SW Network Licensing

MMartens
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SW Network Licensing

Unread post by MMartens »

I am CAD admin for a company currently running with 8 network licenses: (7 Professional, 1 Premium). A situation came up recently where 1 engineer had been running a simulation in the morning, so his computer had grabbed the 1 Premium license. He didn't close Solidworks after he was done. When a 2nd engineer went to do a simulation in the afternoon, he couldn't because the 1st engineer's computer was still holding the Premium license even though he wasn't accessing any of the Premium features.

Is there a way for the license manager to swap the licenses at the time the 2nd engineer tries to access the Premium license? Or block the swap if the 1st engineer is still using a Premium feature?

Or is my only option to train my users to close out of Solidworks after they are done running simulations in order to free up the Premium license?
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bnemec
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Re: SW Network Licensing

Unread post by bnemec »

we set our timeout function to ~15 minutes I want to say. It's in the license manager options file on the server. It's not exactly what you're looking for but it is nice that the clients release the license after a set amount of time of inactivity. Chances are user A was inactive in SW for that amount of time after completing simulation activities. It's kind of a passive mode of license release instead of the user actively closing Solidworks to switch to a lower level license.
MMartens
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Re: SW Network Licensing

Unread post by MMartens »

According to our IT, they think it is set at 15 minutes. I am working with them to double check and find other possible solutions other than buying more Premium licenses just because 1 or 2 times a month we have this problem.
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bnemec
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Re: SW Network Licensing

Unread post by bnemec »

MMartens wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:49 pm According to our IT, they think it is set at 15 minutes. I am working with them to double check and find other possible solutions other than buying more Premium licenses just because 1 or 2 times a month we have this problem.
Might want to contact your VAR to help or someone that speaks LicenseManagereese. I'm pretty sure you need to set a TIMEOUT for each license type in that options file. So one for regular solidworks and another for your premium. And it looks like from the bottom of this article there's a couple of names for the premium license.

https://www.cadimensions.com/blog/power ... ons-files/
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jcapriotti
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Re: SW Network Licensing

Unread post by jcapriotti »

A timeout is needed for each type of license. It can get complicated with all the combinations of bundles available. Check your log files for when a license is "out", it gives the name there. You need it in the timeout statement.
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kawuser
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Re: SW Network Licensing

Unread post by kawuser »

MMartens wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:30 am I am CAD admin for a company currently running with 8 network licenses: (7 Professional, 1 Premium). A situation came up recently where 1 engineer had been running a simulation in the morning, so his computer had grabbed the 1 Premium license. He didn't close Solidworks after he was done. When a 2nd engineer went to do a simulation in the afternoon, he couldn't because the 1st engineer's computer was still holding the Premium license even though he wasn't accessing any of the Premium features.

Is there a way for the license manager to swap the licenses at the time the 2nd engineer tries to access the Premium license? Or block the swap if the 1st engineer is still using a Premium feature?

Or is my only option to train my users to close out of Solidworks after they are done running simulations in order to free up the Premium license?
We had the same problem here but as soon as we set up the license timeout feature for 15mins that problem pretty much went away. I suggest you try that first before you buy more licenses.
MMartens
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Re: SW Network Licensing

Unread post by MMartens »

Thank you for the information and suggestions. I have IT working on it right now.
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