Blend Corner 1

[Crocostimpy]

Did the Blend Corner command get moved to a different license bundle recently? When I try to use it I get a License Error -10099. I've used it plenty of times before when I work on castings, although it's been a while since I last used it. Now it won't work.

We're on version 2011 build 1903. Our license bundle is NX91110.

Thanks for any insight.

Mike

 

[Arkance/PhoeNX]

I just tested in the same, older (NX9) & newer versions (NX2212) and all are the same.
To use Blend Corner, you need nx_freeform_2 in your license/bundle. NX91110 is a Mach 1 Design Bundle and has never had that as part of the bundle.
If you used Blend Corner previously and it worked, it's more likely you were using a different bundle than what you are using now.

Anthony Galante
Senior Support Engineer


NX9 to NX2212 (13 versions)

 

[Toost]

There sometimes are bugs in that a feature does not check out the, from Siemens perspective, correct license. This could have been such a case.
Hard to notice and tell.

Regards,
Tomas

The more you know about a subject, the more you know how little you know about that subject.

 

[Crocostimpy]

Thanks Anthony. I'll talk to our admin and see if he can figure it out.

Mike

 

[Bleaker]

To address the problem Toost describes, you can try the following to determine what license features are/were used by your NX (that is, if license borrowing is enabled in your environment):

1) Open a command window in the %UGII_BASE_DIR%/UGFLEXLM folder
2) Execute the following command: [tt]lmutil lmborrow all DD-MMM-YYYY HH:MM[/tt] where the date/time is the (future) time you want to *release* the borrowed licenses.
3) Now open the old NX and perform the required operations. This will borrow every license required for this from the license server.
4) Execute command [tt]lmutil lmborrow -clear[/tt] This freezes the borrowing process.
5) Execute command [tt]lmutil lmborrow -status[/tt] This will list all the licenses needed for the performed operations.

You can then check if the new NX license bundle has these and act accordingly.

 

[Crocostimpy]

I opened native NX, created a box, put blends on it and tried to use Blend Corner. I got the error message about no license.
This is what I got after doing Bleaker's procedure. I'm not sure what to do with this information now though. This is a little beyond me.

Mike

 

[Bleaker]

You have to do this in the old environment where it works, so you can determine what licenses your blends have used - then comparing with what you have in the new one.

But I'm pretty sure PhoeNX already got it right - you don't have the Blend Corner ("advanced freeform modeling") license in the new environment, so the only interesting question is how did you manage to get it working in the old one (floating licenses?).

This thread has a more in-depth post with the features included in the relevant licenses:

https://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=379635

 

[Crocostimpy]

Ah I see. Well we don't have any older versions of NX available so I can't do that. Subsequently I'm not sure when it "stopped" working. I haven't used it in well over a year. It just happens that the project I'm working on now has a lot of castings so I have reason to again.

It's not just me that can't use it so I know it's not a glitch with me. I assumed either Siemens changed the licensing of some commands, or my company changed the licenses we purchase. Or, most likely, we have the license(s) - and probably just a couple of anything that's 'advanced' - and they're not setup to use by default.

Thanks all for the info. Our admin is out this week but I'll take it up with him when he gets back.

Mike

 

[Toost]

Do you have an old part where you have applied a Blend Corner ?

instead of Bleakers trick, you can , if you have access to the license server, read the license log.
it writes in clear text what you try checkout and if it fails.

Regards,
Tomas

The more you know about a subject, the more you know how little you know about that subject.

 

[Crocostimpy]

I finally know what's going on here, but not how we're going to fix it.

The license for the Blend Corner resides in the Mach3 license bundle, of which we have 3. I'm one of the first ones here in the morning and I apparently can't get one of them. And the guy who is the first one here can't either. But I think all of our different locations that use NX get into our server for licenses, so we're dealing with different time zones, etc. I do find it odd that over the last 6 or so years that I've been using Blend Corner I've never not been able to use it. I think there may be something else going on too.

