Working from Home? Here’s How to Use SOLIDWORKS at Home

We are pleased to announce that Dassault Systèmes is continuing to work with Value-Added Resellers (BEACON) to help our customers during this time of uncertainty that is caused by the COVID-19 virus and resulting need for social distancing.

The 3D EXPERIENCE platform enables great design and collaboration anywhere on any device as we all adjust to a new reality of working from home or away from the office. Learn how to get up and running on the cloud with our latest solutions here.

For current SOLIDWORKS desktop users, SOLIDWORKS offers a host of solutions that can enable you to work from outside your office, and your SOLIDWORKS VAR is there to help you every step of the way.

The first step is to determine which license type you have.  The easiest way to do this is to launch SOLIDWORKS, then from the main menu click ‘Help’ > ’About SOLIDWORKS’ > ‘Show Serial Number’ and you will see your serial number.

If your serial number starts with 0000, 0001, 9000 or 9001, it is a commercial standalone serial number:

If your serial number starts with 0010 or 9010, it is a SolidNetwork License (SNL) serial number and the process for using it at home is slightly different.

Standalone Serial Numbers

For standalone license customers, we will encourage customers to use existing tools at their disposal. We will encourage users to deactivate and reactivate their standalone licenses on home machines as required or to utilize the Online Licensing functionality for SolidWorks 2018 and later. For users who do not have access to their machines to deactivate their license, VARs should review the serial number’s activation history and determine if there is an orphaned activation on another machine, which can be disabled. If no license can be made available by license transfer or machine disablement, DS SOLIDWORKS can provide short term (30 days max) standalone license files to be used by clients during these uncertain times.

If your serial number is a standalone license, there are several options.  The first is to transfer your license and reactivate on another computer like the one in your home or laptop.  To transfer a license, the method is called “Deactivation.”

Inside SOLIDWORKS there is an Activate/Deactivate mechanism to release the license back into the server and allow the license to be accessed by another computer.  This is an easy, fast, and proven method that makes it easy to ensure compliance with your license usage and provides versatile access to your standalone SOLIDWORKS license across multiple computers.

How to Deactivate a License

• From within SOLIDWORKS, go to the Help menu and select Deactivate Licenses
• From the Deactivation screen that appears…
  • Click the Select All button
  • Ensure that an email has been entered in the E-Mail: box provided.
  • Click Next
• The system will then deactivate the license(s) from the machine. The system will confirm this by showing a window of currently activated products.  It should be empty.  Click Finish to complete the task.
  • SOLIDWORKS will then automatically close.

How to Activate or Re-activate a License

• Open SOLIDWORKS.
  • If the licenses have been deactivated from that machine (or have never been activated), the SOLIDWORKS Product Activation window will automatically appear.
• Select the option I want to activate my SOLIDWORKS product now and then click Next
• From the Activate screen that appears…
  • Click the Select All button
  • Ensure that an email has been entered in the E-Mail: box provided.
  • Click Next
• The system will then activate the license(s) on the machine. The system will confirm this by showing a window of currently activated products.  It should list all products installed on the machine.  Click Finish to complete the task.
  • SOLIDWORKS will then automatically open.

The following video explains this

process: https://solidworks.2winbridge.com/p/Stand-Alone-License-Transfer-2017.

If your company requires you to transfer licenses often, it can become a little time consuming to open SOLIDWORKS and run the activation or deactivation process over and over again. Not to worry, we have a workaround that can make this process a little easier. This can be achieved by running the Activation/Deactivation process outside of SOLIDWORKS.

If you do not have access to your computer and cannot transfer (Deactivate), please contact us ( Details given below)

SolidNetwork License (SNL) Serial Numbers

If your serial number is a SolidNetwork License (SNL), there are several options as well.  The easiest is to check out a license through a VPN connection. Please work with your IT Department to set up a secure VPN connection.   This will enable you to access the license from your home office. Note: launching SOLIDWORKS may be slower while using a VPN connection compared to using your usual office network connection.

If you do not have VPN access and if you are still in your office, the next solution is to borrow a license.  This will enable you to take your computer home and work with SOLIDWORKS for the next 30 days (this is the maximum time for borrowing a license).  Borrowing should be performed in the office connected to your network and NEVER over a VPN connection. When you borrow a license, the license will remain with your machine regardless of whether SOLIDWORKS is in use on your machine, so the license cannot be shared with other users until you return it.

If you need to keep a license for more than 30 days, SOLIDWORKS also offers term licensing options, which you can learn more about here.

To borrow a license, see this article and the screenshot below:

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