If your practice runs Tekla Tedds on a handful of shared Standard, Flex or Worldwide licences spread across a bigger team, the arithmetic is about to change. Trimble is moving every Tedds subscription to Named User licences, one seat per person, and the last day to renew the old licence types is 31 December 2027.
Here is what Trimble has announced, how to work out what it means for your seat count, and the options worth weighing before your next renewal. We make CalcTree, so we have a view, but most of this applies whatever you decide.
What Trimble has announced
Trimble's notice on the change of licence type (checked November 2026) covers Tekla Structures, Tekla Tedds, Tekla Structural Designer and Tekla Structural Design Suite:
- 1 September 2023: Trimble started selling only Named User licences. New customers, and existing customers without an active subscription, can no longer buy Standard, Flex or Worldwide licences.
- 30 September 2025: the last day existing subscribers could buy additional Standard, Flex or Worldwide licences. That date has passed.
- 31 December 2027: the last day existing subscriptions on those licence types can be renewed.
- From 2028: all subscription licences are Named User.
So if you still hold shared licences, you can renew them until the end of 2027, but you cannot add to them.
How a Named User licence works
A Named User licence is tied to one person through their Trimble Identity, not to a computer. Trimble's notice says it cannot be reassigned to another user, except when:
- it was assigned to the wrong user
- the user leaves the company, or moves to a role that doesn't need it
- it went to a contractor or consultant whose engagement has ended
- it is being renewed
Trimble's licence policy FAQ adds that licences "cannot be shared between users or used to authorize multiple users on a shared device", and that sign-in credentials are not to be shared (checked November 2026). The upside: the notice says Named User licences have no country-of-use restrictions, which is what firms used to buy Worldwide licences for.
In practice, the floating-seat habit of "whoever needs it grabs it" stops working. Every engineer who opens Tedds, even twice a year, needs a seat of their own.
The seat maths for shared licences
Take a practice with 5 floating Tedds licences shared by 20 engineers. Today 5 seats cover everyone, because rarely more than 5 people are in Tedds at once. Under Named User, everyone who needs access needs their own seat: up to 20 seats, four times the count.
Whether that is four times the bill depends on the per-seat price you are quoted for each licence type, and Trimble doesn't publish one for the US (more below). So don't estimate it. Count it.
Work out your number
| Row | What to count | Your number |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shared seats you hold today (Standard, Flex or Worldwide) | A |
| 2 | Price per shared seat per year (your last invoice) | P1 |
| 3 | What you pay today | A × P1 |
| 4 | Engineers in Tedds every week | D |
| 5 | Occasional users, plus checkers who open Tedds files | O |
| 6 | Named User price per seat per year (ask your reseller) | P2 |
| 7 | Named User cost if everyone keeps access | (D + O) × P2 |
| 8 | Named User cost if only weekly users keep it | D × P2 |
The gap between rows 7 and 8 is the real decision. Occasional users and checkers cost little on a floating pool and a full seat each on Named User.
What a Tedds licence costs
Trimble's online store sells Tekla Tedds as an "annual named user subscription", available online only in the US, UK and Ireland, with orders of 11 or more licences going through sales. The store did not show a price when we checked in November 2026.
Some regional Tekla pages do list prices (checked November 2026):
- Tekla UAE: Tekla Tedds at $1,317 a year plus VAT, and Tekla Structural Design Suite (which includes Tedds and Tekla Structural Designer) at $3,307 a year plus VAT. The page shows a dollar sign without naming the currency.
- Tekla India: Tekla Tedds at ₹1,15,300 a year plus tax, and the Design Suite at ₹2,88,700 a year plus tax.
Treat these as regional list prices, not a guide to what you will pay in the US, UK or Australia. Your reseller's quote is the number that goes in row 6.
Your options before 31 December 2027
Renew your shared licences while you can
If your subscription is active, Trimble's notice says Standard, Flex and Worldwide licences can be renewed until 31 December 2027. Check your renewal date against that deadline and ask your reseller what the last renewal will cover. It buys time, but it doesn't change where you land in 2028.
Trim to the engineers who use it
Give named seats to the people in Tedds every week and route occasional calcs through them. That keeps the coded library where it earns its keep and holds the cost at row 8. The trade-off is a bottleneck: occasional users wait on a colleague, and checkers without a seat review from printed output.
