How to Control Who Uses Which License

When you have a SolidNetWork (SNL) License, you might have an assortment of SolidWorks licenses to choose from, such as Standard, Professional, and Premium.  However, there might be times that the one you need to use is not available.
 
Anyone tired of having to say, or hearing others say: “I need to finish this last part of my project, but I can’t because PEOPLE keep taking MY Premium License!”

If only we could have our licenses on our server, but not let “just anyone” grab them. If you like to have your cake and eat it too, you’ll love this. We can easily do exactly that using the SolidWorks Options File.

For this example, we are going to make a list of who can and can’t use the Premium licenses, and limit the others to Professional. We are also going to reserve one seat of SimPro for the Premium user group.

Premium users: Tim, Chip, Tom

Professional users: Peter, Ronnie, Paul

Start a new text file (in NotePad or similar), starting with the following format:

GROUP <Group_Name> <user> <user> (do not include <>)

Such that:

GROUP is the FlexLM syntax to define a group
Group_Name is the name to use to reference the group
User is username. The number of user entries depends on how many users are in the group.

 



Once that’s set, you MUST save as sw_d.opt , and you must save it to the location where your license manager is looking. Typical install location shown below:

 

We need to launch the SNL manager, Modify, then Activate/Reactivate as shown.

Make sure you point to your options file as well.

 

After a quick activation, all good!



 

For a list of all the different control options, see chapter 5 of the FLexLM user guide.  You can find that you your machine, C:\Program Files (x86)\SolidWorks Corp\SolidNetWork License Manager\Docs\flexuser

 

http://files.solidworks.com/supportfiles/flexLM_Enduser/licensingenduserguide.pdf

 

contributed by Tim Strange, Progression Technologies



 

Introduction to My.SolidWorks

With over 2 million users of SolidWorks worldwide, there is an exponentially growing user community sharing a wealth of SolidWorks knowledge.  You can find information from SolidWorks Forums, blog posts, videos, and unlimited social media sources. 

While this is good to have this availability, it almost becomes sensory overload!!!  Wouldn't it be nice to have a customized portal tailored to your interests???  Maybe you ONLY work in sheet metal and don't care about ANYTHING else!  Maybe you just want to create and work in your own SolidWorks Sheet Metal cavern.  You can do this!  You can search by the words sheet metal and pull up any whisper of an article, blog post, video related to sheet metal.  Secondly, you can filter items out....so that you can ONLY pull up YouTube videos in your search...which is great if you find that reading actual text is very taxing. 

Check out Jeremy's video introducing My.SolidWorks

Weldment Modeling Video

Contributor: Steve Darcey, CSWE, Progression Technologies

SolidProfessor vs. SolidWorks Training Classes

Well, we made it past the end of the world, so that's good news.  The bad news is that your work didn't go away.  In fact, it probably piled up.  Considering your workload, plus that phantom concept of "work-life balance", who has time to get training or brush up on skills? 

You know you have to "MAKE" time, so start the New Year right by improving your SolidWorks skills.  There are a couple of great solutions and at least one of these should suit your needs!

Option One: 
You're company might be starting with a new "bank" of training dollars, so if that's the case, consider signing up for one of our awesome Training Classes in Houston, Dallas, or Austin.  Don't worry - we aren't boring..  Our instructors are full of personality and energy, while ingesting coffee and candy to fuel terrible nerd jokes.  You'll walk away with immediate increase in productivity, a better skill set, a spiralbound, color manual with all of the exercises, files (downloads), and lectures available to you at anytime thereafter.  If you don't see a class listed, email us!

Option Two:
No permission or time to get formal training?  Are the training locations too far from you?  You might consider having your company buy a license for SolidProfessor.  SolidProfessor is a SolidWorks Solution Partner delivering the largest library of SolidWorks video training and tutorial courses on the market.  While the tutorials in the help menu are a nice introduction to each topic, they don't even compare to the advantage of the video/audio combo of tutorials you get with SolidProfessor.  (Right now there's a great promotion going on - 25% off!)

