Product Activation

Registering your SolidWorks products nowadays is pretty simple – hit the activate button, wait a few seconds, and you’re golden. This applies to network license servers as well as standalone seats. Per the End User License Agreement (affectionately known as the EULA), each SNL is allowed 1 server activation and each standalone is allowed 2 activations. For the standalone seat, that is typically 1 office and 1 home or mobile computer, such that they are never running the software simultaneously.

It is equally as simple to un-register or de-activate the software as it is to activate. For a standalone seat, go to the Help menu in SolidWorks and select “transfer license.” On a license server, launch the SNL Manager and, from the Server Administration tab, hit the Modify button and choose to transfer. Common reasons to do this:

• PC will be replaced or reformatted
• SolidWorks will no longer be used on that machine
• License server is being moved or virtualized
• Standalone seat needs to be installed elsewhere (without necessarily uninstalling from this machine; may need it down the road)

This proactive measure of de-activating will prevent you from receiving an “Activation Transaction Failed!” message saying that your activation count has been exceeded in the next activation attempt. There are cases, of course, when you can’t avoid this. If a machine dies unexpectedly, there would be no opportunity to transfer the license. In this event, please contact Technical Support with your serial number and we will gladly transfer the license for you.