The License Activation window is found in the main menu option Help > License Activation. From this window, you can activate standalone licenses, return licenses, repair licenses, configure the client to use a concurrent license server, view license rights held in Flexnet trusted storage, and upgrade standalone licenses.
Topics
- Licensing
- License Server
- Repairing Licenses
- View Licenses
- Upgrading Licenses
- Manual Activation and Return
Licensing
FlexSim does not require a license for it's trial version. The trial allows you to create 20 objects in your model and run that model with various scenarios.
If you would like to purchase a license for this software you may contact our sales department at (801) 224-6914 or email us at [email protected]
Once you have successfully activated a license from either your company's server or the FlexSim license server, many of the menu options that were grayed out in the demo mode will be available for use. You will also see your license type in the Help > About FlexSim window or the Start Page.
For an explanation of errors received while activating/returning licenses, visit the reference page.
Repairing Licenses
On the Advanced tab under the repair sub-tab, you will see any disabled licenses on your computer. Licenses are held in Flexnet trusted storage on a computer. Certain information about the licenses are stored in various places on your hard disk and registry. Tampering with these locations may break the license trust flags, which disables the license. This may happen with some registry cleaners or Windows restore points. If your license was disabled, then you can use the repair tab to generate an xml repair request file. Email that file to FlexSim support using the website (www.flexsim.com/support) and then you will be emailed back a repair response xml file to process on the repair tab. Processing the repair response from FlexSim's support team will repair the trust flags on your disabled license and allow it to be used again.
License Server
If you are using a concurrent server license, you can configure the clients to connect to the server using this tab. Check the box and enter the license server ip address. Press the Apply Configuration button. FlexSim will immediately try to connect to the server and check out license features.
Before attempting to connect the clients to a concurrent server, you must activate your licenses on the server and start a License Server Manager program on the server. Instructions and files necessary for configuring the server are available in the LAN License Tools download available in the account section of the FlexSim website if you have a concurrent server license on your FlexSim account.
The Windows registry entry for FLEXlm, our license manager, can store multiple locations where FlexSim should look for a license server or file. In previous versions of FlexSim, whenever you entered a new value in the Concurrent License Server Address and restarted FlexSim, it added more entries to the registry. If you have successfully checked out a license from a server, FlexSim may still successfully check out a license from that server when you start FlexSim, even if the "Use concurrent licensing" box is unchecked. For reference, the registry key that holds a semicolon-delimited list of locations is HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/FLEXlm License Manager/FLEXSIM_LICENSE_FILE. If desired, you can manually edit the value of this registry key to remove locations that you don't want the license system to search any more.
If you have multiple types of licenses on your server, such as Enterprise and Runtime licenses, you can check the "Only checkout features for license type:" box and select the feature set that you want to check out. This will tell FlexSim to only try to check out the features required for that type of license instead of requesting every available feature. You can also use the "Checkout optquest feature" checkbox to specify whether the Optquest feature should be checked out.
For help with troubleshooting concurrent server errors, visit the reference page.
View Licenses
On the view licenses tab, you can see the contents of this computer's Flexnet trusted storage.
Licenses are not in any way tied to any FlexSim installation. Your computer itself is licensed. The actual FlexSim install or version doesn't matter at all. One license can license every FlexSim program on the computer. You simply use the FlexSim program to activate/return/view licenses on the computer for simplicity. The licenses are not tied to an installation of FlexSim.
For example, you could install FlexSim, activate a license, uninstall FlexSim, and then install FlexSim again, and your license will still be there. The FlexSim programs are entirely separate from where licenses are stored on your computer in Flexnet trusted storage.
It doesn't matter what version of FlexSim you use to activate or return licenses; they are calling exactly the same code.
You can have just one license of 5.1 on the computer and that license will work with both 5.0.4 and 5.1.0 just fine. You don't need multiple licenses to license multiple FlexSim programs. The license is not tied to the installation. The license is tied to the computer. Any FlexSim programs on a licensed computer will work. However, a computer that has a 5.0 license won't be able to run 5.1 software. The computer's license must be >= the version number of the software in order to run.
If you uninstall FlexSim without first returning your license, you will need to reinstall Flexnet in order to return the license so that you can move it to another computer. Because licenses are tied to the computer, not the FlexSim installation, you do not need to return your license if you are simply uninstalling and reinstalling FlexSim.
Upgrade Licenses
On the upgrade licenses tab, you can request upgrades to your licenses. This is necessary to run newer versions of the software. For instance, if you previously had FlexSim 5.0 installed and you upgraded to 5.1, you would need to also upgrade your license to 5.1.
The process to upgrade a license to a newer version has three steps:
- The FlexSim License Server needs to be told to upgrade the license, which creates a new Activation ID for the upgrade.
- The old license needs returned to the FlexSim License Server.
- The new license needs to be activated on the client machine.
This process can be done manually by returning any old licenses, pressing the Upgrade Licenses button on the "My Licenses" page in the account section of the FlexSim website, and then activating the new Activation IDs on that page (you may need to refresh the licenses page table).
The Request Upgrades button on the Upgrade Licenses tab automates this process into a single button click by sending http requests to the FlexSim server. If this automatic process doesn't work, then you can do it manually instead.
To upgrade server licenses, you must manually return the licenses and then activate the new licenses.
Manual Activation and Return
In some cases you may not be able to activate or return licenses using the default activate or return tabs. This may be the case if you don't have an internet connection to the computer that is running FlexSim or firewall settings prevent the automatic activation from working. In this case you can use the options in the Advanced tab to manually activate or return licenses.
To do a manual activation or return you generate an xml request and send it to FlexSim where it will be processed and a response xml file will be sent back to you. This is what you can then manually process to complete the licensing.
- In the Manual Activation sub-tab you can enter your activation ID and generate an activation request xml file and process the response xml file.
- In the Manual Return sub-tab you can select a license and generate a return request xml file as well as process the response xml file.