Move some or all calcs elsewhere
A lot of Tedds use is bespoke calcs, not the coded library. Those are the easiest to move, and moving them cuts the number of people who need Tedds at all. Our Tekla Tedds alternatives guide compares the realistic options.
Where Tedds is still ahead
Credit where it's due. Tekla describes the Tedds library as "hundreds of structural and civil engineering calculations", across Eurocodes (with UK, Irish, Nordic, Singapore and Malaysian annexes), British Standards, US, Australian and Canadian codes (Tekla Tedds, checked November 2026). Tedds for Word output is a format many checkers know well, and the software has years of trust behind it. It is a Windows desktop install, and Tekla's sign-in FAQ says a licence can be kept reserved on a device for offline use (checked November 2026).
If most of your work is standard Eurocode or BS checks, named seats for your regular users are probably money well spent.
CalcTree is per user too
CalcTree is also licensed per user, so this isn't floating versus named. It's a per-head cost comparison. CalcTree has a free plan, and paid plans are US$14 to US$34 per user per month (CalcTree pricing). At the top of that range, 20 engineers come to US$680 a month. Put that next to your rows 7 and 8, and remember the free plan lets anyone try CalcTree on their own calcs before you commit a seat to them.
Where CalcTree fits
We built CalcTree for what happens after the number: someone checks it, someone reuses it, and the firm knows which version went out. Bias acknowledged:
- AI native. AI is built in for drafting, debugging and reviewing calcs, and an admin can switch it off. Claude and other AI tools can also build and run your calcs through LLM plugins.
- Review and history. Review calcs in the shared workspace, with version history and an audit trail of who checked what.
- Real-time collaboration. Co-editing, comments and mentions on the same page, in any desktop browser on any OS.
- Python, natively. Python cells sit inline with the maths, units carried through.
- Connected to your other software. The Excel add-in and API let anything that can call an API run a calc.
- Templates out of the box. 100+ built-in templates across disciplines and jurisdictions, including AS, ACI and Eurocode, plus your own versioned workspace templates.
- Linked calcs. Pages link to each other as subroutines, pinned to a revision and flagged when the source changes.
- Reports. Company headers set once for the whole firm, and a Report Builder that binds multi-page reports with contents and page numbers.
- A generous free plan. Python, the Excel add-in, the API and an AI allowance are all on the free plan.
Where Tedds is still ahead: the depth of its coded BS and Eurocode library, native Word output, and fully offline use (offline is coming soon to CalcTree).
Weighing your renewal? Request a calc and we'll build one of your bespoke checks in CalcTree, so you can compare on your own work.
Try CalcTree free → or, for a firm-wide move, book a call.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Tekla Tedds named user licence?
A Tedds subscription tied to one person through their Trimble Identity rather than to a computer or a shared pool. Trimble only lets it move to another user if it was assigned to the wrong person, the user leaves or changes role, a contractor's engagement ends, or at renewal.
What is the Tekla Tedds named user subscription?
It is how Trimble now sells Tedds: an annual subscription per named user. Trimble has sold only Named User licences since 1 September 2023, and from 2028 all Tedds subscription licences will be Named User.
Can I still buy a Tekla Tedds floating, Flex or Worldwide licence?
No. Existing subscribers could buy extra Standard, Flex and Worldwide licences until 30 September 2025. Existing subscriptions can be renewed until 31 December 2027. Named User licences have no country-of-use restrictions, so they cover what Worldwide licences were bought for.
How much does a Tekla Tedds licence cost?
Trimble's store sells Tedds online in the US, UK and Ireland without showing a price when we checked in November 2026. Tekla's UAE page lists $1,317 a year plus VAT and its India page lists ₹1,15,300 a year plus tax. Ask your reseller for a quote in your region.
Can two engineers share one Tedds named user licence?
No. Trimble's licence policy says licences cannot be shared between users or used to authorise multiple users on a shared device, and sign-in credentials must not be shared.
Why does Tedds say my licence is already in use on another device?
We couldn't find that exact message documented for Tedds named user licences. Trimble's sign-in FAQ says a licence is released when you close the Tekla product, unless it was reserved on that device for offline use, so check whether Tedds is still open or the licence is reserved on another machine. If that doesn't clear it, contact Tekla support.
Licence dates are from Trimble's notice on the change of licence type, and prices are list prices from Tekla's regional websites, all checked November 2026 and subject to change.
