This is the real question. Because of their licencing model, 3 seats =. 3* the cost. we pay 182 quid a year for one product, if we stayed only using illustrator, we’d need to find another 364 quid.
If we wanted to stray into other adobe products, e.g. photoshop for the same seats, we would need to find an extra 546 quid on top
In perspective, just to buy two more seats for illustrator for one year is the entire years subs of ~1.5 members.
Wow! Sounds like a plan. As it’s only 1 or 2 using it at the same time it sounds like it could be alright
Interoperability is a key point for me. I have my own CS5 license, which allows me to work on and prepare files for laser cutting in my own time. If I can bring those to the Space and use them directly then I know that my files will work and I will not have to use unreasonable amounts of the Space machine time just doing file formatting etc. - in the long run this means the time I require at the laser machine in particular will be much less.
(Off topic but related part to this is that it would be fantastic if I could get a copy of the Trotec Job Control software; they don’t seem to offer it as a download. Then I could completely prepare my jobs offline).
We’ve done this ad-hoc over the years (at least, with my account) but I was certainly surprised by how often I ended up locked out on my personal machine because the licence had wandered around the space.
Worth hearing what Adobe have to say, but our explorations in this area in the past have been met with stony-faced profiteering from Adobe.
I think 1 is enough. How many times do 2 people need to use it? It should probably go on a dedicated machine instead of being tied to the laser cutter. Admittedly I’ve yet to know how convenient it might be for tweaking while cutting.
And the license may allow 2 PCs?
I’d be a bit careful here - if for whatever reason you stop being a member or stop your subscription then we could (potentially) lose access to the software, and we’d have to go through this all over again. Generally, if we’re providing a tool for members, it should probably be owned by the space itself (I’d argue).
To go back to the original reason for getting Illustrator, it was primarily to enable people to laser cut the designs they have made in Illustrator without having to do any (potentially complicated) conversions. I don’t believe it was intended to be a way for people to use Illustrator in the space without needing their own license. If we do want to provide the software to members then we probably need more than one seat so that it can be used on other space computers - just having it on the laser PC isn’t a particularly good solution.
EDIT: and also if we put it on a different PC we’d loose the ability to laser cut Illustrator designs, which was the entire reason for getting it in the first place. 
Me 2. Someone must have a copy in case it needed a reinstall?
I would suggest to approach Trotec so that we are not in violation of any license/business terms. This should probably also be coordinated in a different forum thread.
There’s a CD with it on with the laser cutter stuff, although not sure how useful it might be to you if there’s no laser attached!
In that case it seems we should get 1 license for the laser cutter and people can use it, if nobody is using the cutter?
Should be alright just like a normal printer driver.
You can usually install a printer driver on as many machines as you might want to print from
Yeah, providing it’s not used simultaneously it should be fine to have it on other machines. But should be clear that that is the arrangement, and people shouldn’t count on it being available on other machines if it’s required by the laser cutter user.
Agreed - just putting it out there to see if it helps.
I can’t predict the future of my membership, but I will need an Adobe subscription until I retire, which is still a few years away 
I think this is the way to go. Prioritize the laser cutter. Just an extra £180 in running costs for such an amazing machine. Imagine the value of products produced to date.
We could try this as an extra resource? Seems silly to pass it up if Adobe and your good self are alright with it
If you have a license then you can log on to Illustrator at the space anyway?
Brilliant. We just need someone to say ‘yes’!
It wont. The licencing model open to commercial is per concurent seat. i.e. 1 machine at a time.
IIRC theres a licence restriction.
Yeah, I thought it only worked when it’s attached to a trotec machine. At least, that’s what I remember…