So you’re getting tired of being in the office and tethered to your network? Well that’s no problem. You can easily borrow a license of SolidWorks from the network and use it on a laptop outside of your network. Freedom. Here are the ins and outs of the borrowing licenses.
First off, you need to be connected to your network that has the SolidWorks licenses. Then you can open the SolidNetwork License Manager on the client laptop. This can be found under Start > All Programs > SolidWorks (year) > SolidWorks Tools > SolidNetwork License Manager. There should be 4 tabs at the top. Select “License Borrowing”.
License Borrowing
Available Product Licenses:
In this scenario, we have five licenses of SolidWorks Premium available. In SolidWorks 2010 and earlier, you would need to first borrow a SolidWorks Standard license before you could borrow a Premium license. Starting with SolidWorks 2011, borrowing a Professional or Premium license will automatically borrow the prerequisite Standard license.
Borrow until:
Select the last day you will need the license. Licenses are limited to a 30-day maximum borrow period. This maximum period can be shortened using an Options file. SolidWorks will be available for use through to 11:59pm on the day specified. At midnight of the following day, the license will expire on the client laptop and the license will be freed up on the server.
Borrow/Return:
Once you have selected a product and the borrow until date, click Borrow. This will show the license under the Borrowed Product Licenses window. You will see that a Standard License was automatically borrowed. Any borrowed licenses will not be available in the network pool until it is returned.
Borrow/Return Licenses
If you get back to the office before the date specified, you can manually return the license. Ensure that you are connected to the network using the same method that was used to borrow the license (ethernet cable or wireless connection). Then select the license in the Borrowed Product Licenses list and click Return. The license will be returned and become available to the network pool.