With the introduction of PLAXIS 2D/3D CONNECT Edition V21, we have made some changes to the licensing system to offer more streamlined access to our newest, most advanced capabilities. The licensing options of the previous V20 release with PLAXIS 2D Basic, PLAXIS 3D Basic, Dynamics, PlaxFlow, and Thermal modules will be deprecated and will stop existing. For PLAXIS V21 and onwards, there are now only three license tiers per product line, which will offer more advanced geotechnical capabilities and analysis options per tier. The new license tiers are briefly explained in the section below.
PLAXIS 2D and PLAXIS 3D are new license types only available through new licenses sold from February 1st, 2021 onwards. This license type offers all the essential functionality to perform everyday geotechnical analysis in soil and rock which does not require the consideration of consolidation analysis, groundwater or thermal flow, creep, or other time-dependent effects.
PLAXIS 2D and 3D Advanced offer all the essential capabilities from the new PLAXIS 2D and 3D tier extending it with geotechnical capabilities to deal with steady-state groundwater flow, consolidation analysis, creep, pseudo-static analysis, and degradation of soil due to cyclic loading. Only for PLAXIS 2D, it includes steady-state thermal flow as well.
This license type's capabilities are roughly similar to the PLAXIS 2D / PLAXIS 3D Basic CONNECT Edition V20 license without any of the modules.
PLAXIS 2D and 3D Ultimate offer everything from PLAXIS 2D and 3D Advanced along with functionality dealing with the most challenging geotechnical projects. It includes features to analyze the effects of vibrations in the soil, like earthquake and traffic loads, or time-dependent variation to water levels, model & soil boundaries to simulate complex hydrological conditions. For PLAXIS 2D Ultimate, functionality is available to analyze the effects of time-dependent heat flow on both the hydraulic and the mechanical behavior of soils and structures.
This license type's capabilities are exactly the same as the PLAXIS 2D or 3D CONNECT Edition V20 Suite including all modules.
PLAXIS 2D Worksuite is now available and provides you with the full complement of 2D geotechnical analysis products: PLAXIS 2D Ultimate and PLAXIS 2D LE.
PLAXIS 3D WorkSuite is now available and provides you with the full complement of 3D geotechnical analysis products: PLAXIS 3D Ultimate, PLAXIS 3D LE, and PLAXIS Designer.
The linked page will give you an overview and a video guide to help you through the process regarding the new PLAXIS V21 licensing changes tailored to the needs of every geotechnical engineer.
PLAXIS CONNECT Edition V21 upgrade information [Video Guide]
For pre-existing users, our licensing team has worked hard to configure the access to the new license types based on the licenses your company owns for PLAXIS 2D/3D V20. When installing Version V21 and launching it for the first time, you must select the proper entitlement to prevent QTL (Quarterly Term Licenses which always come with an additional fee).
If you are a pre-existing PLAXIS V20 user, when switching to the new licensing system in PLAXIS V21, you will need to select only between either PLAXIS 2D/3D Advanced and PLAXIS 2D/3D Ultimate. For a complete overview of the new licenses your organization has access to, you are advised to contact your Bentley Contract Renewal representative.
Important notice: when starting with these new PLAXIS Tiers, the license alert threshold is not automatically set for these products.
We strongly recommend to inspect and set this threshold with a license alert message. See here for
The examples below are guidelines for selecting the proper license type in PLAXIS 2D/3D CONNECT Edition V21.
A PLAXIS 2D Basic CONNECT Edition V20 with 1 module license entitles you to use one (1) PLAXIS 2D Ultimate license. Note that as part of the transition to PLAXIS 2D Ultimate, you will gain access to all dynamics, groundwater flow, and thermal flow functionality that were previously part of the separate 2D Dynamics, 2D PlaxFlow, and 2D Thermal modules respectively. Please ensure that in this case, you start the software using the PLAXIS 2D Ultimate license type.
A PLAXIS 3D CONNECT Edition V20 Suite entitles you to use one (1) PLAXIS 3D Ultimate license. Please ensure that in this case, you start the software using the PLAXIS 3D Ultimate license type.
A legacy PLAXIS 2D Basic and PLAXIS 3D Basic CONNECT Edition V20 license without add-on modules entitles you to use one (1) PLAXIS 2D Advanced and one (1) PLAXIS 3D Advanced license. Please ensure that in this case, you start the software using the Advanced license type.
| Previous license with PLAXIS CE V20 | New license in PLAXIS CE V21 |
|---|---|
| PLAXIS 2D Basic without additional modules | PLAXIS 2D Advanced |
| PLAXIS 2D Basic with PlaxFlow | PLAXIS 2D Ultimate |
| PLAXIS 2D Basic with Dynamics | PLAXIS 2D Ultimate |
| PLAXIS 2D Basic with Thermal | PLAXIS 2D Ultimate |
| PLAXIS 2D Basic with PlaxFlow and Dynamics | PLAXIS 2D Ultimate |
| PLAXIS 2D Suite (Dynamics+PlaxFlow+Thermal) | PLAXIS 2D Ultimate |
| PLAXIS 3D Basic without additional modules | PLAXIS 3D Advanced |
| PLAXIS 3D Basic with PlaxFlow | PLAXIS 3D Ultimate |
| PLAXIS 3D Basic with Dynamics | PLAXIS 3D Ultimate |
| PLAXIS 3D Basic with PlaxFlow and Dynamics | PLAXIS 3D Ultimate |
| PLAXIS 3D Suite (Dynamics+PlaxFlow) | PLAXIS 3D Ultimate |
With the release of PLAXIS CONNECT Edition V21 and the new license tiers, the Geotechnical SELECT Entitlements have been revised as well. The majority of the geotechnical capabilities and modeling tools previously part of Geotechnical SELECT have been made available in all three license tiers without the need of Geotechnical SELECT. A minor part is only available in either Advanced or Ultimate.
In PLAXIS CE V21 and onwards, functionality part of Geotechnical SELECT is mainly focused on interoperability with other Bentley Systems software (CAD or ISM import), scripting and satellite tools based on scripting (for example Sensitivity Analysis). For a full overview of all the Geotechnical SELECT Entitlement from V21 onwards, please visit Geotechnical SELECT Entitlements [GSE].
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