How to Troubleshoot a SOLIDWORKS PDM Licensing Error

SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional and PDM Standard are network licenses.  They can sometimes encounter licensing issues outside the standard Network Troubleshooting steps. Network License Troubleshooting Techniques. This article is about the additional steps that will help resolve a PDM licensing issue.

While each individual SOLIDWORKS Client computer utilizing a SolidNetWork License can add or replace the License Server information, a PDM Client will not be able to use the same process. This is because a PDM License is set by the PDM Administration Tool rather than the SolidNetWork License Manager Client.

In the situation where a license is moved to a new server, if the PDM Administration Tool does not have licensing updated to that server, clients will get messaging like “Failed to obtain a license for SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard/Professional. No Such feature exists.” This error happens because the old PDM licensing server is being accessed for the PDM licenses, which have been moved.

To resolve this issue, use the following process:

1. Open the PDM Administration tool
2. Log into the Vault with an Administrative account (preferably the PDM System Admin account)
3. Once the vault has expanded, navigate to “License”
4. Double click License, or right click License and select Open, to open the Set License dialogue box
5. Using the Add button on the Server List tab, add the new server information as 25734@newservername
6. Go to the License usage tab and use the drop down to select the new server; this lets you confirm the licensing is accessible
7. Back on the Server List tab, highlight and remove the old license server
8. Use OK to close the Set License dialogue box
9. After being prompted that users will need to restart/log back in, advise end users to exit/relaunch the PDM applications and/or attempt to log into the Vault View again
   
   
   

In addition to a License move, you may get the error “Failed to obtain a license for SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard/Professional. No Such feature exists.” due to an incorrect PDM Client being installed on the client Machine.   

To resolve this issue, use the following process:  

1. Confirm what PDM license you should have by checking the SolidNetWork License Manager for PDM licensing.
   If your license server has both, check which kind of vault you are accessing in the PDM Admin tool to determine which client type you need installed.
   
   
   
   
2. Please be aware, the vault type will determine the license type requested from the server.   If your client type does not match the vault type you will need to use the following process:
   A. Uninstall current client
   B. Restart PC
   C. Install correct client
   D. Restart PC if needed
   E. Confirm connection to server 
   NOTE: In a situation where you have, and use, both Standard and Professional vaults, you should install the PDM Professional client; A PDM Professional Client will accept and use the PDM Standard license when accessing the PDM Standard vault