About License Control

Through the Named User Licensing Control model, licenses cannot be shared by several physical users. Licenses are tied to specific users. See the Terms and Conditions for more details.

The platform Administrator uses special-purpose 3DSpace server-side administration tools, the Platform Management dashboard, or the Experience Configuration > Manage P&O and Content command, to assign both native app (CATIA, ENOVIA, DELMIA, SIMULIA) and web app and licenses to persons in the database.

Licenses are reserved and consumed at first logon and remain consumed by users after logout. Consequently, end users are not free to select and acquire licenses themselves: native app licensing settings do not contain licenses to request.

This is the typical licensing component architecture in a company (in this example, the company does not work with external suppliers, and in this basic setup a common DS License Server server is used for all apps):

Named user control is enforced for the IFW role that is a prerequisite for all user apps. Each app that the user is assigned to must also be license enforced.

The apps will be controlled like the IFW role so that, when a user logs in, the apps that are assigned to the user will all be license-reserved at run time as follows:

• when a user logs in to use an app, and the corresponding license has been assigned to the user, the licenses for that app and all other apps assigned to that user are consumed immediately
• if a user logs onto a web app, all the web app licenses assigned to that user are consumed
• if a user logs onto a native app, all the web app licenses and native app licenses assigned to that user are consumed.

Licenses remain consumed after the user logs out, and continue to be consumed until the license expiry date. Special-purpose tools (integrated in the DS License Server and on the 3DSpace server-side) allow the Administrator to recycle licenses in exceptional circumstances (for example, when a user retires).

When a license is consumed by a user, it is consumed for a minimum of 30 days and cannot be reassigned to another user during that period. However, the Administrator may recycle the license immediately after the period of 30 days is over. The starting date of the 30-day period is the date a user first logs in and consumes a given license, but the starting date is NOT reset to the current date at each login. Each individual license assigned to a user over time and consumed has its own starting date: as licenses are added over time, each license is consumed at a different date so the starting date is different.

The same license is shared by any number of processes connected to a given 3DSpace server launched by a given user on a given computer. Another license is counted when using another user name. The same license is shared if the user switches to another computer, but a user cannot log on simultaneously from two different computers. Using the same remote computer simultaneously from two different computers is also not possible (typical scenario with Remote Desktop).

A user using only web apps can log on simultaneously from several computers. This may change in a future release.

Multiple license servers are not recommended, because if one license server does not respond, then another license would be taken for the same named user on another license server, therefore consuming two licenses instead of one. Therefore, you must use either one stand-alone license server or one failover cluster of three license servers. "Multiple" applies to logical license servers: either a stand-alone license server, or three license servers configured as a failover cluster, are considered as a logical license server. This constraint does not apply to shareable app licenses that are not named user licenses.

A user must have the same server logon name whatever the server instances of a given company the user connects to. If not, several licenses will be taken.

A casual license is a license allowing limited usage of a 3DEXPERIENCE platform role.

Casual licenses are not to be confused with unlimited ("full") named user licenses.

While both are types of named user licenses, casual license usage allows users to access the 3DEXPERIENCE platform (and a limited number of roles) for a maximum of 40 hours per month, whereas unlimited named licenses allow access to virtually all roles and for much longer periods of time.

The introduction of casual license usage automatically categorizes named users into two distinct user types: casual license users or unlimited license users. When users are created using the different 3DEXPERIENCE platform administration tools (for example, Platform Management, or the Experience Configuration > Manage P&O and Content command), assigning casual or unlimited licenses to a user makes that user a casual user or an unlimited user.

Casual license usage is only supported if both the license server and license client levels are at least equal to or higher than R2015x FP1524: this means that casual licenses cannot be granted to older licensing clients.

Casual license maximum usage duration is stored in the license key. The duration is typically 40 hours per calendar month. A calendar month starts at 00:00 UTC the 1st of the month, and ends at 24:00 UTC the last day of month. A casual license is granted to a user until the end of month. It cannot be shared with another user during the same month.

If a casual license is requested but there are no more casual licenses, or the existing casual licenses are not available, an unlimited license is NOT automatically and silently granted to replace the casual license. If a casual user attempts to use a casual license for longer than its maximum usage duration during the same month, the current session will be stopped and further logon will be forbidden.

Casual licenses are automatically recycled at beginning of the following month, unless they are being used by a casual user, in which case they will not be recycled. After the license has been recycled, it can be used by another user.

Using the different 3DEXPERIENCE platform administration tools, an Administrator can convert a casual user into an unlimited user at any time in the middle of the month by modifying the user's attributes. From that point onwards, the casual license assigned to the casual user remains granted to that user, but can no longer be used by that user and remains unavailable to other users until it is recycled at the end of the month. When the same user logs on, unlimited licenses will be granted in addition to the casual licenses.

An Administrator can also perform the opposite operation: convert an unlimited user into a casual user in the same way. When the same user logs on, casual licenses will be granted as a replacement for the unlimited licenses, assuming that the unlimited licenses have been successfully recycled (in compliance with the 30-day locked period).

Consequently, it is impossible to use both casual and unlimited licenses at the same time.

A column is displayed for the casual named user licenses in the Usage per Feature tab through the License Administration Tool. It shows the current casual license usage (in minutes) measured by the license server. This value is highlighted in red if the maximum allowed usage duration is exceeded. It is set to N/A for unlimited named user licenses. Casual license information is also provided in the license server log files and by using the getLicenseUsage -all command.

When licenses of a given XXX native role are present both as Named User and Concurrent User (shareable) on the available license servers, the following behavior occurs:

Case 1:

XXX is assigned to the user

Case 1.a:

An XXX Named User license is already granted to the user by a license server.

This license is used.

Case 1.b:

No XXX Named User license is already granted to the user by any license server and an XXX Concurrent User license is available.

This XXX Concurrent User license is used.

Case 1.c:

No XXX Named User license is already granted to the user by any license server and no XXX Concurrent User license is available.

An XXX Named User license is requested.

Case 2:

XXX is not assigned to the user, but is requested during the session

Case 2.a:

An XXX Named User license is already granted to the user by a license server.

This license is used.

Case 2.b:

No XXX Named User license is already granted to the user by any license server.

An XXX Concurrent User license is requested

The described behavior can be tailored by setting authorization rules on the license servers.

Managed licensing service mode provides you with the ability to run certain levels (essentially, Version 5 and 3DEXPERIENCE ) of on-premises DSLS-enabled apps. Using this mode, the specific apps that are enabled to support this mode obtain their license keys from a failover license server managed by Dassault Systèmes, and which is not installed on your premises.

For more information, see the DS License Server 3DEXPERIENCE R2022x Installation Guide, section "Using the Managed Licensing Service".