As for how to deal with the problem, buying more Mach3 licenses is obvious. But that costs more money. Going to a token license system makes sense too but there could be a downside to that too. Most of the parts we manufacture here are fabricated weldments, but we have recently been designing more castings. Especially in my group. It makes sense that we should be needing to adapt to the changes.

Mike

 

[Bleaker]

Here's another trick you can use to find out who's hogging the licenses you need, and, uh, take appropriate action. Stick the following in a bat file and execute it:

[tt]cd %UGII_BASE_DIR%\UGFLEXLM
lmutil lmstat -c %SPLM_LICENSE_SERVER% -A > %TEMP%\licenses_in_use.txt
notepad %TEMP%\licenses_in_use.txt
del %TEMP%\licenses_in_use.txt[/tt]

 

[Crocostimpy]

Bleaker, I tried running this but it says that lmutil is not a recognized command, even though the exe is there in the folder.

Mike

 

[Bleaker]

If your NX installation is on a different drive than the "default prompt" (which is usually C, you might need to switch to that drive first, like add a

D:

to the top of the bat, if it's on that drive.

You can also just directly execute the lmutil lmstat... command in a command window, the bat file just makes the output more "readable" by sticking it into a temp text file.

 

[Toost]

In a running NX Session, go:
Menu- help -logfile
look for "bundle" , it should appear ~one page down from top.
Is there a line "Bundle setting came from ..." ?
somebody might have set a variable or registry setting such that you check out a different bundle than the NX93100 (MACH3 has a name such as NX93100 or something similar in the log and the license file)
if that setting is "locked" to say NX91110 you will never see the MACH3 .

I can recommend Token licenses, they have opened up a number of capabilities for us that we never would have purchased the separate license for due to low usage/time.

Regards,
Tomas


The more you know about a subject, the more you know how little you know about that subject.

 

[Crocostimpy]

So I found there were a couple things going on that prevented me from getting the license I needed.

The first is that I was only setup to use 91110. When I got this new computer that was the way it was configured. I added the Mach3 Production and Industrial Design licenses to the settings.

The second is there were people hogging licenses. Once they got the boot I've had no problems getting the license when I need it.

I do know about token licensing. There are a couple guys here that have been lobbying for them for quite a while. It's going to be a hard sell I though unfortunately.

Thanks to everyone for the help on this.


Mike

 

[Toost]

Regarding Tokens. Siemens has finally realized that they/ NX has a ton of functionality that might not be used because it is locked into some modules/requiring special licenses that us, the users, will not purchase because we only need that /those features some occasions in a while.
So, if your license contains Tokens, you must not purchase that license-s, you can simply use that feature without thinking of where to find it. ( in which license)
The exception is NX Applications which contains code from a sub-supplier to Siemens. Those applications does not "run on Tokens".
If you have a more modern NX Version ( later than the last patch of NX12) you can see the list under Menu-Help -About NX.

Regards,
Tomas

The more you know about a subject, the more you know how little you know about that subject.

 

[Arkance/PhoeNX]

In regards to tokens, not all functions are available via token licensing.

In Crocostimpy's case, they would need nx_freeform_2 to use Blend Corner.
This isn't covered by tokens.

Menu -> Help -> About NX, then scroll down the information window that appears.
There will be a section for NX Design Add-ons. You can see what functionality is enabled by tokens & the token count required.


Anthony Galante
Senior Support Engineer


NX9 to NX2212 (13 versions)

 

[Toost]

The NX_Freeform_2 might not be supported by Tokens but the Blend Corner is included in other applications which in turn are Token enabled.
When I use the Blend Corner ( I'm running the Mach1 bundle currently ) it checks out "NX_Additive_Design", 25 Tokens.
A feature we use from time to time is the ability to convert import faceted bodies into "Convergent" , The Convert Facet Body is included in, i think several, applications which are token enabled.

Regards,
Tomas

The more you know about a subject, the more you know how little you know about that subject.