A standalone SOLIDWORKS license can be used to activate one machine. If you wish to use your license on another system, you must first deactivate the computer that is currently active. Please see the SOLIDWORKS End User License Agreement if you have any questions regarding this policy.
All standalone licenses are activation-based so products such as Simulation, Visualize, Inspection, Composer, and Electrical will follow the same activation processes outlined in this guide.
The activation ID’s are based on the computer hard drive and motherboard. When upgrading your hardware, changing your SOLIDWORKS software, reformatting your hard drive, or moving to a new computer, you will need to deactivate the license on your computer first. Afterwards, reactivate the license on the new computer configuration. Failing to deactivate before making these changes will result in your software being unable to be reactivated and therefore will be unusable. If your activation is lost due to hardware or software issues, contact Hawk Ridge Systems Technical Support immediately to rectify the problem.
This is not a troubleshooting guide. If you have any technical issues with SOLIDWORKS, please contact Hawk Ridge Systems Technical Support. This document is only to be distributed and used by Hawk Ridge Systems customers. Any other use is prohibited.
Contents
Internet Activation/Deactivation
Internet Activation/Deactivation
If you do not have internet access, see the Email Activation/Deactivation section of this document.
- Go to Start > All Programs > SOLIDWORKS 20XX > SOLIDWORKS 20XX.
- After SOLIDWORKS starts, go to Help > Licenses > Activate/Deactivate. (Note: when launching SOLIDWORKS for the first time, you should be prompted to activate your license)
- You will have a list of products that can be activated from this machine according to your installation. If you would like to activate all items at once, press the Select All button.
- If you have internet access at this computer, choose to activate Automatically over the internet (recommended) and select Next to continue. If you are offline, see the next section on Email Activation/Deactivation.
- You will now connect to SOLIDWORKS over the internet and the license transaction will be processed.
- Press the Finish button to complete the activation process.
SOLIDWORKS is now properly activated/deactivated. If deactivated, SOLIDWORKS will not run on this machine until it is reactivated.
Email Activation/Deactivation
This method is used so that a user can activate SOLIDWORKS products on a system that does not have internet access.
- Go to Start > All Programs > SOLIDWORKS 20XX > SOLIDWORKS 20XX.
- After SOLIDWORKS starts, go to Help > Licenses > Activate/Deactivate. (Note: when launching SOLIDWORKS for the first time, you should be prompted to activate your license)
- You will have a list of products that can be activated/deactivated from this machine according to your installation. NOTE: You can only choose one license at a time when proceeding manually.
- If you do not have internet access at this computer, choose to Manually via e-mail and select Next to continue.
- On the next page, press the Save button to create an activation request file.
Warning! If deactivating your license, once you’ve saved this file your activation is no longer valid. Do not exit out of the activation window until you have completed the process and read in the response email from SOLIDWORKS or you will not be able to run SOLIDWORKS.
- Browse to a location on your computer to store this .txt file and press the Save button. Copy this text file onto a removable storage device and move it to a machine with internet access.
- From the machine with internet access, send this file as an attachment to an email to activation@SOLIDWORKS.com.
- SOLIDWORKS will send a return email with a different text file attached. Save this text file to a removable storage device and move it back to the machine awaiting activation.
- In the activation wizard, press the Open button on the email activation page.
- Browse for the response file and press the Open button.
- The next page will show you that your transaction is complete.
- Press the Finish button to complete the process.
SOLIDWORKS is now properly activated/deactivated. If deactivated, SOLIDWORKS will not run on this machine until it is reactivated.
Other SOLIDWORKS Products
All SOLIDWORKS products use the same activation manager and share the same activation/deactivation steps. However, the menu options to access the activation manager may be different. To access the activation manager for these other products, please see the relevant section below:
Visualize
- Help > Activate/Deactivate License
Inspection
- File > Options > About > Activate/Deactivate
Composer
- Help > Activate/Deactivate License
Electrical
- Help > Activate/Deactivate License
Xpress Product Activation
All packages of SOLIDWORKS come with the ability to use the SOLIDWORKS Xpress products. These products are a lighter version of the full add-in but may be useful in the design process. There are five products in total:
- SimulationXpress
- FloXpress
- DFMXpress
- SustainabilityXpress
- DriveWorksXpress
For instructions on activating these Xpress products, please see our dedicated support article Activating SOLIDWORKS Xpress Products.
For further assistance, please contact our support team at support@hawkridgesys.com, or 877-266-4469 (US) or 866-587-6803 (Canada).
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