Floating licenses

While local (node-locked) licenses may only be used on the machine on which they have been activated, floating licenses can be used by any client machine which is set up to access them from a server.

License service

The licensing service on the client machine acts as an intermediary between the Orcina software on your machine and the license manager on your server, allowing the software to check a license out when it runs and back in again when it closes. On a 64-bit system, both 32-bit and 64-bit services are required.

Any Orcina software which offers FlexNet licensing will give you the option to set up this service when you install the software on the client. An installer for the service is also available in the FlexNet server pack under the Client Pack folder: run either the 32-bit or the 64-bit installer, whichever is appropriate for your system.

If you already have other (non-Orcina) software on your machine which makes use of FlexNet licensing you should still carry out this install procedure, in order to register your Orcina software with the service and to ensure that it is sufficiently up to date.

Configuration file

Each client machine which makes use of floating licenses requires a configuration file, FlexNet.ini, telling the Orcina software where to find the license manager so that it can check out a license. The file specifies the server machine and, optionally, the port number to use.

Your Orcina software installer will offer to create this file for you as part of the installation; if you select this option you will be prompted for the server name or IP address and port number (if any), and the file will be saved in the correct location.

You can, alternatively, set up this file yourself according to the client setup instructions: you might need to do this, for instance, if your license server is moved to a new machine.

License borrowing

If your license administrator has enabled it, you may also borrow a license from the server for use when not connected to the network, for example to take a license offshore or when travelling with a laptop. A borrowed license is effectively a temporary local node-locked license which is removed from the pool of licenses on the server. It automatically expires after a specified number of days, at which point it is added back to the pool and becomes available again on the server.