Troubleshooting the SOLIDWORKS Network License Manager

If you are using a network licence for SOLIDWORKS, it is possible that you may experience errors with connecting to the licence server.

I have put some steps to troubleshoot this below.

This is one of the errors you may see when trying to open SOLIDWORKS

If you open the licence manager you may also see the following warning appear:

The very first thing to check is to see if your machine can actually see the server machine.

The easiest way to do this is to go to the command prompt and try and ping the server.

You can do this with the IP address or Server name but I would suggest using the value as its entered in the server list tab above. i.e. if the server is called SWXLicServer you would type the following at the command prompt. Ping SWXLicServer

If you get the response saying that it has timed out you need to look at the network and make sure your machine can actually see the server, and that it is running.

If it can see the server, but you get a slow response, say over 100ms this can cause issues, especially with SOLIDWORKS 2017.

To work around a slow network connection with SOLIDWORKS 2017 installations, follow these steps:

1.  Open the Registry Editor.
2. Browse to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftware’.
3. Right click on ‘Software,’ then click ‘New’ > ‘Key.’
4. Name the key ‘FLEXlm License Manager’. If the key already exists, open the key.
5. Right click on ‘FLEXlm License Manager’ > ‘New’ > ‘String Value’.
6. Name the value ‘FLEXLM_TIMEOUT’.
7. Double click the ‘FLEXLM_TIMEOUT’ value and set the value data to ‘1000000’.

The next thing to check is that the SOLIDWORKS SOLIDNETWORK Licence Server Service is actually running. You will need access to the Server machine to do this. Go to the local services, and make sure the service is started. If it isnt, start it. If it is, you could restart it to be sure.

Assuming that the service is running, and your machine can ping the server successfully, the next thing to check is that the ports it uses aren’t being blocked in the firewall on your machine (or the server)

I would recommend adding port exceptions, inbound and outbound on both machines for the TCP ports, 25734 and 25735

If everything looks correct but you are still having issues after this, please let us know on support and we will give you a hand.