Why simulation teams end up with the wrong licences

Simcenter 3D puts structures, thermal, flow, motion, acoustics, durability and electromagnetics in one environment. That breadth is the point of it, but it creates a licensing problem. An analyst runs a normal modes study on Monday, a thermal case on Wednesday and a composite layup check on Friday. Buying a dedicated module licence for each of those, for each analyst, means most of them sit idle most of the week.

Value-based licensing is the answer Siemens built for this. Instead of tying a capability to a seat, the team shares a pool of tokens and opens whatever module the task needs. Below is how it works, what it covers and how to size it.

1. How the token pool works

Every user still runs a base application on a normal module licence: Simcenter Engineering Desktop or Simcenter Structures, with or without the add-on pack. Tokens only apply to the product modules opened on top of that base.

When an add-on starts, Simcenter 3D first looks for a module licence. If none is available it checks out a defined number of tokens from the pool. When the application closes, the same number goes back. Nothing is consumed, so the pool is the same size at the end of the year as at the start.

The pool runs on the same Flex licence server as your existing seats, and tokens and module licences can be mixed. What limits you is only how many add-ons the team runs at the same time.

2. What you can open with tokens

Almost the whole Simcenter 3D and Simcenter Nastran range is token enabled. That includes the solver environments for Simcenter Nastran, MSC Nastran, Ansys, Abaqus, LS-Dyna, Samcef and Adina, the thermal, flow and electromagnetics products, the motion suite with flexible bodies and drivetrain, and the solution modules for acoustics, durability, response dynamics, correlation, model update, margin of safety, additive, smart virtual sensing and design space exploration.

Modelling add-ons such as acoustic meshing, flow modelling and laminate composites are covered too, along with NX drafting, topology optimiser, Performance Predictor and FLOEFD.

One boundary to know: Simcenter 3D tokens work only for Simcenter 3D, Simcenter Nastran and Simcenter Samcef. They do not combine with token schemes from other Siemens products.

3. Try a new method without a new purchase

The practical benefit shows up when the work changes. A project needs a durability check the team has never done before, or a customer asks for an acoustic result. With module licences that means a purchase order and a wait. With a token pool the analyst opens the module, runs the study and hands the tokens back.

Siemens adds new modules to Simcenter 3D regularly and expects most of them to be tokenable, so the pool keeps gaining reach. Usage that shifts over the years, from mostly structural to mostly thermal for example, is absorbed without changing the contract.

Two limits from the Siemens FAQ: tokens cannot be used with licence borrowing, and Femap users need a Simcenter 3D base product to run Simcenter Nastran on tokens.

4. Sizing the pool and tracking usage

Tokens come in packs of 50 and 100 on subscription. To size the pool, estimate peak usage: the number of add-on products that could be in use at the same moment, not the number of users. Add headroom for what next year's projects will need. NomuTech runs this analysis with you and tells you whether tokens, module licences or a mix is the better fit.

Once it is running, the standard LMTOOLS application on the licence server shows what is happening. The log file lists every token check-out and check-in, and the Server Status tab reports the total licensed and in use for the simcenter_token feature. The example in the Siemens deck shows 100 tokens on the licence file and 22 in use.

How to get it

Simcenter 3D value-based licensing has been available since Simcenter 11 and works with every current release. You need at least one base seat of Simcenter Engineering Desktop or Simcenter Structures, then a token pack on subscription. Existing module licences carry on and are always used first.

For learning the modules the pool opens up, Siemens Xcelerator Academy offers self-paced online courses across the Simcenter domains, and NomuTech runs instructor-led training online or in person anywhere in the Middle East.

NomuTech supplies, implements and trains on Simcenter 3D across the Middle East. If you want to know whether a token pool fits your team, talk to us and bring a list of the analyses you run.