Multiple licenses

[BenLoosli]

We have just purchased 3 Advanced Design bundle and a single Advanced Design Plus bundle subscriptions. Since these sit in the same license file, along with some MathCad licenses, how do I setup the system so I can either choose which license the user gets and/or restrict the Plus license to a single user?

I think the restricting a license is in the opt.txt file, so that I should be able to get from the FlexNet guide.

I have a separate batch file in the <loadpoint>/bin folder for my 2 systems. I have one set of licenses on Server A and these subscriptions on Server B. I created a serverb.bat file and a server.psf file for the subscriptions. I put both the licenses on the same line: ENV=CREOPMA_FEATURE_NAME=PROE_DesignAdv PROE_DesignAdvP.

When I launch Creo, it only loaded the Advanced Design and gave me no option to select the Plus license.

What do I need to do to get a choice of license?

[KenFarley]

I have a few licenses that I want to use when I need them. For example I might just want Creo, or I might want Creo with Manufacturing. I get a choice of them when I start up. I look in the bin directory

C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 4.0\M060\Parametric\bin

And I see there is a separate set of .psf and .bat files for each of my selections.

I created them from within the setup program.

[LukaszMazur · Accepted solution]

You need separate .psf files for every license you want to use, e.g. one .psf file for PROE_DesignAdv and second one for PROE_DesignAdvP. If you put all licenses in a .psf file, as you did, Creo will start using first available license it will find, so PROE_DesignAdvP license will be used only when all PROE_DesignAdv licenses have been taken by other users.

If you create separate .psf files and run parametric.exe, you'll get a startup window with all the license configurations defined by .psf files. Positions in this window are listed using DESC line from .psf file, so make sure to change it from default text to something more descriptive.

You can also prepare separate .bat files calling different .psf files and then you won't get a startup window for choosing the license, but will simply run Creo with license from the psf file defined in .bat file.

That way you give the users ability to choose, which license they will use. You can also define users groups in FlexServer (using opt files, IIRC) and predefine which user can use which license, e.g.only user A and B can use PROE_DesignAdv and only user C can use PROE_DesignAdvP, that way users can have all licenses defined in single .psf file, but Flexnet will serve a user proper license. This way is less flexible, as the users are predefined and user C won't be able to run PROE_DesignAdv license unless he changes his username.

[MartinHanak]

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@LukaszMazur wrote:

If you create separate .psf files and run parametric.exe, you'll get a startup window with all the license configurations defined by .psf files. Positions in this window are listed using DESC line from .psf file, so make sure to change it from default text to something more descriptive.

I think list of lauch commands is sorted by psf filename not by DESC field.

[LukaszMazur]

Yeah, you're right. I meant to change DESC line to something meaningful, so the user would not be presented with three "Creo Parametric (default)" options 😉
But the order in which entries are listed is indeed depended on actual *.psf files' names.

[BenLoosli]

I have to run the *.psf files from a batch file since I also run my own batch file to set up environment variables that are used for Creo.

My batch file calls my setup.bat file then the execute line for parametric.exe with the parametric.psf.

I use multiple *.psf and bat files now since I have Creo licenses coming from 2 different servers.

I suppose I can add a third set for the Plus bundle.

[Bradley_Smith]

I created a second *.psf file called parametricadvpg.psf by saving a copy of the original parametric.psf file, I changed the DESC value to "Creo Parametric Advanced Plus" so that the users could distinguish them from each other, and I reordered the hierarchy of which license would get loaded by changing the line "ENV=CREOPMA_FEATURE_NAME=PROE_DesignAdvG PROE_DesignAdvPG PROE_DesignEss ()" to "ENV=CREOPMA_FEATURE_NAME=PROE_DesignAdvPG PROE_DesignAdvG PROE_DesignEss ()". Both *.psf files are stored in the bin folder, however, when I launch Creo I'm not getting any startup window with license options. Am I missing something?

[LukaszMazur]

What are you using to launch Creo? The startup window will show up only when launching Creo using parametric.exe. If you start Creo using parametric.bat, for example, it already contains parametric.psf as an argument for parametric.exe, so it will use that .psf file and ignore all the other .psf files in the folder.

[Bradley_Smith]

I ran it using the automatically created desktop shortcut which has a target value of  "C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 7.0.9.0\Parametric\bin\parametric.exe".

[LukaszMazur]

Well, then it should work. One more thing: have you created a copy of .psf using Notepad? Are you sure you have the file named parametricadvpg.psf and not parametricadvpg.psf.txt? I'd double-check if extensions are correct (the best way would be to turn on extensions display in File Explorer to see if you don't have any “double” extensions).

[Bradley_Smith]

Yeah I verified that it is a psf file even though I did create it using notepad. I even tried ANSI and UTF-8 encoding to see if it would make a difference and it did not. I also temporarily deleted the config.sup file (I already deleted the config.pro) to make sure there is no config setting that would block something like this.

[LukaszMazur]

That's completely weird. Config files shouldn't matter, they play a role a bit later. I think I'd start elimination with .psf files: remove all the .psf files from the bin folder and try running parametric.exe. Usually you should get a message that no configuration exists. Then I would copy the new .psf file and see if Creo detects is correctly and starts. And in the end, I would put back the original .psf file and observe how Creo behaves during the startup.

Other than that, it's hard to advise without seeing what's happening.

[Bradley_Smith]

Your recommendation for removing both files and using trial and error was the way to go. I had originally modified the top line in the new psf file from "// PTC - PSF file: parametric" to "// PTC - PSF file: parametricadvpg". I thought that the forward slashes meant that it was commenting out that line but apparently that isn't the case. When I changed that line back to the value that was in the original parametric.psf it started working. The startup window popped up and I was able to choose which license configuration that I wanted. Thanks for your help!

[LukaszMazur]

That definitely interesting. I've never thought about modifying that part of the file, but my initial thought would the same as yours, that it's just a comment. You always learn something new 🙂

Also, if anything else would failed, I would just run reconfigure and create a new psf file using PTC configurator. That would also work, but it's usually longer route, that's why start with .psf files directly.