Altair Units (AUs) are the shared currency in which Altair licenses most of its simulation software. Siemens describes the model as follows: customers buy a pool of shareable units, users draw units from the pool to run products from any location, and the units return to the pool after use.[9] Users can run several applications at once on a machine while drawing units only for the most valuable product.[9] Technically, the units are license features in a file served by the Altair License Manager. Each Altair Unit purchased gives 1,000 license features, and units-based applications draw those features.[1] The number each product draws is published in unit draw tables in the Altair help. This page summarises how those tables work. Units are returned to the pool when the application closes; they are not used up.[9]
Editions
Altair does not sell editions of the units pool. Any units-enabled application can run as long as enough license features are available and the product’s own license feature is present in the license.[1] The help groups the draw tables into five families: pre- and post-processing applications, the Inspire family, standalone applications, batch applications and solvers.[2][4][5][6]
Before Altair 2020 the same scheme was called HyperWorks Units (HWUs). The HyperWorks 2017 help states that each HWU drew 1,000 HyperWorks license features.[8] Contracts and license files from that period that name HWUs describe the same unit. Catalog: HyperWorks Units were the earlier name of Altair Units.
Metrics
The Altair Unit is the purchased quantity. The license feature is what the license server counts: queries and logs show 1,000 times the AU value in the draw table. Feature names in the license usually carry an HW prefix, so HyperMesh appears as HWHyperMesh.[2] A checkout has three parts: the GlobalZone feature for the client’s zone, the HyperWorks feature (the units themselves), and a tracking feature that identifies the application.[7] Solvers add three more measures: the Solver In-App job draw, the per-core Solver HPC draw and the per-GPU draw for GPU-based CFD solvers (GPU job).[6]
A sample of the published draw values:
| Application | AUs | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Templex, ConnectMe | None | Feature required, no units drawn[2] |
| Enterprise Data Manager | 2 | Always stacks[2] |
| Compose | 5 | [2] |
| HyperGraph, MediaView, TableView, TextView | 6 | [2] |
| Twin Activate, Flux 2D GUI | 15 | [2] |
| HyperMesh, HyperView, HyperMesh CFD | 21 | OSSmooth from HyperMesh stacks another 21[2] |
| SimSolid | 50 | Levels at first instance, stacks from the second[2] |
| Inspire | 15 | Generative design and analysis environment[3] |
| Inspire Cast, Inspire Mold | 30 | Manufacturing solvers[3] |
| ESAComp | 6 | AUs are stacked[4] |
| Embed | 21 | [4] |
| Flow Simulator, HyperSpice | 50 | [4] |
| EEvision | 55 | [4] |
Some products sit outside the pool. Material Data Center uses feature-based licences that are available only with managed Altair One licensing.[2] Altair UDE uses a feature-based server with a fixed annual fee per socket for up to 50 users, and each client access draws 4 AUs.[4] Feature-based product licensing does not check out Altair Unit features at all.[1]
Counting / floors
Leveling and stacking
Leveling lets a user run several applications at once without extra unit draw. It applies to applications running on the same host under the same username.[1] For most applications, the cost of running several together is the cost of the most expensive one. Several instances of HyperMesh still draw only 21,000 features.[1] Applications that stack always draw their units, whatever else the user is running.[1] The license manager guide adds that tracking features always stack, and that only GlobalZone and HyperWorks features can level.[7] Leveling also depends on topology. License pools on different servers do not communicate, so leveling happens only within one pool on one server.[7] Altair states that leveling and stacking are not confined by the number of machine cores.[1] 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; SimSolid levels at first instance and stacks from the second.
A practical consequence is that one engineer who runs everything from one workstation and one login costs the price of the most expensive tool. The same tools spread across two machines or two logins cost the sum. Remote sessions, shared service accounts and split license servers all change the result. They should be reviewed before a pool is sized.
Solver In-App licensing
Solvers started from inside EDEM, Feko, Flux, HyperForm, HyperXtrude, HyperMesh, HyperWorks, MotionView and SimLab use In-App licensing. It draws units per job, depending on CPU cores, GPU cards and the number of concurrent jobs.[6] For the main structural solvers (AcuSolve, Feko, OptiStructFEA, Radioss and others) a job draws 30 AUs on 1-4 cores, 35 on 5-8 and 40 on 9-16, rising to 100 on 513-1,024 cores. Each further doubling adds 10.[6] GPUs count as cores. For AcuSolve, Feko and OptiStruct one GPU card counts as four additional cores, and for EDEM one GPU counts as 16 cores.[6] Catalog: Solver In-App draw depends on cores, GPUs and concurrent jobs.
Several jobs of the same solver running from one license server are discounted by a decay factor.
| Job number | Decay factor |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1.0 |
| 2 to 10 | 0.9 |
| 11 to 20 | 0.8 |
| 21 to 30 | 0.7 |
| 31 to 40 | 0.6 |
| 41 to 50 | 0.5 |
| Above 50 | 0.4 |
The factor multiplies each job’s normal draw. A new job backfills a finished job’s slot at the same multiplier, and a running job’s checked-out amount does not change.[6] Flux2D, FluxMotor 2D, SimLab Flux2D and PSIM solvers use a steeper decay table, falling to 0.0296 above 70 jobs.[6] Catalog: Decay factor for concurrent jobs of the same solver.
