autodesk Application Manager Service, which we all used to know by the previous front end, Application Manager, or AAM.
This tool has historically been more than a little problematic. As an update management tool it has two MAJOR problems in my book, and two more only slightly less compelling arguments against it.
1: It puts update timing in user’s hands. Given how strict Revit is about all users of a workshared project being on the same build, this should be managed with planning and intent rather than left to the vagaries of user whim. This alone makes it a non-starter for me.
2: It requires that users be local admins. Given that this is one of the first things to eliminate when establishing a secure and stable work environment, ADA’s dependence makes it unworkable in my view. I am just not interested in sacrificing firm security for an inferior process anyway. And, if it is installed where user’s are not local admins, it becomes a massive annoyance, alerting users to available downloads they can’t install.
3: Additionally ADA will download every update or addin that is installed, from the internet, on every machine, by default. Given how large some of these items can be, this is horrendously inefficient, and can even adversely impact internet use office wide at times. This can be mitigated by setting ADA to use shared storage, but given deal killers #1 & #2, this “fix” is not something worth implementing in my mind.
4: It only seems to work intermittently for most people, making it inappropriate for actually maintaining machine consistency, and not even very effective as a honey bucket to catch alerts about new updates.

Indeed, my personal acronym for it is Totally Unnecessary Redundant Downloader, or TURD.

 

Luke Johnson’s blog What Revit Wants is a great resource for getting early product downloads and updates, including some updates that shouldn’t be Subscription only but are only available from Autodesk via SAP. This link is to the new home, after the forced “migration” from Google’s Blogger site. If you have something valuable, don’t leave it on Blogger!