Setting Up License Manager in 7 Easy Steps

I still remember the first time I was faced with a task of setting up License Manager. At first, I was little…worried, then I read some documentation and then I became little confused…finally I was little disappointed that it only took few minutes to do it and in my surprise it worked well from the first try. It was that easy!

Setting up a License Manager is fairly easy task and in many cases it’s one time deal. I trust that most of you CAD managers have done this many times and probably in slightly different way. For all of you that forgot how to do it and/or never were sure how to do it…this could be a quick refresher. Assuming that you have the License manager installed you can start with step 1. If not you may install Autodesk License Manager (ADLM) from your DVD (LMTOOLS).

1. Create License file from Notepad with .lic extension (<licensename>.lic). In this file you can paste a license you received from Autodesk. Make sure you use Notepad and not MS Word since Word adds some extra characters and can cause some problems to the license file.

2. Place <licensename>.lic at C:\Program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager\License folder. While in this directory create another Notepad file file with .log extension and place it there. This will be your log file. (i.e. logfile.log)

3. Run LMTOOLS program from your License Server machine by Start>Programs>Autodesk>Network License Manager>LMTOOLS or by clicking on LMTOOLS icon on your desktop.

4. In Config Service tab type the name of the service you are creating (i.e. 2010 Products). This is a tab where all configuration is done. Set it as follows:

a. Path to lmgrd.exe file: C:\Program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager\ and select lmgrd.exe file

b. Path to the License file: C:\Program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager\License <licensename>.lic

c. Path to the debug log file: C:\Program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager\ logfile.log 

d. Select “Start Server at Power Up” and “Use Services”. Use Services will use the service you created (2010 Products) and “Start Server at Power UP” will automatically start server. Easy so far?

5. In Service/License File tab select “Configuration using Services” and check LMTOOLS ignores file path environment variable.

As a side note: Environmental Variable ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE takes precedence over licpath.lic variable or any other registry setting and is used mostly in distributed server model.  See TS1065268 and TS71384 for more information. So, if environmental variable will not be used you should have this toggle checked.

 

6. In Start/Stop/Reread make sure you see 2010 Products and click stop Server, wait for 20 seconds and click on Start Server. This will restart license server and License manager will read new license.

7. Launch Civil 3D 2010 and confirm that license is in use by going on LMTOOLS Server Status tab and clicking on Perform Status Enquiry, make sure PLIST is showing issued licenses.

That was really it!