A floating license is a software licensing approach in which a limited number of licenses used to access a software application are shared among a larger number of users over time. When you start a trial with cove.tool, you and your firm will receive full access to cove.tool via a floating license annual subscription. So for no additional cost, more people can run more powerful building performance simulations as often as they want, thereby reshaping the design process to democratize data-driven architecture.

How it works
With every license comes a certain number of seats pending your purchasing package. Once the account is set up, no unique process is required to log in; users only need to have a freed-up floating license seat in order to run the application. Anyone with the team's domain name can create an account and use their firm's credentials to check out a license seat. Once logged-in users will have access for 24 hours, after which the license seat is returned to the unused license pool for another team member to check out. Once the firm has converted to an x-number-of-users subscription plan, the number of purchased floating seats within the Firm license will determine how many concurrent users can be on the platform at once. Typically, we see cove.tool is best adopted on a firm-wide basis. Therefore, we recommend that a firm purchase at least a 30% user-to-staff ratio to determine the purchase package which will determine the license and seat access the team will need. Teams with limited concurrent access tend to quickly collide in scheduling and deadlines and will have to wait for the next cycle period to start in order to regain access.

Other benefits
Licensed firms can also invite members outside their company to share projects and information inside cove.tool. For example, owners and contractors can be invited to edit costs or provide feedback on options and evaluate input alternatives. This helps with hitting the Integrative Process credit for LEED. For information about the Integrative Process credit, see here: LEED IP c1
​

Related Articles