Solidworks 09-10 License Issues

[kapps]

Since Solidworks seems to have stopped directly supporting their education editions, I figured I'd post this here. Our new discs have come in from the SW sponsorship and I have encountered a problem. I input the serial number at the beginning of the installer and everything installs fine. But when I go to open SW, I get an error message saying 'standalone license file failure." I can't find anything on google and the SW website says that there is a 30 day grace period even if the license is bad. This issue has occurred on a computer at our shop as well as my personal one (different discs). Has anyone had this problem?

[kapps]

Since Solidworks seems to have stopped directly supporting their education editions, I figured I'd post this here. Our new discs have come in from the SW sponsorship and I have encountered a problem. I input the serial number at the beginning of the installer and everything installs fine. But when I go to open SW, I get an error message saying 'standalone license file failure." I can't find anything on google and the SW website says that there is a 30 day grace period even if the license is bad. This issue has occurred on a computer at our shop as well as my personal one (different discs). Has anyone had this problem?

[Drew Price]

I initially had some problems with this as well. Depending on the install directory you specify the license reference file might have to be moved around. I forget now where I had to move mine between (sorry to not add anything), but I think it might have had to go just loose in the master Solidworks install directory, or something like that.

Look for loose reg or install help text files on the DVD too, I know I have found them in the past, they tell you what has to be moved where.

Best,
Drew

[Dsenechal]

I didnt have any problems installing our 2010 Solidworks. Maybe try installing the program without the license, using the grace period, then enter the serial number once it is running?

[coastertrav]

We got it working. Apparently when we installed Camworks 2008 on the computer we had to move around the licenses. That is why Shaun and the shop computers had a difficult time getting it to load while my copy loaded flawlessly on both my laptop and desktop back home.

[kapps]

Nah, it wasn't Camworks. What happened was like Drew said, it didn't put the license file in the right location. I had a hard time finding where the license was supposed to be so I checked my old emails for the old Cosmos authorization and found the folder where the licenses were stored... C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SolidWorks. After installing 09, this Solidworks folder has folders inside it for 08 and 09. Along side these folders was a Solidworks license file. I dragged this file into the Solidworks 2009 folder and presto, it worked and let me authorize.

[coastertrav]

Ah, I thought I heard you say Camworks.

Camworks/Cosmos, close enough.

[Chris M.]

If any problems arise with the 2009/2010 software, please let me know. I'm the one who sends it out to the teams.

This year we updated the way licenses are registered so SolidWorks needs to know if you're having a problem.

Thanks,
Chris Morse
Education Sponsorship Events Manager
christine.morse@3ds.com

[Adambomb]

I remember having similar issues...seems like it didn't properly uninstall Solidworks '08, and you had to manually go in there and delete the old license files yourself or it got very angry. Put together some quick instructions for our guys...they are probably a bit overkill, but should be reliable at least, and I didn't want to futz around with it much. Also, I hate anything related to indexing or any type of desktop search (massive resource hog on our ancient machines, and really nothing but a band-aid for poor file management IMO), so these instructions are more geared to appease the desktop search "feature" that I hadn't figured out how to exclude until after this was all taken care of.



Installation instructions for installing Solidworks 2009 student edition on a machine that already has Solidworks 2008 student edition:

1. Uninstall COSMOS FloWorks and Motion Works
2. Uninstall e-Drawings and DWG editor
3. Uninstall COSMOS Works
4. Uninstall 3D XML Viewer, and absolutely anything else connected with either Solidworks or Dassault Systems
5. Uninstall Solidworks 2008
6. Go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users in Windows Explorer, then go to the address bar and add \Application Data
7. Delete any folder that says anything about Dassault systems, Solidworks, or COSMOS
8. Go to Set program access and Defaults --> Add/Remove Windows Components, then turn on Indexing Service
9. Restart computer
10. Install Solidworks 2009
11. Restart computer
11. Go back to Add/Remove Windows Components, then turn off Indexing Service (unless you enjoy watching your computer eat itself alive)
12. Restart computer
13. Run Solidworks (will prompt to activate now, etc.)

[Leonardo]

Another easy way of fixing this issue ("standalone licence file failure") is to just delete the licence file.

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SolidWorks

delete: "solidworksstandalonelic.lic". This will allow SolidWorks 2009-2010 to launch. You can then activate SolidWorks via the internet. No reboot necessary.