The University of Texas at Austin maintains a site license that covers academic and administrative usage of ESRI ArcGIS products for faculty, staff, and students.
Q: For what purposes can I use the ArcGIS software?
A: Our site license covers both academic (teaching, research and service) and administrative uses. ESRI has provide a rubric for determining permitted uses under the education site license.
Q: What software is available under the terms of the site license?
A: The majority of products offered by ESRI are available under the site license. ESRI maintains a list of available software (PDF) under our unlimited site license. Note that certain applications have restricted usage.
Q: Who can use ESRI ArcGIS?
A: Faculty, staff and students at the University of Texas at Austin and its component institutions. Students are welcome to use the software in an instructional lab (several of which are available on campus) or may install ESRI ArcGIS Desktop products on their personal computers, using the campus license server for license authorization.
Q: What labs have ESRI ArcGIS available for use?
A: There are several labs and other facilities on campus that have ESRI ArcGIS available, including, but not limited to:
- MEZ 2.104 (LAITS Walk-In Lab) - open to all students, faculty and staff
- SAC 5.112 (Anthropology Lab) - open to Anthropology students when classes aren't in session
- PCL General Libraries student use computers
- All classroom consoles with Windows computers in Liberal Arts-managed classrooms
- Note that other lab facilities may be available, check with your individual college or department.
Q: How do I get the software?
A: A collection of ESRI ArcGIS software is available on Box via the following link: https://utexas.box.com/s/4z1hshtzxdtd9w4ngf4yyoixhnem63ea
Due to the size of the installation media, ESRI no longer provides us with CD/DVD media for distribution. If you have requests for additional software covered under the site license that is not available at the above link, please send a request to Site License Administrator.
Q: How do I get a license?
A: There are several options for obtaining a license to use ESRI ArcGIS products.
Liberal Arts ITS manages a license server for the campus that provides ArcGIS Desktop licenses, along with all of the available extensions. Users can point their installations of ESRI ArcGIS Desktop to the site license manager.
To use the campus license server, follow these steps:
- Launch ArcGIS Administrator
- Select the "Desktop" tab
- Select "Advanced (ArcInfo) Concurrent use"
- Enter "arcgis.shared.utexas.edu" under the License Manager (for Concurrent Use software products)
- Be sure that you enable any extensions you intend to use.
Note that you must have a campus wired or VPN connection (not wireless).
The campus license server provides the ability to check-out a concurrent license for up to 90 days. Users are strongly encouraged to use this feature if they will intermittently be in the field, or off-campus. Alternatively, users may use the campus VPN service to access the campus license server.
For users who will be off-campus for extended periods of time, or who have special software needs, an individual stand-alone license may be provided. Please contact the Site License Administrator to request a stand-alone license.
Q: How do I get an ArcGIS Online account? How do I associate my existing ArcGIS Online account with the UT ArcGIS Online site?
A: End users should create an ArcGIS Online account. Once that is created, please send a request to laits-license-help@utexas.edu with your username. The license administrator team will then send you an invite to associate your account with the University of Texas ArcGIS Online site.
Q: How do I get access to ArcGIS Pro?
A: Once you have an ArcGIS Online account created and associated with the University of Texas ArcGIS Online site, please send a request to laits-license-help@utexas.edu with your username and request access to ArcGIS Pro.
Q: How much does a license cost?
A: The cost of the University of Texas at Austin site license is covered by several participating units:
- School of Architecture
- Cockrell School of Engineering
- Jackson School of Geological Sciences
- College of Liberal Arts
- College of Natural Sciences
- Technology Resources (TRECS)
- LBJ School of Public Affairs
These units have agreed to make the ESRI site license available to all units at the University without additional cost. If a non-participating unit demonstrates significant usage of the site license products (typically 15+ seats), they will be asked to participate in funding the site license.
Q: How do I get support?
A: Only registered contacts can submit support requests to ESRI as part of our site license. Currently, those contacts are:
Liberal Arts ITS Computer Support (Liberal Arts)
Mark Wiederspahn (JSGS)
Eric Hepburn (Architecture)
Tim Keitt (Natural Sciences)
Teresa Howard (Engineering)
Christine Roquet (TRECS)
End users not in one of these units will not receive support from ESRI customer care.
Q: How do I learn ArcGIS?
A: Our site license provides unlimited access to Self-Paced E-Learning. In order to take any E-Learning courses, you must create your own ESRI global login, and then send a request to laits-license-help@utexas.edu with your username. We can then provision your account for e-Learning.
Q: How many service credits is available to me under my ArcGIS Online subscription?
A: Each ArcGIS Online subscription account has a quota of 500 service credits. For a list of services that require credit usage, please visit the Service Credits Overview page.