Bentley Structural products, which include RAM, STAAD, and AutoPIPE products, require a license to operate. This document explains how to configure your products to obtain licenses using Bentley's SELECTserver licensing system.
The first step is to configure the licensing software with your license account information. This information is shared by all Bentley Structural products. Select "search" from the Windows Start menu, type in LicenseTool.exe or search LicenseTool.exe" from Windows Explorer.
If you are running a 64-bit version of Windows, the program will be stored in Program Files (x86), not Program Files.
A License Management Tool will appear with the Activation Status tab selected.
Click the License Checkout tab. If your license account information has never been entered, an error message will indicate that the license server could not be reached. In this case, dismiss the error, and select "Product Activation Wizard" from the Tools menu.
This wizard will assist you in entering your license account information. Locate the fulfillment documents that were sent to you upon purchasing your Bentley Structural products. Locate the server name for your account. If it is selectserver.bentley.com then your license account resides on Bentley's "hosted" SELECTserver. This option, which is the most common, is already selected on the opening screen of the Product Activation Wizard. If a different server name or a message to contact your system administrator is listed there, then your license account resides on a "deployed" SELECTserver managed by your company. Choose the second option. Click the Next button to continue.
Locate the site activation key in your fulfillment documents and enter it in the Site Activation Key field. If you had chosen the hosted option on the previous screen, the server name will automatically be entered for you.
If you had chosen the deployed option, enter the server name given in your fulfillment documents or consult with your system administrator to obtain it. Once your license account information has been entered, verify it by clicking the Test Connection button. You should receive a message that the server and activation key have been verified. If verification fails, check that your site activation key was entered properly. Click the Next button to continue.
Select your country on the following screen. Start typing the name in the text field to quickly locate the appropriate listing in the drop-down menu. Then select the country, and click the Next button to continue.
The next screen, which appears for hosted users only, provides a way for locking or "checking out" licenses to one machine. This feature is generally not utilized by users with a SELECT agreement because checked out licenses cannot be shared among machines. If you intend to lock some or all of your licenses to one machine, please refer to Using Bentley Structural Products Offline. Click the Next button to continue.
The following screen will give a summary of your license account information. Click the Finish button to continue.
Click the Close button to exit the Product Activation Wizard.
Back in the License Management Tool, Click the License Checkout tab (if it is not already selected), and select Refresh from the View menu. The License Management Tool should now display your licenses in the top pane.
The license settings on your workstation are now configured. Close the License Management Tool.
The Bentley Trust Licensing schema was introduced in the V8i SS5 release of STAAD.Pro. STAAD.Pro and key add on capabilities such as Advanced Analysis Plus, STAAD.Beava and Building Planner should be activated by clicking on icons on the License Configuration of the Start Page when STAAD.Pro is launched. If these options have not previously been activated, the activation wizard will be launched and allow the options to be set if available in the SELECT server site.
Design code usage is logged and does not require pre-selection as was required in earlier versions described below. However, if a design code is used that requires a license that has not previously been activated on the local machine, then this will display the activation wizard for authentication.
To view the licenses that are available and their current status, click on the License Management icon in the Project Tasks section of the Start Page.
Open STAAD.Pro. On the opening screen, locate the License Configuration section in the lower right corner. Mark any checkboxes next to any design codes or other optional components you have licenses for. A green light will appear next to any checked item for which you have licenses.
If a red light appears that means that you either do not have a license for that design code or this license is checked out on another machine. To see where this license is checked out, see the instructions in this link:
Viewing And Checking In Licenses Using The Site Administration Page [TN]
In some cases setting a prior version of STAAD.pro to use the USL (Universal Structural License) can lead to problems even with the latest version, for more on that topic, see the link below:
FAQ ON STAAD LICENSE - USL versus STANDARD
Product TechNotes and FAQs
Structural Product TechNotes And FAQs