While hardware locks were previously the means of licensing MStower, this is no longer the case. MStower is now licensed through Bentley CONNECT SELECTservices (BCSS). The fundamental concept in gaining access to software licensed through BCSS is product activation. Activation of a product is required regardless of the type of agreement a customer has with Bentley, the products owned, and the permissions set by a systems administrator. This section describes how to activate MStower and the associated design codes on a computer.
Activating MStower and Design Codes
To configure and activate an MStower license, use the File -> License Configuration command. Note that this dialog will appear automatically after the first launch of MStower following installation.
Select the desired design codes in the Enable Design Codes section. Selecting Apply at the bottom of the dialog will enable only the codes that have been selected. Note that at this point the product is not activated, but the design codes chosen will be communicated to SELECT server once activation takes place.
To activate the product, select Product Activation Wizard at the bottom of the dialog. The ensuing screen will list four activation options. To determine which option is appropriate, consult the systems administrator at your organization or contact Bentley technical support. Generally speaking, users new to Bentley will, in most cases, be activating against a hosted SELECTserver.
Detailed instructions for completing the product activation, dependent on which activation method is utilized, are available at the following links:
Activating against a hosted (Bentley) SELECTserver:
https://communities.bentley.com/products/licensing/w/licensing__wiki/4987.aspx
Activating against a deployed (local) SELECTserver:
https://communities.bentley.com/products/licensing/w/licensing__wiki/5277.aspx
Activating as a NON-SELECT or Node Locked User:
https://communities.bentley.com/products/licensing/w/licensing__wiki/5278.aspx
As with past versions of MStower, the features that have been activated and are available to the user can be reviewed in the Help -> About dialog, as shown below.
What is the License Management Tool?
Just below the Product Activation Wizard button in the MStower Licensing Configuration dialog is a button called License Management Tool. This tool allows users to revise and manage licensing settings for all Bentley products. This includes the checking out of a license. Information on this feature is available in the following article:
http://communities.bentley.com/products/licensing/w/licensing__wiki/license-management-tool.aspx
If we are allowed to activate and use any number of licenses, how does this relate to the number of licenses we own?
Although a given organization may own a set number of licenses of a specific Bentley product, authorized users may activate and use as many licenses as needed, with no cap enforced on usage. For detailed information on Bentley’s licensing policies and benefits, see the following link: