DraftSight Enterprise Installation

DraftSight is popular product for different groups of users such as architects, designers, educators, engineers, hobbyists and for CAD users. DraftSight provides 2D and 3D CAD functions which help you to create, edit, view and markup any DWG file. Keywords for DraftSight are ease, speed and efficiency which makes it very desirable product. DraftSight is available with various levels of licenses, for companies with multiple users the DraftSight Enterprise network based licesing is efficient way to distribute licenses between users.

Before installation process meet system requirements for DraftSight:

https://www.draftsight.com/media/system-requirements-draftsight

Please note that for DraftSight 2020 Enterprise and Enterprise Plus SolidNetwork License Manager 2020 is needed. Remember that License Manager is backwards compatible so clients using a previous version can still obtain licenses.

DraftSight needs license hosting server from which licenses can be accessed by clients. To do so, we need to have License Manager installation where floating licenses will be hosted and DraftSight application on client with connection to server where licenses are being hosted.

Server hosting licenses

Hosting DraftSight netwoek licenses on a server is simple when using SolidNetWork License Manager / SNL. This is convenient way to maintain existing SOLIDWORKS product licenses and adding DraftSight licenses to server is simple.

SolidNetWork License Manager new installation          

If your SOLIDWORKS products doesn’t use SolidNetWork License Manager for licesing, the license manager needs to be „freshly“ installed on your server. Guide on how to install SolidNetWork License Manager on your server:

1. Create and register SOLIDWORKS Customer Portal account – use your DraftSight Enterprise serial number when registering
2. Locate DOWNLOAD section and select Downloads and Updates.
3. From Downloads and Updates select latest version 202X and click on desired Product. You will be redirected to next page to meet terms and conditions.
4. Meet with terms and conditions after which you will be redirected once again and now you will be able to download SOLIDWORKS 202X files:
5. Access your server and run the downloaded .exe file
6. Choose „Install server components“ and „Install SolidNetWork License Manager (distributed licesing) on this computer
7. Enter your 24 digit DraftSight Enterprise serialnumber(s) – your SN will start with either 9010 or 0010, you can also specify installation location
8. Summary page will give you an overview of SolidNetWork License Manager installation location, your serialnumber(s) and download options
9. Meet the terms and conditions, accept and click „Download and install“

After your SNL installation is complete you can join with SOLIDWORKS Customer Experience Improvement Program. Your input may be minimal but it will lead to better products, all you need to do is to check „Yes, I want to join“ checkbox:

Setting up your SNL server for licenses

By default SOLIDWORKS uses for communication TCP port 25734, it can be changed. In case of present firewalls, enable the „A firewall is in use on this server“ checkbox, this will also use TCP port 25735 for communication. Be sure to control that firewalls allow in- and outbound traffic through TCP ports 25734 and 25735 on server and also on client machine(s).

1. Start SolidNetWork License Administrator
2. Set up SolidNetWork License Server Information
3. Activate/Deactivate Your SOLIDWORKS Product
4. Activation/Reactivation Succeeded

   You have now successfully installed SolidNetWork License Manager to server where your floating licenses are being hosted.

Modify existing installation of SNL Manager

In case you already have SolidNetWork License Manager installed on your server for SOLIDWORKS products you can simply add new products to it by modifying installation. You need to know your DraftSight serialnumber and simply separate it in needed textfield:

1. Locate your SOLIDWORKS SolidNetWork License Manager on your server and select „Modify“

After selecting „Modify“ you will be greeted to the SOLIDWORKS SolidNetWork License Manager Setup Wizard, from it select Next. It will lead you to Program Maintenance page where is needed to select „Modify“ – we are just adding additional serialnumber so other options will not help us.

You will be led to License Information menu, where you simply add comma and enter your additional serialnumber:

After adding your serialnumber(s) click „Next“ and you will be redirected to „Ready to Repair the Program“ page, click Install to begin the installation. It will quickly add your additional licenses and once it is done select „Finish“:

Although additional license is added to your SNL License Manager they still aren’t available. To make added license(s) available, reactivating the License Manager is needed.

Reactivating SNL Manager

To reactivate SOLIDWORKS SolidNetWork License Manager you need to locate SNL Manager application on your server:

1. Launch SolidNetWork License Manager Server application and choose Modify:
2. SolidNetWork License Product Activation window will open, select „Activate/Reactivate your product license(s):

Now select „Next“, you will see SolidNetWork License Server Information – don’t change anything:

Select „Next“ which will redirect you to Activate/Deactivate Your SOLIDWORKS Product page, select added serialnumber(s):

After selecting needed serialnumber(s) click „Next“.

SOLIDWORKS SolidNetWork License Manager will communicate with destination server to obtain added license(s), once it is successful you will be prompted with results where additional product is added to your server:

DraftSight Enterprise Client installation

Download your setup files at 3ds: www.draftsight.com/download

Meet the „DraftSight License and Subscription Service Agreement“ and select OK, your installation file will start to download.

1. Run your DraftSight Setup after downloading it
2. You will be asked to select your license type, since we have SNL server hosting DraftSight license(s) we need to choose SolidNetWork License (SNL)

Select „Next“ and you will be redirected to server information where you need to specify port and server name:

Select „Next“ you will need to meet „DraftSight End-User License Agreement“, after selecting „I accept the terms in the license agreement“ you can install this product:

After installation the DraftSight application will open. Opening DS for the first time will ask you to give „DraftSight Performance Report Feedback“ which will have minimal input from you but will result in impoved products when many people have their input:

Congratulations, you have successfully installed SolidNetWork License Manager to your server or modyfied existing SNL installation and added DraftSight installation to your client.