What is license ordering? It is the order in which a particular user will pull the various levels of SolidWorks (Pro, Premium, Simulation Pro/Premium) as the user adds-in the different components. For example, if a user adds-in Toolbox Browser, he could pull either a SolidWorks Professional or SolidWorks Premium license. The license flavor is dictated by the order in which they appear under the “License Order” tab of the SolidNetWork License Manager.
In the SolidNetWork License Administrator screen shot below, a user who adds-in the Toolbox Browser will pull a SolidWorks Professional license (because SolidWorks Professional is at the top of the list). If a user adds-in Simulation, he will pull the SolidWorks Premium w/Simulation Premium license before pulling the SolidWorks Premium license. The user will have access to all of the SolidWorks Premium add-ins as well as all Simulation capabilities (including Static, Thermal, Frequency, Fatigue, and a few other types of analyses). If the SolidWorks Premium flavor were listed first, when the user adds-in Simulation, (s)he will be able to access all SolidWorks Premium add-ins but only be able to access the Static solver.
I was always under the impression that the license order was a global setting managed at the server level. After a few minutes researching this for a tech support call, I learned that these settings are user-dependent. This means that a CAD administrator wishing for all users to have the same license order listed will have to administer the settings on a per-client basis. There are a few ways to administer the license order settings to all of a company’s users.
Active Directory will allow CAD Administrators to issue a global license order as a user logs into the client machine. This is only fully automatic method I’m aware of at this time.
There is a semi-automatic method which involves installing the clients via an Admin Image; where you would set the desired license order on the SNL server, then export the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\Licenses\Settings” registry key (Start > Run > type regedit), then add the exported file location to the “run after installation” tab of the Admin Image Options Editor.
There are actually two manual methods that you may use. The first the method involves jumping from machine to machine and setting each machine separately or simply e-mailing the setting list to each user and allow the users to do the setup themselves. The second manual method is to set the desired license order on the SNL server, then export the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\Licenses\Settings” registry key, place the file in a shared location, finally double-clicking the shared registry file from each client machine.
An “options file” can be used to super-configure how the licenses are doled out. For example: Everybody in Manufacturing group can only get a SolidWorks Professional License whereas the Electrical Engineering Group needs to reserve a license for the SolidWorks Routing add-in, hence they get the SolidWorks Premium licenses. Check out the user guide.
As a bonus (it is almost Christmas after all), several of our customers are using a relatively inexpensive software that allows for better tracking of license usage called JTB Flex Report.
