Altair licensing is the set of models and terms under which Altair Engineering Inc. licenses its simulation, high-performance computing (HPC) and data analytics software. Most of the engineering portfolio is sold through Altair Units, which Siemens describes as “a patented, units-based subscription licensing model” giving customers access to every Altair and Altair Partner product.[2] Customers buy a pool of shareable units, users draw units from the pool to run products, and the units return to the pool after use.[2] Altair licensing is based on the Altair License Manager (ALM), and each Altair Unit purchased gives 1,000 license features in the license.[1] Besides units, Altair uses Named User licensing and feature-based licences.[1] For the general models, see concurrent and device licensing and subscription and consumption licensing.
Altair has been acquired by Siemens, and its portfolio is now part of the Siemens Xcelerator platform.[3] Siemens states that the software in the Altair HyperWorks platform has been integrated into the Simcenter portfolio, that HPCWorks products are now within HPCWorks, and that the Altair RapidMiner portfolio is now part of Rapidminer.[3] Altair Units and Altair One remain in use.[3] The deal is recorded on the acquisitions page as “Siemens Digital Industries Software acquires Altair”. For the licensing of the wider Siemens portfolio, see Siemens Digital Industries Software licensing.
Editions
Altair does not publish a price list or named commercial editions for Altair Units. What a customer can run is set by the license file: units-based applications run if there are enough license features available and the product’s own feature is present in the license.[1] The practical “editions” are therefore the product families whose unit draw Altair publishes.
| Family | Examples named in Altair documents | Licensing |
|---|---|---|
| Pre- and post-processing | HyperMesh (21 AUs), HyperView (21 AUs), HyperGraph (6 AUs), SimSolid (50 AUs)[14] | Altair Units, leveled per user and host[1] |
| Solvers | AcuSolve, EDEM, Feko, Flux, MotionSolve, OptiStruct, Radioss, nanoFluidX, ultraFluidX[8] | Altair Units by job (In-App) or by core (Solver HPC); GPU solvers by GPU[8] |
| Partner products | Advanced Partner Alliance (formerly Altair Partner Alliance)[3] | Altair Units, with usage reporting[1] |
| HPC workload management | PBS Professional, Access, Control[11] | Node or socket licences; concurrent users[11] |
| Data analytics | Products under the Data Analytics SLA (now Rapidminer)[9] | Single Named User, Network, subscription or Units-enabled subscription[9] |
| Academic | Student Edition bundle through Altair One[12] | Free one-year key, renewable after expiry[12] |
Altair Units replaced the older name HyperWorks Units (HWUs). HyperWorks 2017 licensing was based on HWUs, each drawing 1,000 HyperWorks license features, the same conversion used today.[13] Catalog: HyperWorks Units were the earlier name of Altair Units.
Metrics
| Altair term | Catalog row | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Altair Unit (AU) | Altair Unit | One AU purchased gives 1,000 license features.[1] |
| HyperWorks feature | License feature | The units in the license file; Altair calls them “the currency of the Altair licensing system”.[5] |
| GlobalZone feature | GlobalZone feature | Permission to run in the American, European or Asia Pacific zone.[6] |
| Named User | Named User | Unique users identified by their Altair One credentials, for selected products only.[1] |
| Feature-based licence | Feature-based license | A seat-type feature that does not draw Altair Unit features.[1] |
| Solver HPC | Solver HPC core draw | Units per CPU core from a declining lookup table.[8] |
| PBSProNodes, PBSProSockets | PBSProNodes, PBSProSockets | One physical node (up to four devices) or one physical socket.[11] |
The Simulation SLA uses its own contract term, the License Unit: “A parameter used by the LMS to determine usage of the Products permitted under this Agreement at any one time.”[4] The contract does not repeat the draw tables. The number of units each product consumes is set in Altair’s help documentation, which changes with each release. A licence manager should keep the draw tables for the release actually installed.
Counting / floors
Concurrent draw, not installations. An Altair Units pool is consumed only while applications run. The Altair License Manager tracks how many units the customer bought and how many each user is using.[1] The effective licence position is therefore the peak concurrent draw against the pool, not the number of installed copies.
Leveling and stacking. Applications running on the same host under the same username level. For most applications, running several at once costs only as much as the most expensive one.[1] A user who starts HyperMesh (21 AUs) and then HyperGraph (6 AUs) uses 21,000 features, not 27,000.[1] Applications that stack always draw their full units.[1] Leveling works only inside one licence pool on one server.[5] Catalog: Leveling: applications on the same host and username draw only the most expensive; Stacking applications always draw their full units; Leveling happens only within one license pool on one server.
Solvers and decay. Solver jobs draw units by core count. Concurrent jobs of the same solver are discounted by a decay factor: 1.0 for the first job, 0.9 for jobs 2 to 10, falling to 0.4 above 50.[8] Solver HPC licensing, available only to qualified customers, draws units per core from a declining table and stacks.[8] The detail is in Altair Units and unit draw.
