OpenLM for Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering
See which design seats your yard actually uses
OpenLM reads the license servers behind AVEVA, NAPA, CADMATIC, CATIA, Siemens NX, Ansys and Bentley in one place. Design offices keep seats free when a deadline lands, and renewals are sized on real peak use.
Up to 30%
Average software cost reduction achieved in the first year by organizations automating mature license optimization processes using SAM tools.
44%
Nearly half of the organizations audited last year faced over $1 million in software audit penalties over the past three years, highlighting the high cost of license non-compliance.
~$1.64B
estimated 2024 global spend on shipbuilding CAD software—the license pool that can be right-sized using usage data.
100+
supported license managers, incl. Sentinel RMS, CodeMeter, DSLS, FlexNet
An empty dry dock between hulls still costs the yard. So does a hull-design seat left checked out overnight.
The problem Your most specialized software is often your least visible
Sized for the last peak
Seats bought for one newbuild’s detailed-design peak stay on the bill through the quiet production phase.
Four license technologies, no single view
AVEVA on Sentinel RMS, NAPA on CodeMeter, CATIA on DSLS, Ansys on FlexNet. Each keeps its own logs.
Denials found by complaint
A designer waiting for a seat during design freeze rarely shows up in any report.
Where it breaks Where license gaps hit a yard
DESIGN FREEZE
No seat when the model must close
Structure and outfitting seats run out in the last weeks before freeze or a class submission.
MULTI-YARD
Idle here, denied there
Each yard and engineering centre holds its own pool, so seats sit idle in one while another waits.
PROJECT COSTING
Software cost per hull is a guess
Usage isn’t tied to the newbuild it served, so cost allocation is estimated.
RENEWALS
The vendor brings data. You don’t.
AVEVA, Dassault and Siemens renewals arrive with usage numbers most yards can’t check.
Case studies Engineering teams cutting license waste with OpenLM
~$1.7M
saved in 30 days
After a corporate separation cut access to a shared Ansys pool, usage data showed where seats were hoarded. Peak demand fell from 155 to 140.
Ansys · FlexNet
$150,000
saved, ~30 seat purchases avoided
Denials became visible instead of self-reported, so purchase requests could be checked against real demand.
Defense engineering
$50,000+
saved over two years
Across 28 US offices, live reports showed who held a license, cutting lock-ups and lost time.
Abaqus + 30 engineering apps
Case studies Engineering teams cutting license waste with OpenLM
Stack coverage by design phase, deployment options for naval programs, and what changes for each team.
Usage vs idle See active use, not just checkouts
A license server tells you a seat is checked out. OpenLM tells you whether anyone is working in it.
- Session-level tracking. Checkout, active and idle time per user and machine, across every license server.
- Idle harvesting. Configurable thresholds release seats left open overnight or over a weekend.
- Usage by project and hull number. Seat time mapped to design teams, packages and newbuilds for cost allocation.
One view across sites One view across yards, design offices and subcontractors
Every server, one console. Usage from each yard, engineering centre and cloud license in one report.
Access rules. License Access Control limits who takes which seats, by group or site, so subcontractor access stays inside its contract.
Dongles too. CodeMeter and Sentinel HASP keys monitored, with alerts for loss or disconnection.
Four license technologies feed one view of every seat Tools shown are examples; rotate them per audience.
Renewals Take peak-use data into every renewal
- Peak concurrency. How many seats were in use at the busiest moment, per product and per site.
- Gap analysis. Where you are over-licensed, and where you run too close to the limit.
- Ask in plain language. The OpenLM MCP Connector lets admins query usage and denials from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor.
Denials Every denial near design freeze is a schedule risk
- See the pattern. Which tools, teams and hours generate denials.
- Put a number on it. Denial counts and duration turn “we’re short” into evidence.
- Act before the deadline. Real-time alerts for shortages and expiring licenses.
OpenLM LicOps for HPC For CFD and hydrodynamic runs on your cluster
Resistance, seakeeping and structural batch jobs fail when they start without a license. LicOps sits at the job queue and checks first.
