SOLIDWORKS offers two types of licenses standalone and network, and it's important to understand their differences when choosing which license type is right for you. Standalone licenses are activated on a single users machine via the SOLIDWORKS Activation Manager. When SOLIDWORKS is first installed, the Activation Manager will mark the license as active on that machine, and this will mean the case until SOLIDWORKS is uninstalled or the license is deactivated via the SOLIDWORKS help icon. This means if you want to move a standalone license to a new machine, you will have to make sure the license is deactivated on the old machine first. Standalone licenses are great if you are a lone user of SOLIDWORKS or you plan to not share licenses between users. Standalone license activation is also a one time process, meaning that once a standalone license has been activated, you don't need internet access to continue using SOLIDWORKS for network licenses. Using machines or clients communicates with a solid network license server on the same network. The SNL server is responsible for distributing network licenses between the clients, and it can be stored on a virtual or physical machine. When a client machine starts up a licensed product, it will check out one of the available licenses from the SNL server, and once that product is closed, that license will be released back to the server, making it available for other clients to use. The big benefit of using network licenses is how easy it is to share licenses between different users, as the SNL server does all the activating and deactivating for you. You also have the option to borrow a license from an SNL server for a certain time period, meaning that the license will not be released back to the server until that time period has lapsed. This can be handy if you are not going to have access to the server within a certain time frame. For instance, if you're working somewhere without internet access, it's important to remember that you are not restricted to one type of license and that standalone and network licenses can work side by side. For example, you may have three users with standalone licenses of SOLIDWORKS standard. They're also using SNL to share a SOLIDWORKS simulation network license between them. If you would like to discuss which license setup would bring the best efficiency to your business or are interested in purchasing new licenses, don't hesitate to get in touch with our team at Solid Solutions. Our website also shows the latest licensing office and our specialist support team can help get you started with any license activations.