See this chart below to help you base your decision.  Email us with questions at support@progressiontech.com:

	SolidProfessor	Progression Training Classes
Intensity	Lower intensity	Higher Intensity
Pace	Self-Paced by User	Administered  Pace by Instructor
Topics	Learn on an as-needed basis	Learn a lot about a designated topic/module
Result	Continuous skill development in the areas of the user's interest	Immediate Increase in Productivity and Proficency in the desired topic/module
Duration	3-5 minute videos of finely segmented topics, with both  audio & video	2 to 4 days; 7-hr days
Learning Style	Short Videos (Watch and Learn)	Lecture, Case Studies (group exercises), and Independent Exercises
Interaction	No instructor interaction, but you can submit questions to solidprofessor.com for potential topics	Q&A tailored to your application/interests with instructor Learn experiences from instructor plus shortcuts, hotkeys, and practical application
Location	At work or home, where internet access is available	Progression Office On-Site (Houston, Dallas, or Austin)
Availability	Available 24hrs a day 7 days a week	Classes are typically Mon- Thurs 9am - 4:30pm
Cost	Annual recurring cost	One-time cost

The Winner of the Giveaway is....

Jennifer!  (There was only one Jennifer who entered, so you know who you are!) ;-)

Congratulations!  These are the answers to the riddle in our previous post:

1. Sin City
2. The Matrix
3. Signs
4. Mean Girls
5. Sum of All Fears
6. Snakes on a Plane
7. Looper (or possibly) In the Loop
8. Alpha and Omega
9. Exorcist
10. Iron Cross
11. Social Network
12. Vertical Limit
13. XXX (Vin Diesel)
14. Wall-E
15. Speed
16. 127 Hours

We have a lot of great (work appropriate) Videos and Tech Tips coming up on the Blog so stay tuned and make sure you have your colleagues sign up for updates too!

To all of our recent subscribers and followers of the Progression Blog, we wish you a

Nerd Movies and a Giveaway!

You think you're nerdy, but HOW nerdy are you, REALLY??

 

Progression Giveaway:   See Rules Below!

 

Rules:

1. Each of the illustrations above describe a Movie.  Answer all 16 Riddles illustrated above, numbered 1 to 16 in an email to support@progressiontech.com 
2. Subject Title: Blog Giveaway
3. Contestant must be a subscriber to our Blog (do it now --> over there!)
4. Contestant must be with a company having an Active Technical Support Subscription
5. All entries will be compiled and a winner will be chosen at random.
6. Progression employees not eligible
7. Contest Ends December 14th.
8. The giveaway: [insert drumroll] ......................

A Progression backpack FULL of irresistable geeky goodies valued at over $50. 

Don't miss it!! 

Some answer are better than zero answers!

A little love for an old friend!

For years now SolidWorks releases the new versions with over 200 great enhancements.  Some enhancements are major and can have a big impact on how we work in SolidWorks day-to-day.  Others enhancements may seem small and almost un-noticed, and they seem to touch a wide range of functions.  With the release of SolidWorks 2013, there have again been some great enhancements that I know we will adopt into our normal design activities.  But there is a function I have been using since ’97 that has just gotten a face lift and some added functionality.  It may be a function you use every day, or maybe every single file you work with.  It is the Orientation dialog.

 For years this function has allowed us to change to the standard views (Front, Top, Right, etc.), as well as add named views to be created.  Any orientation can be saved as a named view and available for working in the model, or for a view on the drawings.  The Orientation dialog has always been there with a tap of the Space bar, and has been like a trusted friend over the years.

And now, in SolidWorks 2013, it has finally gotten some attention.  The have redesigned it to an icon interface, with previews no less.  If you hover over the from view icon, you will see a preview of the front view.  Also included are the selections to split the design window into multiple panes.  But some of the more dramatic changes include the ability to not only create saved/named views, but to allow them to be persistent to other files.  Yes, you can save a named view, and with a click of a check box, allow it to be available in other models as well.

 

Another big change is the introduction of the View Cube.  This “widget” will allow you to pick a quadrant for viewing.  It is available on the Orientation dialog in the top right corner.

If it is enabled, pushed in, it will be presented each time you open the Orientation dialog.  Or, if you would just like to work with the View Cube alone, you can press Ctrl-Space Bar to have it presented.

So while there are always some AWESOME new enhancements and functions added with each release of SolidWorks.  I was inspired when I saw an old friend get a bit of a makeover.

 

Author: Top Dog of the Progression AE Team, Jeremy Colvin