Troubleshooting SOLIDWORKS Online Licensing
NOTICE: Online Licensing is being discontinued by SOLIDWORKS.
The anticipated discontinuation date for Online Licensing is February 2021. SOLIDWORKS 2022 does not support online licensing so any 2022 service pack will automatically disable this functionality.
Additional details can be found here.
Reach out to us if you’d like to review options for maintaining named-user functionality with 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS.
Online licensing offers users the flexibility of accessing SOLIDWORKS licenses through online MySolidWorks profiles. An administrative portal on MySolidWorks gives designated users the ability to assign seats of SOLIDWORKS to members of their team. While this option is a huge step forward, in comparison to machine activation/deactivation using the modify install, implementation of online licensing companywide has uncovered many issues that have yet to be solved by SOLIDWORKS upon their release. Switching to the 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS offers does eliminate the online licensing issues as licenses are assigned differently. This blog will hopefully ease the headache, when running into errors, while trying to convert workstations over to online licensing for daily use.
For help with using the administrative portal, switching serial numbers to online licensing, and for general procedural directions using online profiles in SOLIDWORKS, please reference our Online Licensing for SOLIDWORKS blog.
Issues Resolved in This Post:
Activation Issues
After following the procedure to make the switch from machine to online activation in the administrative portal on MySolidWorks, SOLIDWORKS will require two startups before recognizing that online licensing is attached to the serial number. The first start up, after going through the standard machine activation wizard, should bring up the warning message shown in the following image.
The second startup should bring up the login screen shown in the following image.
In this process, a bit in the SolidWorks registry is being toggled which controls the licensing type. We have run into issues where SOLIDWORKS gets stuck on machine activation and continues to launch the activation wizard as opposed to the login screen. In this case, the SOLIDWORKS registry will need to be manually toggled to online activation. The steps below will show how to carry out this process.
Manually Setting Online Licensing in the Data Registry
1. Launch the regedit.exe by either searching it in the search dialog (older operating systems) or using the RUN command (search “run” in the Windows search bar) and typing regedit in the “Open” field (Windows 10).
2. Expand the HKEY_CURRENT_USER and continue to expand Software -> SolidWorks -> Licenses -> Online.
3. Double click on SOLIDWORKS to set the bit from 0 to 1. The set bits in this registry mean that online licensing is enabled for that specific program.
4. Re-open SOLIDWORKS and verify that the login screen appears instead of the activation wizard.
Login Issues
When someone logs into a profile that is already being used by another station, the message shown in the following image should appear. This message should indicate which computer that the profile is currently being used on and provide the option to force them off.
If yes is selected, the other user typically has a few minutes before a message appears which prompts them to save before booting them off; however, if for some reason this message doesn’t appear and instead the error message that is shown in the following message appears, then follow the procedure below to delete FLEXnet files and fix this issue.
Deleting FLEXnet Files
1. Go to your C: Drive in your file explorer and select your View tab and then Options on the top right.
2. Navigate to the View tab in the folder options pop up and select the Show hidden file, folders, and drives bubble.
3. Press “OK” and select the hidden ProgramData folder that now appears on your C: Drive. Once in that folder, select the FLEXnet folder.
4. Delete all files that have a SW_D prefix. If any of these files fail to delete, you will need to open task manager and end any SW tasks (some may even be running in the background processes) until it lets you do so.
Logout Issues
The logout/login process has been the most difficult to work with, especially with multiple users and workstations. The process of logging out, as seen in the following image, has one major flaw; it is difficult to achieve without physically being in SOLIDWORKS.
If you exit out of SOLIDWORKS without logging out (or someone boots you off), SOLIDWORKS automatically retains your login information upon opening (i.e. no login portal). Some issues that the profile retention can cause are as follows. First, it can accidentally retain a profile that no longer has a seat of SOLIDWORKS, which brings up the error message seen in the following image.
Second, not wanting to boot someone off who is in the middle of a project with that profile. Before learning the procedure seen below, which walks through manually deleting the login file, we tried using both the modify install login and resetting the SOLIDWORKS registry which both were ineffective. The solution provided is the best option to clear the current profile and bring up the login screen upon re-opening SOLIDWORKS.
Manually Deleting Retained Profile Information from SOLIDWORKS
1. Navigate to your C: Drive and select Users -> <User Name> -> AppData -> Local ->SolidWorks -> Credentials (NOTE: AppData is a hidden folder. Go to options and the view tab as seen in the previous example to show hidden folders).
2. Delete the 'ud.xml' file
3. Open SOLIDWORKS and verify that the login screen appears; hence, the profile is no longer retained
Another Option
3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS provides an alternate solution to online licensing issues in addition to its many other benefits over desktop licenses. 3DEXPERIENCE is a cloud-based, collaborative platform that SOLIDWORKS is now a part of.
If you would like to learn more about the 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS offerings, head on over to our 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS page to find all the information you need!
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