SUPERCEDED WITH CONNECT LICENSING
While hardware locks were previously the means of licensing Microstran, this is no longer the case. Microstran 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 article describes how to activate the desired tier of the Microstran product on a computer, as well as any design codes or features.
Activating Microstran and Associated Features
To configure and activate a Microstran license, go to License Configuration under the File menu within Microstran. Note that this dialog will appear automatically after the first launch of Microstran following installation.
Select the tier of Microstran to be activated on the computer: Microstran, Microstran.Pro, or Microstran.Advanced. For a list of features associated with each tier, see the technote Bentley's Tiered Offering of Microstran. The design codes and integrated steel connection design feature can then additionally be selected as desired, but the three check-out only codes (AS4100, NSZ 3404, and AS/NSZ 4600:05) cannot be activated. Selecting Apply at the bottom of the dialog will enable only the features that have been selected. Note that at this point the product is not activated, but the desired tier and additional features 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://bentleysystems.service-now.com/community?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0019263
Activating against a deployed (local) SELECTserver:
https://bentleysystems.service-now.com/community?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0019772
Activating as a NON-SELECT or Node Locked User:
https://bentleysystems.service-now.com/community?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0019082
As with past versions of Microstran, 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 Microstran 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.
The only exceptions to the above are the design codes listed under the category: check-out-only licenses. For these design codes, users may only check out up to the number of licenses the organization owns. Attempts to check-out more licenses than owned will be prevented by the License Management Tool. Licenses are freed by issuing the Check In command.
Enabling the option “Check in All on Closing Microstran”, will ensure the above mentioned Checked Out only licenses are checked back in upon closing Microstran.
For detailed information on Bentley’s licensing policies and benefits, see the following link:
https://bentleysystems.service-now.com/community?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0020020