In these challenging times when COVID-19 is imposing significant disruptions to day-to-day activities and affecting normal business flow of our much-valued users and employees, we at Bentley are mindfully committed to ensuring a smooth transition of work from the office to a remote location or home. Our innovative software and services are all geared for working from home or remote locations and do not impose the need to be in an office set-up.

To ensure a smooth transition of work and effectiveness of your daily workflows with PLAXIS, we have assembled information that you can refer to while working remotely or from home. We are working hard to deliver high levels of customer service, and welcome feedback, questions, and ideas on how we can serve you better in a remote work environment.

In general, Bentley software offers a flexible online licencing system: CONNECT License via the CONNECTION Client. However, this is not applicable to these older PLAXIS versions: the PLAXIS Legacy versions are licensed via a hardware dongle key: the CodeMeter key, making it hardware locked software (PLAXIS HWL). The latest PLAXIS versions are already under the new online and flexible licence system.
If you are interested to switch to the dongle-less version for more flexibility and online licence verification, please contact the PLAXIS team via this email address:
sales@plaxis.com

Working from home

There are several solutions to work from home: using Remote Desktop solutions to log into your work computer or into Virtual Machines, use a laptop or install the required software on a different computer.

Home installation

You may decide to install the software on your home computer. If you do this, you must make sure you can access the PLAXIS licences available on the CodeMeter USB dongle.

Requirements

Machine requirements

In order to install the PLAXIS HWL (Legacy) versions, your computer need to meet these minimum requirements:

• Windows 10 Professional is preferred
• For PLAXIS 2D: 4 GB RAM or more, for PLAXIS 3D: 8 GB or more
• Dual core CPU
• Enough disk space: at least 1 GB for installation and appropriate storage for saving PLAXIS files.
• Graphics card: preferable dedicated NVIDEA graphics card with OpenGL 2 or higher
• USB port when using a local CodeMeter USB dongle for the licence

Access to the PLAXIS HWL (legacy) Licence

The PLAXIS HWL (Legacy) software is licenced via a CodeMeter hardware USB dongle. These grey USB dongles look like this:

To use the licences stored on this CodeMeter USB stick, you need to install additional drivers. The latest support version for PLAXIS is 6.60b, available here: PLAXIS - CodeMeter drivers and will be installed with your PLAXIS HWL version.
Note: CodeMeter driver version 7.0 is not supported for PLAXIS HWL (Legacy) versions.

Local CodeMeter dongle

The simplest solution to start working with the PLAXIS HWL (Legacy) version, is to have the CodeMeter dongle available and directly mounted in your computer. There are two options here:

1. a flexible licence can be used on any machine;
2. a hardware bounded licence can only be used on the registered computer.

When mounted properly, the system tray icon for CodeMeter will turn from grey into green:

	active CodeMeter system tray icon
	inactive CodeMeter system tray icon

Flexible licence: network CodeMeter dongle

It is also possible to use a flexible licence as a network licence. Depending on the number of licences, one or more people can work with PLAXIS at the same time.

To use a network license:

• A CodeMeter network server needs to be setup: CodeMeter Network installation for PLAXIS HWL. Note any PC in your network can server as a network server: just activate the network server via the activate Server option available at the CodeMeter WebAdmin pages under Configuration > Server access;
• You need to be able to connect with this network server via the TCP/IP protocol over ports 22350 to 22352. Usually this means that the CodeMeter server needs to be in the same network or you need to setup a (VPN) connection to the company network and that a firewall should not block this connection;
• Driver versions used on the local PC and the network server should be the same (6.60b).

If you encounter issues, please see Network licence trouble shooting below.

Updating license

When there are issues with the licence or these are expired, you will need the licence tool called PLAXIS Connect, available here:

PLAXIS Connect

Note, this is not the same as the Bentley CONNECTION Client.

Downloading software

All Bentley software is downloadable via the Bentley Software Downloads pages: https://softwaredownloads.bentley.com/

However, the PLAXIS HWL (Legacy) versions are not available here: older PLAXIS versions, prior to the CONNECT Edition can be obtained upon request by submitting a Service Request: https://apps.bentley.com/srmanager/ProductSupport 

This includes:

• PLAXIS 2D 2019 and earlier
• PLAXIS 3D 2018 and earlier
• PLAXIS MoDeTo V1

Accessing Product documentation

• PLAXIS Manuals are installed with your PLAXIS application, and accessible via Help > Manuals inside the programs. See also Manuals.
• Full command line and object documentation for PLAXIS 2D and PLAXIS 3D via the Help menu inside the programs. See also Command line reference.
• Access to the interactive Python documentation (Jupyter Notebooks) for PLAXIS 2D and PLAXIS 3D via the Help menu inside the programs. See also Scripting interface and how to use it.
• Background papers, tips & tricks, verifications and videos in the PLAXIS WIKI and MoDeTo WIKI.

Resolving licensing issues

To help preventing the quick spreading of the COVID-19 virus, we will now offer to upgrade any hardware bound PLAXIS CodeMeter licence to a flexible licence. In this way, the licence can be used on any PC or remotely as a network license as described above.
Please contact our team sales@plaxis.com how to best arrange this temporary free upgrade.

Hardware bound licence

If you encounter a hardware bound licence that is not working on your computer, please contact sales@plaxis.com and make sure to state the CodeMeter ID (see small sticker on the USB key or the key ID in the CodeMeter Control Center)

Troubleshoot network licences

• PLAXIS HWL: Codemeter network installation
• PLAXIS HWL: Codemeter network error during calculation: IPv4 IPv6 conflict
• CodeMeter drivers out of date

In some cases, the network protocols as setup by your company might prevent proper communication. This happens for instance when using Microsoft Direct Access. If this is the case, please consider upgrading to the more flexible Bentley CONNECT Licencing system with online verification of the available licences.
Ask our team sales@plaxis.com on how to upgrade and benefit from a dongle-less solution.

How to get help

Service Request Manager for any technical question and support.

Our technical experts are ready to help

https://apps.bentley.com/srmanager/ProductSupport

Bentley Communities (WIKI and FORUM):

This WIKI and the Forum.

CodeMeter licence troubleshooting

Urgent licence issues for your CodeMeter key? Contact our team sales@plaxis.com

Want to move to a dongle-less version to be more flexible in these challenging times? Contact our team sales@plaxis.com