- Starts what fits, queues the rest. No job takes nodes without a license.
- Your rules pick the server. Prefer, require or avoid a license server per job, or cascade across them.
- Fails over. If the primary license server drops, jobs move to the backup.
- Every job leaves a record of what happened and why.
Supported software Built for the marine engineering stack
OpenLM reads these license managers at session level. If yours isn’t listed, OpenLM adds support on request.
| Design phase | Typical tools | License technology |
|---|---|---|
| Hull form & stability | NAPA, NAPA Designer, Maxsurf | CodeMeter; Bentley licensing |
| Structure & outfitting | AVEVA E3D Design, AVEVA Hull & Outfitting, CADMATIC, Intergraph Smart 3D | AVEVA Licensing System (Sentinel RMS), FlexNet (older AVEVA); CADMATIC; Hexagon SPLM |
| CAD & PLM | CATIA, 3DEXPERIENCE, Siemens NX, AutoCAD, Inventor | DSLS; FlexNet; Autodesk network, Cloud and Flex |
| Simulation (CFD/FEA) | Ansys, STAR-CCM+, Abaqus, Altair HyperWorks, MATLAB | FlexNet; DSLS; Altair Units |
| Offshore & mooring | Bentley SACS and MOSES | Bentley licensing |
| Class & rules tools | Lloyd’s Register software | LiMBR |
Deployment & security Runs where your yard’s data has to stay
Naval and defense programs often can’t send usage data off site. OpenLM offers the same functions in every model.
OpenLM SaaS
Vendor-Managed Private Cloud
Customer-Managed Private Cloud
Customer-managed On-Premises
What changes What changes, by team
FAQ Questions shipyard teams ask
Can OpenLM monitor AVEVA E3D and AVEVA Hull & Outfitting licenses?
Yes. Current AVEVA marine products license through the AVEVA Licensing System, which runs a Sentinel RMS server, and older installations use FlexNet. OpenLM reads both, so AVEVA seats appear in the same reports as your CAD, PLM and simulation tools.
How do we reduce AVEVA Marine license costs?
Start with twelve months of peak concurrent use per feature, not seat counts. OpenLM shows how many E3D, hull and outfitting seats were in use at the busiest point, returns idle sessions to the pool automatically, and flags overlapping bundles.
How do we track NAPA license usage across teams?
NAPA licenses through Wibu CodeMeter, which OpenLM supports. OpenLM records each session by user, machine and duration, and groups usage by team or project, so you can see which stability and hull-form seats are busy and which sit idle.
Does OpenLM support CADMATIC, Intergraph Smart 3D and CATIA?
Yes. OpenLM supports CADMATIC licensing, Hexagon’s Intergraph SPLM used by Smart 3D, and the Dassault Systèmes License Server (DSLS) used by CATIA and ENOVIA, including token and borrowed licenses.
Can we see license usage per newbuild or hull number?
Yes. Group and project usage tie seat time to teams, design packages and projects you define, such as hull numbers. Finance can allocate software cost per newbuild from measured usage.
We run several yards and offshore design centres. Can we manage them from one place?
Yes. OpenLM collects usage from every license server, in any location, into one console. Compare utilization by site, see where seats sit idle while another office is denied, and set access rules by group or site.
Can OpenLM run fully on-premises for naval and defense programs?
Yes. OpenLM is available as SaaS, vendor-managed private cloud, customer-managed private cloud, or customer-managed on-premises, with the same functions in each.
What about simulation jobs on our HPC cluster?
OpenLM LicOps sits at the job queue and checks for a license before a CFD or FEA job takes any nodes. Jobs run up to your license limit and the rest queue, rules choose the license server, and a backup takes over if the primary fails.
Your next AVEVA or Dassault renewal is already on the calendar
Bring measured peak use to it. A solution expert will map your license servers and show what OpenLM sees in your environment.
One source of truth for IT, naval architecture, engineering, finance and yard leadership.