Lots of companies that sell subscription-based software offer a license server program that you can install on one of your company's own computers, so the software can still work without internet access.
The computers the hardware designers in my company use won't have internet access, full stop.
So do they have another computer to use when they need internet access? e.g. to get onto the synopsis/cadence/xilinx/altera/... sites?
Essentially, yes. Although it's (or is about to become) a bit more complicated than that. The computer where design is done will never be able to connect to the internet. So no external license server will work. Internal ones, yes. And we have licensed software running that way - LAN-based license servers have been used for decades, of course.
I assume that the same restrictions apply to software engineers? I worked at a large networking/communications (Wifi, Bluetooth, Cellular, GNSS,...) semiconductor company and 80% of the engineers were essentially software engineers. I don't know why the hardware part would be considered to be more valuable than the software part given that ratio. Maybe it doesn't apply in your case due to the nature of the designs.
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Eagle has been developed since 1988.
Now Autodesk buys the rights and want to charge rent for it. Forever.