activate-deactivate question

[RipV]

we've just upgraded to SW2017. There are 2 designers here, each with a stand alone seat of SW. We also have SW on a laptop that we have in the past shared when we go on a road trip. Either He or I will take it as needed. Now that we have to deactivate one machine and then activate the laptop it has become a problem. I can deactivate my desktop & activate the laptop with no issues because my number was used at install. He cannot activate the laptop because it has my license number. He's thinking about installing a second install of SW on the laptop with his license# so that he can have his "save settings" applied as well. Is this the correct approach?

Ken

 

[AnnaWood]

This thread on the SolidWorks forum tells you what the problem is. You can no longer activate two seats of SolidWorks from a single serial number. You will have to deactivate/activate when sharing a SW serial number between office workstation and road laptop.

https://forum.solidworks.com/thread/203195

Anna Wood
SW2015 SP5, Windows 7 x64

 

[SBaugh]

Really... that's odd, because I just registered our Standalone license for the 2nd time, because the 1st one is on a laptop (that doesn't get used that often unless I leave the office). I had no problem registering it. I read some of that thread, maybe its a slow migration for everyone in the US to see this change, but it sounds like its coming. Which really sucks, must be a Dassault thing.

I downloaded this tool to test out and see if it will fix this problem when working in multiple locations.

http://www.hawkwareapps.com/downloads/hawkware-tools/

- scroll to the bottom to download it.

Check out the youtube video for it has some promise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JzyhI0CrYE&feature=youtu.be

Scott Baugh, CSWP
Gryphon Environmental

http://www.2gryphon.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[RipV]

Even though I don't like the fact that we now have to deactivate our desktop & then activate the laptop I do understand it. I too read the whole thread above. It is what it is. We understood our VAR to say that either one of us could deactivate our desktop and activate the laptop. that doesn't seem to be true. SW was installed on the laptop with my license# because I seem to use it most. But the other designer does use it from time to time. Now he can not activate it even though he deactivated his desktop. It's tied to my license#. That would work fine if we each had our own laptop but that's not going to happen.

we are considering installing SW again on the laptop, in a different designated folder with his license# thinking that when he uses it he could activate & use that install. a bonus also that he could save off his "SAVE SETTINGS' and have his toolbars etc. In the past when he used it he had to fumble around with my toolbars & placements. this sounds danagerous to me.
Someone on another forum said you don't need 2 installs, just change the license number in the registry. That seems a bit extreme to have to go in the reg files and change stuff just to let a paying customer use the software we bought. (every time we want to use it)
What a pain.

 

[GRF]

If you guys log in as separate users you should be able to have your own sets of settings for toolbars, short cuts ect.

I am not sure how Solidworks will work with installing the same version in two places. I think that will create a registry mess.

I am surprised your VAR does no have a solution for this. Not that our VAR is any good at solving our problems either but this seems like it might be fairly common. The easiest thing would be to switch to a network based license ( I think that is a $2000 charge). Then when you are taking the laptop you can "borrow" a license before leaving the office. That would leave the other license for who ever is left in the office.

 

[SBaugh]

I just remember I had a solution to this from a few years ago. At one point I was bouncing two serial numbers within one install of SW on one machine. I wrote two *.bat files and each one contained the serial number I wanted to use. When I ran the *.bat file it would replace the serial number in the registry.

The path to the serial numbers in the registry is here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\Licenses\Serial Numbers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SolidWorks\Licenses\Serial Numbers

Those numbers are no where else in the registry that I can find. I ran a search in my registry and turned up nothing else.

Combine this with that link I sent above to deactivate your license, you should be able to get around this quite easily.

*.reg file could be used just like a *.bat file.

Scott Baugh, CSWP
Gryphon Environmental

http://www.2gryphon.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[SBaugh]

I happened to find another serial number location by accident today.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SolidWorks\Security

There are two strings one is for the 16 digit number and the other is the last 8 digits of the number

Scott Baugh, CSWP
Gryphon Environmental

http://www.2gryphon.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376