What is Trimble? #
Trimble Inc. makes positioning hardware and software for construction, geospatial and transportation work. Charles Trimble founded it in November 1978 as Trimble Navigation. The Trimble company is headquartered in Westminster, Colorado.
Trimble reports three segments:
- AECO (architects, engineers, construction and owners): BIM, structural and MEP design, construction management, and collaboration software such as SketchUp, Tekla and Trimble Connect.
- Field Systems: surveying, mapping and civil construction, including Trimble Access and Trimble Business Center.
- Transportation and Logistics: routing and transport management software.
Much of today’s Trimble software arrived through acquisitions. Tekla joined in 2011, SketchUp came from Google in 2012, and Stabiplan (maker of Stabicad) and Viewpoint followed in 2018. The agriculture business is now PTx Trimble, a joint venture in which AGCO bought an 85% stake in 2023.
Which license types does Trimble support? #
Trimble’s 2025 annual report lists four ways it sells software: subscriptions, consumption, term licenses and perpetual licenses. The software is either hosted as SaaS or installed on-premises. Which one you get depends on the product. Tekla, SketchUp and Trimble Access all sell named user subscriptions tied to a Trimble ID.
Named user subscriptions #
A named user license belongs to one person, who signs in with a Trimble Identity (Trimble ID). Tekla Structures has sold only Named User licenses since September 1, 2023. A Named User license works in any country and includes Tekla Model Sharing and Trimble Connect Business Premium.
Tekla’s license agreement doesn’t let you reassign a Named User license except in cases its documentation sets out, such as an employee leaving or a contractor’s engagement ending. And Tekla’s recurring subscriptions renew every year unless you cancel them. So a license assigned to someone who stopped opening Tekla keeps renewing.
Tekla is retiring its older subscription types, Standard, Flex and Worldwide. Existing customers could buy more of them until September 30, 2025, and can renew them until December 31, 2027. From 2028, every Tekla subscription will be Named User.
SketchUp works the same way. SketchUp by Trimble sells as SketchUp Go, Pro and Studio subscriptions. Each user can run SketchUp on two computers and work offline for up to 28 days before signing in again. SketchUp stopped selling Classic (perpetual) licenses on November 4, 2020.
Pooled (concurrent) licenses #
Some Trimble MEP products use pooled licensing. In Trimble’s MEP License Management Portal, an administrator creates a pool with a seat limit and assigns users to it. Trimble lists AutoBid SheetMetal and AutoBid Mechanical (perpetual), some Trimble Accubid Anywhere SKUs and Trimble LiveCount as pooled products.
Perpetual licenses #
Trimble Business Center (TBC), Trimble’s office software for survey data, still sells perpetual licenses. A dongle license is a USB key that gives one seat. You install a network license on a server from a 19-digit product code. Both run on Sentinel HASP. An expired warranty date doesn’t stop the software. A user can also check out a detachable network seat for up to 30 days.
A Trimble Access perpetual license belongs to the field controller, not the user.
Legacy on-premises Tekla licenses #
Tekla Structures on-premises licenses run on FlexNet, through the Tekla License Server. Tekla calls this “legacy on-premises licensing.” You can activate licenses on each user’s computer or on a common license server, and users can borrow them for offline work.
Where each license is managed #
The admin tool depends on the product:
| License | Where you manage it |
|---|---|
| Tekla subscriptions | Tekla Online Admin Tool |
| SketchUp subscriptions | Trimble Account Management Portal and Admin Console |
| Trimble Business Center and Trimble Access subscriptions | Trimble License Manager |
| Trimble MEP (Accubid, AutoBid, LiveCount) | MEP License Management Portal |
| Trimble Connect Pro and Innovate | Trimble Admin Console |
| TBC perpetual network licenses | Sentinel Admin Control Center |
| Tekla on-premises licenses | Tekla License Administration Tool (FlexNet) |
Trimble License Manager is Trimble’s customer portal for supported Trimble products. You use it to assign subscription licenses, renew Trimble Protection Plans for hardware, and manage users.
Which software vendors use Trimble, and for which applications? #
Trimble licenses its own brands, and most of them came through acquisitions. We didn’t find a software vendor outside Trimble that licenses its products through Trimble’s licensing systems. The traffic runs the other way: some Trimble applications run on other vendors’ license managers.
| Application | Background | Used for | License model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tekla Structures | Tekla, acquired 2011 | Structural BIM, steel and concrete detailing | Named User subscription; legacy FlexNet on-premises |
| SketchUp | Acquired from Google, 2012 | 3D design and modeling | Subscription (Go, Pro, Studio) |
| Stabicad | Stabiplan, acquired 2018 | MEP design | Managed in the Trimble MEP licensing portal |
| Trimble Accubid, AutoBid | Trimble MEP | MEP estimating | Named user or pooled |
| Trimble Business Center | Field Systems | Survey data processing | Perpetual (Sentinel HASP dongle or network) or subscription |
| Trimble Access | Field Systems | Field data collection on controllers | Perpetual per controller, or subscription per user |
| Trimble Connect | AECO | Project collaboration | Pro, Innovate, Business and Business Premium subscriptions |
| Quadri | AECO | Infrastructure BIM collaboration | Named users in a subscription contract |
Two third-party license managers sit inside that list. FlexNet runs legacy Tekla. Sentinel HASP runs TBC and Trimble RealWorks dongles, and TBC network keys.
How Open iT supports your work with Trimble #
The Trimble portals tell you who holds each license. LicenseAnalyzer adds how long they used it. Here’s how the Trimble collection works:
- Open iT connects to the Trimble portal (accounts.trimble.com by default).
- It polls every hour at 5-minute sample intervals and sends the data to the Open iT Core Server.
- If your organization has several Trimble accounts, each one gets its own credentials and its own collection.
- Open iT has separate collectors for SketchUp (through the Trimble Account Management Portal), Tekla Online and Stabicad. FlexNet and Sentinel HASP, the license managers behind legacy Tekla and TBC network licenses, are on Open iT’s supported list too.
What you’ll see:
- A utilization trend of licenses in use and available
- License efficiency: how long each license was used, and which ones sat idle
- A heatmap of demand by day of week and hour of day
- A real-time view of named user licenses in use and available
- Usage by host, user and user group, for chargeback
That’s the history Tekla’s support page says its own tools don’t keep.
Frequently asked questions #
Does Trimble have a license manager?
Trimble License Manager is Trimble’s customer portal for assigning subscription licenses for supported products. It isn’t the only one. Tekla, SketchUp, Trimble MEP and TBC network licenses each have their own admin tool.
What is a Trimble ID?
A Trimble ID (Trimble Identity) is the single sign-on account Trimble subscription users sign in with. Named user licenses are assigned to it.
Can you still buy Tekla Structures Flex or Standard licenses?
No. Tekla has sold only Named User licenses since September 1, 2023. Existing Standard, Flex and Worldwide subscriptions can be renewed until December 31, 2027.
Can Trimble license usage be tracked centrally?
Yes. Open iT LicenseAnalyzer polls the Trimble portal every hour and reports Trimble usage alongside your other license managers.
Know which Trimble licenses earn their renewal #
Two numbers decide your next Trimble renewal. The first is the named user licenses you pay for, and your Trimble admin consoles already show it. The second is how many of those licenses were actually in use this quarter, across Tekla, SketchUp and the rest. LicenseAnalyzer gives you that one: hours of use per user, idle licenses, and peak demand by hour. You’ll have the idle list before the renewal quote arrives, not after.
In the walkthrough we’ll show you the Trimble reports and what the collector needs from your side: one non-SSO administrator account.
