This is the first of two articles that explain some significant changes that have taken place in the SELECTseries 5 release of STAAD.Pro.
In previous versions of STAAD.Pro V8i, in order to use the program, a designer would be forced to have a live network connection so that they could access their SELECT server and the server had to have licenses available to check out. When STAAD.Pro is started, this network connection is used to forcibly check out licenses requested by the designer and indicated on the Start Screen. If the server was not available, or the license pool was empty, then STAAD.Pro would refuse to run potentially leading to downtime until the issues were resolved.
With the SS5 release, STAAD.Pro has changed this restricted service and implemented the Bentley trust licensing schema (as implemented in other Bentley products such as MicroStation and ProjectWise) which gives greater flexibility.
The requirement now is that the SELECT license for STAAD.Pro and any other associated product (such as the Advanced Analysis or design code packs) is activated on the computer and usage logs are periodically posted to the SELECT server.
In SS5, you should see that the Start screen now only has a few design code pack options. This does not mean that STAAD.Pro has any less capabilities, it is simply more intelligent. Rather than forcibly checking out a collection of design codes that may be used during a session, the actual design code usage is determined by the analysis engine and only logged during an analysis or design run.
The usage logs are recorded and reported to the SELECT server automatically, there is no manual intervention needed once the products have been activated.
STAAD.Pro will allow use of any design code product for 14 days in trial mode by which time it must be activated.
If you find that any module stops running there are two possible causes:-
The product has not been activated and usage has extended beyond the trial period. Resolve this by running the License Management and Activation Wizard
The license logs have not been posted to the SELECT server within 30 days. Resolve this by connecting the computer to the network so that it is able to post logs to the SELECT server. This can be expedited by running the License Management tool and selecting the option ‘Send Logs now’ from the Tools menu.
The second article in this series will outline the second significant change which has occurred in licensing in STAAD.Pro V8i SS5, which is the implementation of Super Codes for European design. http://communities.bentley.com/products/structural/structural_analysis___design/b/analysis_and_design_blog/archive/2014/04/10/changes-to-licensing-in-staad-pro-v8i-ss5-part-2-european-super-codes