Multiple licenses, one machine?

[DavidWatson]

Hi All,

I'm wondering if anyone knows under what circumstances Mathcad would require multiple licenses for a single machine. The reason I ask is that we have users accessing Mathcad files via our electronic document control software and it appears that for every Mathcad file they open, they require another licence. For example, with 4 documents open, 4 licence files are needed. I am under the impression that opening multiple documents in Mathcad should not require multiple licenses.

I would welcome any comments,

Cheers,

Dave

[IRstuff]

It shouldn't. However, if your document server is somehow forcing a new instance of Mathcad itself for every file opened, then you'd have 4 instances of Mathcad open, which would require 4 licenses. If your users check out the file first, copy to their local hard drive, and open them from within Mathcad, I would expect no problems.

TTFN

[DavidWatson]

Eden Mei wrote:

...if your document server is somehow forcing a new instance of Mathcad itself for every file opened, then you'd have 4 instances of Mathcad open, which would require 4 licenses.

Thanks, Eden. I agree with you. It is likely something in the document server that is prompting a new instance of Mathcad. I only wish that I knew what the mechanism was that triggers this rather than allowing the document open in an existing instance.

There are the work-arounds of either opening one document at a time or checking out the document locally. The first option is obviously very inconvenient. The second option most likely goes against the QA procedure the company is trying to enforce. Still, it's the best option so far. Thanks.

Kind regards,

Dave

[Ninetrees]

How about drag and drop? That way the current invocation of Mathad would get the document, and there would be no local copies. Also, I am wondering whether the issue is related to the local machines and not to the server; i.e., which device decides how to invoke Mathcad? In Windows, the File Types dialog seems to have something to do with how program invocations are handled. See the "Use DDE" checkbox at your own risk. On my system, clicking a file opens in the last instance of Mathcad; I can have several open, at a cost of 63MB of RAM each, it seems. I don't get license questions. I occasionally use this method of opening several instances of Mathcad, rather than opening several docs in the same instance, because in Windows the Alt-Tab feature remembers the last referenced window, and Mathcad's Ctrl-Tab does not. So in Mathad I must Ctrl-Tab around the whole list just to get to the last doc that I viewed, whereas using Alt-Tab, I don't.

[RichardJ]

i.e., which device decides how to invoke Mathcad?

Whatever is "sending" the document to Mathcad decides. If you click on a file in windows Explorer, that is Windows. It looks for a running instance of the application, and if it finds one it sends the file there. If it doesn't find one it launches a new instance. It sounds like the document server always launches a new instance.

[DavidWatson]

Richard Jackson wrote:

i.e., which device decides how to invoke Mathcad?

Whatever is "sending" the document to Mathcad decides. If you click on a file in windows Explorer, that is Windows. It looks for a running instance of the application, and if it finds one it sends the file there. If it doesn't find one it launches a new instance. It sounds like the document server always launches a new instance.

Thanks, Richard. To my mind, this seems to be at the root of the problem. I'm guessing that the system works fine for applications such as Word and Excel where the licence is tied to the machine. Node locking a Mathcad licence would achieve the same end but I suspect our floating licences would be eaten up in no time. I wonder if our document server can be altered to ask Windows to open the file,thus involking the standard Explorer approach. I'll ask the question.

Cheers,

Dave

[RichardJ]

I wonder if our document server can be altered to ask Windows to open the file,thus involking the standard Explorer approach. I'll ask the question.

Maybe there's a user setting for this. Even if there isn't, it's a minor chnage to the code. It's currently creating a new Mathcad object for every file. The code needs to be changed so that it first checks to see if such an object already exists, and if it does it uses it.

[IRstuff]

It also depends on what type of license you have a. A node-locked license can have as many instances of Mathcad as you desire on the machine that owns the license. Floating licenses are different, and require querying the license server for each instance of the program.

Drag and drop only works with servers that implement drag and drop code. Most servers, including PTC's does not support drag and drop.

TTFN