Changing Products to Online Licensing

Deactivating Installed Licenses

Before you use an online license, you must make sure the same product is not already installed on the machine. If it is installed, you must deactivate the license of the installed product before you configure online licensing with the Admin Portal.

To deactivate a license:

  • In SOLIDWORKS, click Help > Deactivate Licenses, and follow the instructions.
You can have a mix of online licenses and SolidNetWork licenses on the same machine. For example, the same machine can run SOLIDWORKS Premium 2018 with an online license and SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium 2018 with a SolidNetWork license.

Changing Activation Type to Online Licensing

Before you can use online licensing with a product, you must change its activation type from machine activation to online licensing.

You can change the activation type of a license before or after it is assigned to a member. You cannot change the activation type of a license if it is currently activated, or if the product is assigned to more than one member. If a license has been activated through machine activation, it cannot be deactivated remotely; a user on the machine must deactivate that license.

To change the activation type to online licensing:

  1. If the product is already assigned to a member, then to change the activation type to online licensing:
    1. Click the Members tab and select a member from the list.
    2. Under Assigned Products, click the product you want to change.
    3. In Product Details, under Activation Type, click Change to Online Licensing.
    4. Click Change to confirm or Cancel.
  2. If the product is not yet assigned to a member, then to change the activation type to online licensing:
    1. Click the Products tab and select a product from the list.

      You can query for the product by entering search criteria under Find Products.

  3. In Product Details, under Activation Type, click Change to Online Licensing.
  4. Click Change to confirm or Cancel.
  5. Assign a product to a member.
When an online license is assigned to a member, that product can only be used by that person. However, assigning a machine activation product to a user is for tracking purposes only. Any person sitting at the designated machine can use the product. In that situation, the administrator might have to check that the person using the machine is the user who is supposed to have that license.