SOLIDWORKS Composer is the new name for 3DVia Composer and the name change brings about some great enhancements to the licensing and activation procedure to bring it in line with the core SOLIDWORKS products.
LICENSE AND ACTIVATION CHANGES
SNL (Floating Licenses) can be combined with the SOLIDWORKS SNL Manager so long as the program is installed as 2013 SP2 or later. To add a Composer serial key to the current SNL, modify the installation through the Control Panel > Programs and Features, and when the current SOLIDWORKS serial key is shown on screen, add the Composer key too- separated by a comma. Once this change has gone through, open the SNL manager, choose Modify on the first screen and Reactivate the new serial key.
Standalone Activations are now the same as SOLIDWORKS-tthe activation process is online, rather than the old email and license file method, and the means of swapping the license to another machine is far more streamlined using the Help > Transfer License facility- again the same as SOLIDWORKS.
DOWNLOAD ADVICE
As for downloading the software, there are some important things to be aware of. It is best to download the software from the
SOLIDWORKS Customer Portal (registration and login required) as we tend not to hold stock of the latest software on disc.
When you reach the download page, SOLIDWORKS Composer is listed with the core SOLIDWORKS products at the bottom of the list (note there is a tab for 3DVia in case you want the older variations). There are 5 products listed which are as follows:
SW Composer (32 and 64 bit flavours)- the core software that every Composer user needs- this will ask for a serial key during install and require activation- the file size is approximately 600MB. These are highlighted in red in the image below.
SW Composer SNL Manager- this is for floating licenses with this component generally being held on a server. Again the serial key will need entering and the product should be activated after the install. Client machines planning to access this product then need the client software (as above) installing using the same serial key as the server.
SW Importer SW Composer (32 and 64 bit flavours)- this is the one that catches people out. If you plan to install Composer on a machine that has SOLIDWORKS installed already (and the same version i.e. 2013) you DO NOT and SHOULD NOT download and install this product. The Importer is the method that Composer translates native SOLIDWORKS files to be used in Composer- if SOLIDWORKS is already present on the machine it uses this to convert instead. Installing both SOLIDWORKS and the Importer will likely cause conflicts that prevent file translations from being successful.
If Composer is planned to be installed standalone with no SOLIDWORKS products on the same PC, this must be downloaded and installed- it is approximately 1.8GB and we recommending installing this first (before the core Composer product). The installation for this product is command line based after the files are extracted following download- there is no user intervention needed- it just goes through to completion. These are highlighted in blue in the image below.
Hopefully this clarifies the new rebranding of the product and also the download/ installation instructions- any problems, please don't hestitate to call our support line.
Adam Hartles
Training Manager