Installation & update
About program installation and update, hardware, operating systems, setup, etc.

Wibukey server counts AC14 and AC15 on same machine as two!

Dennis Lee
Booster
I'm trying the wibukey server for convenience, and found out that when a user opens up AC14 and AC15 at the same time that person uses up two licenses. Is this a limitation of the wibukey server or is there a way to fix this?

When it's plugged into the local machine, I was able to open up multiple instances of AC14 and AC15 at the same time.

Can someone help me?
ArchiCAD 25 & 24 USA
Windows 10 x64
Since ArchiCAD 9
9 REPLIES 9
Anonymous
Not applicable
I have had the same issue. Not sure there is a work around for this.
Dennis Lee
Booster
This should be considered a bug, then, right? Why shouldn't it work the same way?

This is a pretty big limitation for the wibukey server.
ArchiCAD 25 & 24 USA
Windows 10 x64
Since ArchiCAD 9
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
See if this article and the discussion of 'version groups' might address this issue:

http://www.archicadwiki.com/ProtectionKey?highlight=%28version%20group%29

That article needs updating - no mention of 15 - but what you are experiencing makes it sound like GS made 15 its own 'version group', rather than grouping it with 13, and 14 (which would have made more sense since they are the versions having TW2).

So, maybe a bug, or maybe intentional? You might contact tech support for them to sort it out.

Cheers,
Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Dennis Lee
Booster
Thank you Karl! That seems to be it - I will follow up w/ Tech Support and post results later.

Thanks again.
ArchiCAD 25 & 24 USA
Windows 10 x64
Since ArchiCAD 9
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
You're welcome, Dennis. Look forward to hearing what verdict support provides.

Cheers,
Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Barry Kelly
Moderator
This is a real problem for a company like I work for.
We are a project home builder so have standard model plans in various versions of Archicad dating back to version 6.5

Quite often we will find ourselves copying & pasting from one file to another.
Everytime there is a new "version group" then we are effectively doubling the need for our licenses.
Of course it is not that bad as not everyone is using different versions at the same time.
But everytime there is a new "version group" we have this problem of running out of licenses.
We try to make a point of updating our popular standards to the latest version but it is not possible (feasable) to update them all (they number in the thousands once you include all the differnet construction materials we use).

If multiple versions can be made to work on a single license key then surely the same can be doe for a network license?

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Marton Kiss
Graphisoft
Graphisoft
Unfortunately this is a technical limitation with Wibu software protection and AC15 does belong to a new version group.

Switching to CodeMeter protection solves this problem - all CodeMeter ready versions (10-15) can be run side by side with one network license. Your local reseller can help how to exchange your Wibu key to CodeMeter:
http://www.graphisoft.com/purchase/

Regards,
Marton
Marton Kiss
VP, Product Success
GRAPHISOFT
Barry Kelly
Moderator
Marton wrote:
Unfortunately this is a technical limitation with Wibu software protection and AC15 does belong to a new version group.

Switching to CodeMeter protection solves this problem - all CodeMeter ready versions (10-15) can be run side by side with one network license. Your local reseller can help how to exchange your Wibu key to CodeMeter:
http://www.graphisoft.com/purchase/

Regards,
Marton
I'll have to check again but I think the cost is a little prohibitive to do that with 105 licenses.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Barry wrote:
This is a real problem for a company like I work for.
We are a project home builder so have standard model plans in various versions of Archicad dating back to version 6.5.
I believe the fee is pretty small to switch from WIBU to CodeMeter keys (which is a WIBU product, so not to be confused with WIBU key), as suggested by Marton.

But, do note that the CodeMeter key cannot run 9 or earlier. Those earlier versions will only open in demo mode, as if no key is present. (Well, there is one special exception.)

So, if you do have projects back to 6.5, you may want to keep one solo WIBU key around if you think you might need to edit or print any of them in the older version for some reason. (If all you need is to open them - demo mode is fine, or to convert them, 10 can open back to 6.5 - so CodeMeter is fine in that case.)

Cheers,
Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB