AECOsim Building Designer Help

Activating Your Product

Product activation is achieved by connecting to a SELECTserver, receiving verification that your SELECTserver Name and Activation Key are correct, and successfully posting usage logs. Product activation is not the same as checking out a license. This section describes how to configure AECOsim Building Designer for activation. After initial configuration, AECOsim Building Designer automatically and transparently tries to activate each time it runs, and runs unconstrained for a period of 7 days after its last successful activation. However, if activation is unsuccessful for a period of 7 days, AECOsim Building Designer runs in unauthorized mode with sessions limited to 15 minutes until the product is successfully activated again.

Note: If the workstation on which AECOsim Building Designer will be running does not have regular network access for periodic activation (at least every 7 days), then consider utilizing a checked-out license. Checked-out licenses are considered to be in full-time use and AECOsim Building Designer will not attempt to post usage for the duration of the license term. See the AECOsim Building Designer documentation for details on obtaining a checked out license.
Parent topic: Readme

Using the Product Activation Wizard

The Product Activation Wizard is designed to step users through the product activation process. After a product is installed, you must obtain a license and then activate that license. Obtaining the license alone is not enough to complete the process. This wizard eliminates the confusion and makes it clear that obtaining a license and activating a product are two essential steps.

The Product Activation Wizard opens automatically at the end of the product installation process, assuming you turned on the Launch activation wizard option on the final page of the installation wizard. See To Install AECOsim Building Designer for more information on installing AECOsim Building Designer.

You can also access the Product Activation Wizard from within AECOsim Building Designer by selecting Tools > Product Activation Wizard in the License Management Tool dialog (File > Tools > License Management). See the License Management Tool documentation in the AECOsim Building Designer Help for more information.

The first screen of the Product Activation Wizard offers these product activation options:

  • SELECT subscriber activating against a hosted (Bentley) SELECTserver
  • SELECT subscriber with a deployed (local) SELECTserver
  • NON-SELECT or Node Locked user
  • Evaluation Only - No license information

The wizard steps you through the activation process based on the options selected.

SELECT Subscriber Activating Against a Hosted (Bentley) SELECTserver

If you are activating against a hosted (Bentley) SELECTserver, the Server Name is pre-populated but you must provide the proper Activation Key - see http://www.bentley.com/activate for more information regarding this.

  1. Select SELECT subscriber activating against a hosted (Bentley) SELECTserver and click Next.

    The Activating against a SELECTserver page opens.

  2. Enter the site activation key in the Site Activation Key field.
  3. If you are using HTTPS, turn on HTTPS (SSL).
  4. If you are using a proxy server to connect to the SELECTserver, click the Proxy button and fill in the Proxy Server information, then click OK.
  5. Click Test Connection to verify the connection to the SELECTserver.
  6. Click Next.
  7. On the Single Sign-In page, do one of the following:
    • Sign in now

      If you already have an account, select Sign-in now and click Next. When the CONNECTION Client opens, enter your Bentley Cloud Services credentials and click Sign In. You can then return to the Product Activation Wizard.

    • Sign in later

      If you are not ready to sign in yet, select Sign-in later and click Next.

    • Sign up

      If you need to register (create) an account, click the Sign-up link. After creating your account, return to the Product Activation Wizard, select Sign-in now and click Next. When the CONNECTION Client opens, enter your single sign-in credentials and click Sign In. You can then return to the Product Activation Wizard.

  8. On the Country of Use page, select the country where you will be using this product and click Next.

    The Wizard Selections page displays the information provided on the previous pages.

  9. Review the information and click Finish to activate the product.

SELECT Subscriber with a Deployed (local) SELECTserver

If you are activating against a local SELECTserver, you must provide the proper Server Name and Activation Key. The Server Name and Activation Key, along with any proxy configuration information, can be obtained from your Site Administrator.

  1. Select SELECT subscribers with a deployed (local) SELECTserver and click Next.

    The Activating against a SELECTserver page opens.

  2. Enter the name of the server in the Server Name field.
  3. Enter the site activation key in the Site Activation Key field.
  4. If you are using HTTPS, turn on HTTPS (SSL).
  5. If you are using a proxy server to connect to the SELECTserver, click the Proxy button and fill in the Proxy Server information, then click OK.
  6. Click Test Connection to verify the connection to the SELECTserver.
  7. Click Next.
  8. On the Single Sign-In page, do one of the following:
    • Sign in now

      If you already have an account, select Sign-in now and click Next. When the CONNECTION Client opens, enter your Bentley Cloud Services credentials and click Sign In. You can then return to the Product Activation Wizard.

    • Sign in later

      If you are not ready to sign in yet, select Sign-in later and click Next.

    • Sign up

      If you need to register (create) an account, click the Sign-up link. After creating your account, return to the Product Activation Wizard, select Sign-in now and click Next. When the CONNECTION Client opens, enter your single sign-in credentials and click Sign In. You can then return to the Product Activation Wizard.