In-App solvers also level and stack. The first job of a solver, or of a different solver, levels against applications already running. Further jobs of a solver that is already running stack.[6] In Altair’s example, HyperMesh (21) plus Radioss (30) draws 30 units, adding an OptiStruct job (50) raises the draw to 50, and a second OptiStruct job raises it to 95 (1.0 × 50 + 0.9 × 50).[6] In the Inspire family, the first solver run levels with the user interface and the second and later runs stack.[3] Catalog: In-App solvers level on first invoke and stack on additional jobs.
Solver HPC licensing
Solver HPC licensing applies wherever a solver is not started from an Altair GUI and a SolverHPC license feature is present. It is available only to qualified customers.[6] It draws units per CPU core from a declining table:
| Cores | Draw per core | Cumulative draw |
|---|---|---|
| 1-4 | 30.00 (in total) | 30.00 |
| 5-36 | 1.60 | 31.60 - 81.20 |
| 37-70 | 0.80 | 82.00 - 108.40 |
| 71-200 | 0.60 | 109.00 - 186.40 |
| 201-400 | 0.40 | 186.80 - 266.40 |
| 401-800 | 0.30 | 266.70 - 386.40 |
| 801-1,600 | 0.20 | 386.60 - 546.40 |
| 1,601-3,200 | 0.15 | 546.55 - 786.40 |
| 3,201-6,400 | 0.10 | 786.50 - 1,106.40 |
| 6,401-10,000 | 0.05 | 1,106.45 - 1,286.40 |
Above 10,000 cores the draw is 0.04 per core.[6] Each license feature follows its own core count and the draw stacks. An OptiStruct optimization run multiplies the per-core draw by 1.5, as do HyperSpice and MotionSolve.[6] In Altair’s example, three simultaneous Radioss jobs on 48 cores in total draw 90.8 units (30 + 32 × 1.6 + 12 × 0.8). Interactive leveling is unaffected: a user with HyperMesh and HyperView (21 AUs leveled) plus two 4-core OptiStructFEA jobs (36 AUs) draws at most 57 AUs.[6] Catalog: Solver HPC draws per core from a declining table and stacks.
Two license features, SolverHPC and SolverInApp, decide which mode a job uses, and the server configuration file can change them. With both enabled, solvers launched from GUIs use In-App licensing and all other solver runs use HPC licensing. With only SolverHPC, all runs use HPC licensing. With only SolverInApp, runs use In-App licensing where HPC licensing is denied. With neither, all runs use In-App licensing.[6]
GPU solvers, DSim and batch applications
nanoFluidX and ultraFluidX are licensed by the number of GPUs used per job. One GPU draws 25 and 50 AUs respectively, and each doubling adds 50.[6] DSim draws 10 units per core for 1-128 cores and 5 per core above that, counted across all concurrent instances.[6]
Pre- and post-processing applications run in batch mode draw according to how many batch applications run concurrently under the same user and host. One draws 21 AUs, two draw 42, three to eight draw 50, and the draw rises to 120 above 512. The AutomationBatch feature is required.[5] BatchMesher has its own table: 21 AUs for up to 8 copies, 40 for 9-16, up to 100 above 512.[5] Batch decay needs Altair License Manager 2026 or later. With an older server, batch applications draw the maximum units in the table per user and host.[5] Catalog: Batch automation draws by number of concurrent batch applications.
Floors
Altair publishes no minimum pool size. The effective floor is the draw of the most expensive application a user needs. A pool smaller than 21 AUs cannot start HyperMesh, and a pool smaller than 50 AUs cannot start SimSolid.[2]
Virtualization & partitioning
Unit draw does not depend on processor counts for interactive tools. Only solver draw depends on cores and GPUs, and it counts the cores and GPUs the job uses, not those of the host.[6] Because leveling is keyed to host and username,[1] a virtual desktop farm in which one user’s tools run on several hosts loses the leveling benefit. Zone and HostID rules are covered in Altair License Manager and managed licensing.
Cloud / BYOL
Units can be drawn on premises or in the cloud from the same pool. Siemens describes this as “Portability to execute simulations anywhere (on-premises or cloud) without business restrictions”.[9] Altair’s data analytics licence agreement describes a Units-enabled subscription in the same terms. The customer licenses a pool of Altair Units, and invoked software “draws down a predetermined number of Altair Units from the pool”.[11] Catalog: Units-enabled subscriptions draw a predetermined number of units.
Programs
The Altair Units subscription is the commercial wrapper for the pool, and the Advanced Partner Alliance lets third-party products draw from the same pool.[9] Solver HPC Licensing is a separate option for qualified customers.[6]
For chargeback, setting the ALM_PROJECT environment variable logs a project string of up to 30 characters with each checkout on the license server. This allows individual checkouts to be tracked.[10] Catalog: ALM_PROJECT records a project string with each checkout.
Out of scope
- Draw values for every product. Only a sample is shown; the full tables are in the cited help pages and change with each release.
- Partner product draw values, which are set per partner product.
- Prices per unit, which Altair does not publish.
- Licence server installation, borrowing and zones, covered in Altair License Manager and managed licensing.