Solidworks 2016 Sp0 Serial Number
Angie Troia
NOTE: This step is not necessary if you are changing from a network license serial number to a standalone serial number, or if you are changing from a trial serial number to a permanent serial number.
Please Note: If the only option available is Uninstall, then SOLIDWORKS was installed using an Administrative Image and a different procedure should be followed. Have your IT administrator contact your SOLIDWORKS Value Added Reseller for further instructions.
In this article, you'll learn serial number management skills every SOLIDWORKS user and admin should have. We'll focus mostly on standalone serials, but address network serial numbers and how they differ from standalone. These are the topics we're going to discuss
A SOLIDWORKS serial number is a 24-character alphanumeric string. This string is what gives a computer permission to launch and use SOLIDWORKS. You should keep meticulous track of your serial numbers(s). I suggest creating an Excel spreadsheet to track the following information
A standalone serial number gives only one machine permission to SOLIDWORKS at a time. You can have SOLIDWORKS installed on as many machines as you'd like, but only one machine will have permission to launch and use SOLIDWORKS. If you need to switch machines, you will need to deactivate the machine and then activate another. (See Activating/Deactivating instructions)
SOLIDWORKS will not launch until a serial number is activated. "Activation" gives permission to a machine to open and run the software. Once activated, the serial number will determine what SOLIDWORKS products, tools, and add-ons will be available. Simply input serial numbers on their respective lines, and the portions of the software you are entitled will become available.
To activate, simply launch SOLIDWORKS. The Activation Wizard will appear and prompt for activation. Elect to activate Automatically over the internet. Click 'Next' through the prompts and you're activated! SOLIDWORKS can now be used on this machine.
To deactivate a machine, simply use the SOLIDWORKS Help Menu at the top of the window and select Licenses > Deactivate (Note: You must be able to launch SOLIDWORKS in order to deactivate.) The best way to deactivate a standalone serial number is from within SOLIDWORKS. If you cannot deactivate, contact GoEngineer Technical Support.
Clicking Deactivate will launch the Activation Wizard. The easiest method is to select the serial number you wish to deactivate and elect to deactivate it Automatically over the internet. The Activation Wizard will reach over the internet and change the status to deactivated. Your serial number is now ready to be activated elsewhere. If you need a video walkthrough, watch this video: SOLIDWORKS - Standalone License Deactivation and Activation.
A note from the tech support team: Tech support at GoEngineer cannot remotely deactivate a computer. The only action we can take is disable. Disabling a computer permanently disables its current configuration from ever using the serial number again and releases the activation. If the disabled computer needs to use SOLIDWORKS again, Windows or new hardware will need to be installed.
If you purchased Visualize Standard separately or have purchased Visualize Professional then nothing changes, you use the same serial number as Visualize 2016. However Professional users do also have a new serial number to obtain for Visualize Boost (network rendering).
For those of your using the complimentary license included with your SOLIDWORKS Professional and Premium Subscription some extra steps are required (see below). Make your lives even easier by using the new SOLIDWORKS Admin Portal. See details and steps at the bottom of this article.
* For network licenses use the same serial number as your SOLIDWORKS license simply reactivate the network license manager for 2017 and enter this serial number under both SOLIDWORKS & Visualize when installing on the clients.
The new SOLIDWORKS Admin Portal (introduced with SOLIDWORKS 2018 release) provides a holistic view of everything related to your account. It puts SOLIDWORKS Admins in control and gives them access to a complete view of their users, assets, and services. While only available to select customers for now, we are planning on making this new tools available to all customers by mid-2018.
If you have any issues please get in contact with your Reseller and look out for more info on the latest news from SOLIDWORKS Visualize.
By Alan Sweetenham
Elite Applications Engineer
A common request from technical support is for SOLIDWORKS users to provide their SOLIDWORKS serial number along with which version and service pack they are running. Below are the various methods for locating that information quickly.
Through the control panel you can access the Installation Manager, which will give you access to more than just your SOLIDWORKS CAD serial number and all the additional numbers for your other applications like Visualize, inspection, and more.
The Bill of Materials Options setting is configuration specific, meaning this setting can be set differently for each configuration. This is usually an undesirable situation. New configurations always default to Document Name, so change this setting if you need to!
An easy way to see what will be shown as the part number in your BOM is to open the ConfigurationManager. The inset in the following image shows a value in brackets. That value is the text which was typed in after selecting User Specified Text, and is what's shown in the PART NUMBER column.
Clicking Properties in the File menu with open the Summary Information window. Selecting the Custom tab will display information similar to that shown in the following image. In our example, some Custom Properties have already been added. To add a Property Name, click in the first row under Property Name and either pick a predefined value from the list or enter your own.
To complete the process of adding a Custom Property, select the Type of property, followed by a Value / Text Expression. Press Tab or Enter and the Evaluated Value cell should populate. Repeat as needed and click OK when finished.
Specifying a Custom Property for the part number overrides SOLIDWORKS internal mechanism for determining what the part number should be. When this happens, the "Bill of Materials Options" setting in a configurations Properties become pointless!
Creating a Custom Property that looks or sounds like "Part Number" can be dangerous for the sole reason that end users may be drawn to it and will disregard the mechanism already set up to control what SOLIDWORKS uses as a BOM part number. The only time this arrangement becomes workable is if your entire team has been trained on the internal process and is on the same page. That usually means the drafting, design and engineering department, IT department, and technical support staff.
Part numbers and additional identification numbers can coexist. If your company requires a second internal part number, a manufacturers part number, or some other identifying number, give the custom property a descriptive name to help reduce confusion.
Funny thing is if I rename the Solidworks part file in the workspace to a different file name and then rename it back to the original file name. The drawing is then allowed to be created with the same part number as the part file.
If you also keep filename and number the same you can easy see the "number" in solidworks and also use it to show the number in the drawing - with solidworks function to show filename without extension.
Why does the balloon numbering not respect the bill of materials (BOM) item numbers?
This can occur for drawings where multiple bills of materials (BOM) were previously inserted or are inserted.
Why does a balloon attached to a general view get a number not listed in the bill of materials?
When attaching a balloon to a component in a view (different from the view used to create the bill of materials), the balloon automatically gets the number, following the FeatureManager tree of the configuration specified in the view.
Why are the balloons in a drawing not following the Bill of Materials (BOM) numbering?
The balloons in a drawing may not be following the Bill of Materials if the drawing view is not linked to the BOM. Therefore, the balloon numbers are defaulting to assembly order.
Attributes from Project, Book, Folder, Drawing level as well as Location and Function associated with a Drawing can be used to populate the title block. This allows title blocks in a project to update automatically. To add them you can either use EDIT TITLE BLOCK > INSERT ATTRIBUTE in the Command Manager or double click the desired attribute from the dockable Edit Title Block panel (next to Component and Document panel). As a new user, the attribute names can be hard to understand. Fortunately, you can show the Attribute description instead of its name (EDIT TITLE BLOCK > SHOW ATTRIBUTES > DESCRIPTION) to help with the confusion. Also, Project, Book, Folder, and Drawing attributes are identified with a prefix of Project, Bundle, Folder, and Folio respectively.
Certain attributes might have an index character (or order number) which can also be adjusted as needed. The EDIT TITLE BLOCK > MODIFY TX/TZ DATA INDEX tool is used for the 20 User Data and Translatable text fields available for each object (Drawings, Book, Folder) in SOLIDWORKS Electrical. EDIT TITLE BLOCK > MODIFY LANGUAGE CODE applies to the Translatable text attributes to instead use the information defined in the 2nd or 3rd language as defined in the Project Configuration.
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