  9. On the Country of Use page, select the country where you will be using this product and click Next.

    The Wizard Selections page displays the information provided on the previous pages.

  10. Review the information and click Finish to activate the product.

NON-SELECT or Node Locked User

If you are not a Bentley SELECT subscriber and you are activating your product, you are presented with three options:

I have a license file ready to import

  1. Enter the path to your license file (or Browse to the location of your license file) in the License File field.
  2. Click Next.

    The Wizard Selections page displays the information provided on the previous pages.

  3. Review the information and click Finish to activate the product.

I have an activation key

  1. Enter the site activation key in the Site Activation Key field.
  2. If you are using HTTPS, turn on HTTPS (SSL).
  3. If you are using a proxy server to connect to the SELECTserver, click the Proxy button and fill in the Proxy Server information, then click OK.
  4. Click Test Connection to verify the connection to the SELECTserver.
  5. Click Next.

    The Check out license now? page displays.

  6. Enter your email address in the Email Address field.
  7. Select the product to be activated (if not pre-populated) in the Product Name field.
  8. Enter the product version number (XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX, if not pre-populated) in the Product Version field.
  9. Click Next.
  10. On the Country of Use page, select the country where you will be using this product and click Next.

    The Wizard Selections page displays the information provided on the previous pages.

  11. Review the information and click Finish to activate the product.

I do not have any license information

  1. The product will run in evaluation mode.
  2. Click Go To Bentley.com to request activation information.

Evaluation Only - No License Information

  1. The product will run in evaluation mode.
  2. Click Go To Bentley.com to request activation information.

Remote Activation

You can use either the Active Directory Group Policy Objects or the LicenseTool command line utility (LicenseToolCmd.exe) to remotely configure the license of your product.

For information on using the Active Directory Group Policy Objects, refer to the Group Policy Administration (ADM) files page on Bentley Communities.

The LicenseTool command line utility (LicenseToolCmd.exe) is delivered in AECOsim Building Designer's program directory. Following section describes the arguments that can be supplied to the utility.

Note: All of the following commands can also be supplied to the License Tool GUI application (LicenseTool.exe), when starting it from a command shell. However, since the license tool does not have stderr or stdout, the results of the following commands will not appear on the screen. In addition, when calling these commands from LicenseTool.exe (the GUI), all arguments must be preceeded by the "-nowin" argument.

Checkout

Arguments to checkout a product are:
  • product:id - (Mandatory) Numeric id of the product to checkout.
  • productversion:versionnumber - (Mandatory) Product version number
  • productfeatures:"featurestring" - (Mandatory, if there are features associated with the product) Features of the product.
    Note: As feature strings contain the pipe "|" symbol, they must be wrapped in quotes in order to work with the product.
  • checkoutperiod:days - (Optional) Number of days for which this product will be checked out.
  • email:noname@bentley.com - (Optional) The email address of the user performing the checkout.
For example, 
licensetoolcmd checkout /productid:1000 /productversion:10.00.00.25/email:username@company.com

Checkin

Arguments to checking a product are:
  • productid:id -Numeric id of the product to check in. (mandatory)
  • productversion:versionnumber - (Mandatory) Product version number
  • productfeatures:"featurestring" - (Mandatory, if there are features associated with the product) Features of the product.
    Note: As feature strings contain the pipe "|" symbol, they must be wrapped in quotes in order to work with the product.
For example, 
licensetoolcmd checkin /productid:1000 /productversion:10.00.00.25

Import

Argument to import a checked out license is:
  • file:file name - (Mandatory) License file to import.
For example, 
licensetoolcmd import /file:c:\mymachine-MicroStation-License.xml

List

Lists either the products available for checkout or what products are currently checked out on the machine. The default is to produce both lists.
  • avail - (Optional) Display only the list of products available for checkout.
  • out - (Optional) Display only the list of products currently checked out.
For example, 
licensetoolcmd list -avail

Status

Lists the current configuration of the license client on the machine running the command. There are no arguments for this command. For example, 
licensetoolcmd status

Configure

Configure a license client option. Takes a license client setting and a value for that setting.
  • setting:setting_name - (Mandatory) The name of the setting to be saved.
  • value:setting_value - (Mandatory) The setting value.
  • productid:id - (Optional) The product id associated with this setting .
Following settings are available:
  • SELECTserver - The name of the SELECTserver.
  • ActivationKey - The Activation Key to be used.
  • UseProxy - Determines whether or not the configured proxy should be used. The possible values are: "Yes", "No".
  • ProxyServer - Name of Proxy Server.
  • ProxyNeedsAuth - Determines if the configured proxy server requires authentication. The possible values are: "Yes", "No"
  • ProxyDomain - Domain name to use for proxy authentication.
  • ProxyUser - User name to use for proxy authentication.
  • ProxyPassword - Password to use for proxy authentication.
For example, 
licensetoolcmd configure /setting:selectserver /value:selectserver.bentley.com