RAM | STAAD | OpenTower Wiki Enable or Disable RAM Connection for RAM Elements

Enable or Disable RAM Connection for RAM Elements


	Applies To

	Product(s):	RAM Elements; Ram Connection
	Version(s):	All
	Area:	Licensing - Technical
	Subarea:	Ram Connection

Problem Description

When earlier versions of RAM Elements were opened, a RAM Connection license was also used. This behavior may not be desirable for the following reasons:

An engineer is not modeling connections within RAM Elements, causing unnecessary license usage.
Another engineer using RAM Connection Standalone requires access to the program at the same time.

Background

By default, RAM Elements release 13.00.03.45 and earlier enables connection integration features within the program if the RAM Connection for RAM Elements component is installed. Starting with Ram Elements 13.02.00.99, which uses trust licensing, we changed the default behavior so that users have to opt-in to utilizing Ram Connection. Once a RAM Connection license is available, the program will retrieve a license automatically and add ribbon menu buttons for Connections, Bolts, and Welds to the Databases ribbon. When no license is availble these tools are hidden.

If the integration features are not needed, this behavior can be disabled.

Steps to Disable Ram Connection within Ram Elements

Option 1: Disable RAM Connection integration within RAM Elements.

If an engineer only occasionally models connection data within RAM Elements V8i or CONNECT Edition, the integration can be disabled from within RAM Elements itself and turned on only when needed.

Ram Elements V8i instructions

Open the "e menu" in the upper left.
Click the General Configuration button in the lower right corner.
In the window that appears, click the Licenses tab.
Then clear the checkbox labeled "Check RAM Connection license" (or "Use a license in each session").
Click OK to save changes.

RAM Elements will disable the RAM Connection integration features and will no longer automatically retrieve a license or log usage for RAM Connection.

Ram Elements should then be restarted.

RAM Elements CONNECT Edition instructions

Open the File Menu
Choose Settings
Choose License Configuration

4. Uncheck the option for Ram Connection to "Use a license in each session"

Option 2: Remove the RAM Connection for RAM Elements component.

For RAM Connection 8.0 only, the integration component, which is called RAM Connection for RAM Elements, is installed separately. If an engineer will never model connections within RAM Elements, uninstall the RAM Connection for RAM Elements component from the Add or Remove Programs (Windows XP) or Programs and Features (Windows Vista/7/8) control panel. RAM Elements will then retrieve a license only for itself regardless of the license setting in the Configuration dialog. Users of RAM Connection 7.3 and earlier should use Option 1 to disable integration.

Steps to Enable Ram Connection within Ram Elements

If you want to use Ram Connection features temporarily, click the Start... button in the License Configuration - Ram Connection area.

If you always want the Ram Connection features to be available in Ram Elements then check the box to "Use a Ram Connection license in each session".

In some cases Ram Elements users must still click Start during each session to enable the Ram Connection features. This was be fixed with Ram Connection 10 and later.