Floors. Altair publishes no minimum unit purchase. Annual licences have a 12-month term and perpetual licences a 25-year term, unless the order says otherwise.[4] Catalog: Annual licenses run 12 months; perpetual licenses 25 years.
Virtualization & partitioning
Altair Units are not counted by processor, so there are no partitioning rules of the Oracle or IBM kind. Two location rules apply instead. First, Global Licensing restricts use to the licensed Global Zone. Each client checks out the GlobalZone feature for the zone where it runs, and all three checkouts (zone, units and application) must come from the same server.[6] Multi-zone licensing is available only to qualified customers.[6] The Simulation SLA applies a premium when Licensed Computers in several zones connect to one license server.[4] Catalog: Usage is restricted to the licensed Global Zone; Premium for Licensed Computers in several Global Zones on one server.
Second, the server is tied to a host identifier. The license manager accepts a fixed list of HostID types, including Ethernet address, dongle and BIOS. AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud instance identifiers can be enabled through an environment variable.[5] The license manager’s error list includes “Software not allowed to run on a virtual machine” and a matching denial for remote desktop (terminal server) clients, and the sample feature block in the guide carries a SHARE = CUSTOM|VIRTUAL setting.[5] Whether a feature may run on virtual machines therefore depends on how the license file was issued. Altair publishes no general rule on this. See Altair License Manager and managed licensing.
Cloud / BYOL
Altair supports cloud use in two ways. Managed Altair Licensing is a cloud-based license server run through Altair One, the customer portal. As long as a client has internet access, the units can be used to run all applications without a VPN.[7] Siemens states that customers can run Altair and partner applications on-demand “locally, in the cloud, or in a hybrid setup”.[2] The Simulation SLA’s definition of a License (Network) Server includes servers reached through hosted or cloud-based computing resources.[4] For HPC, PBS Professional nodes burst to the cloud with its Cloud feature are licensed as if they were on-premises nodes.[11] Catalog: PBS Cloud nodes are licensed as on-premises nodes.
Programs
- Altair Units subscription. The default model for the engineering portfolio. It gives access to Altair and partner products from one pool.[2] Units licensing must use managed licensing or an on-premises server; node-locked licences cannot be used.[1]
- Managed Altair Licensing. Cloud licence serving through Altair One. It is required for Named User licensing.[1]
- Advanced Partner Alliance. Third-party products licensed through Altair Units. Under the partner licence agreements, product usage data must be sent to Altair.[1]
- Multi-zone licensing and Solver HPC Licensing. Both are options for qualified customers only.[6][8]
- Annual and perpetual licenses. Annual licences last 12 months and perpetual licences 25 years. Maintenance on perpetual licences runs for 12 months.[4] Under the Enterprise Computing SLA, annual licences and maintenance renew automatically unless notice is given.[10]
- Student Edition. Free student and faculty keys obtained in the Altair One Marketplace. A key can be renewed only after it expires.[12]
Contract terms
Three standard agreements are published on altair.com. The Simulation Software License Agreement applies to software accessed through media, a license file, or an Altair or third-party website or hosted compute. A negotiated Master Agreement takes precedence over it.[4] It licenses use on Licensed Computers by Permitted Users (employees and onsite contractors) for internal business use only. It prohibits service bureau and time-sharing use and any attempt to disable or circumvent the license management system.[4] The Data Analytics Software License Agreement adds an audit clause with a 5% underpayment threshold.[9] The Enterprise Computing agreement covers HPC software and its maintenance.[10] The three are compared in Altair software license agreements. Catalog: A negotiated Master Agreement overrides the standard SLA; Permitted Users are employees and onsite contractors; No service bureau, time-sharing or third-party access.
Audits and compliance
Altair relies mainly on usage data rather than on-site audits. The Simulation SLA requires a copy of the license log file to be made available to Altair automatically at least once a month.[4] On an on-premises server, the Usage Reporting Tool sends anonymized transaction logs to Altair once a week. Usernames, hosts and other private data are one-way hashed before sending.[5] The license manager itself enforces the pool, because applications cannot start without enough features. Over-use is therefore usually a matter of the wrong zone, server or product rather than of uncounted copies. The data analytics agreement, by contrast, gives Altair an express right to inspect or audit use.[9] On-premises customers must keep their license server current: Altair 2026 needs Altair License Manager 2026.[15] Catalog: Usage data must be reported to Altair; Data Analytics SLA: audit with 5% underpayment threshold; Altair 2026 needs Altair License Manager 2026. For the general discipline, see software license audit and license compliance.
Altair was the defendant in a long trade secret case brought by MSC Software over the MotionSolve solver. A 2014 jury verdict against Altair was later set aside, and the claim was dismissed in 2017. See MSC Software v. Altair.
Out of scope
- Prices and unit quotes. Altair does not publish list prices.
- Negotiated Master Agreements, Additional Terms set by Altair subsidiaries for local markets, and public-sector contracts, none of which are public.
- Products renamed into Simcenter, HPCWorks and Rapidminer, where Siemens terms may apply to new orders. This page records the Altair documents still published.
- The full per-product draw tables, which change with each release. See Altair Units and unit draw for the main ones.