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Error with AutoCAD network license management: “A valid license could not be obtained by network license manager”

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Details:

You can face above problem frequently on AutoCAD 2007 based products when you are working in an organization where:

  • Concurrent licensing scheme is implemented through server/client networking mode.
  • Network bandwidth is low.
  • Network latency is high or connected through VPN.

All of the products based on AutoCAD 2007 contain licensing enhancements which tend to increase network latency and bandwidth utilization of the network. Therefore, you can face this problem while trying to claim the license of the program from the License Manager Server. Earlier versions of AutoCAD products i.e. older than 2007 release were not observing this problem. In this problem, first you are presented with a FLEXlm license finder dialogue box during license obtaining process followed by a message stating:

“A valid license could not be obtained by the network license manager.

Error [1.5. -15]”

In some other products you can receive a bit different message as given below:

“A valid license could not be obtained by the network license manager.

Error [1.5. -18]”

Reasons for Error:

A network throughput or data rate of the link is the main reason for this error especially in case of heavy applications like AutoCAD 2007. Reasons can be summarized as below:

  • Low Bandwidth of the connection i.e. Dial-up connection or low speed ISDN/DSL connection.
  • High Network Latency i.e. VPN
  • Response waiting time of the application/program

One or more of the above reasons can be the root cause of this problem. This problem has recommended solutions which given below.

Solutions:

  • Recommended solution for this problem is either increase in the bandwidth of the connection or decrease in the network latency or enhancement in both parameters.
  • By modification of the response waiting time counter/value which is used as the last resort for the solution of this problem. This is a stepwise procedure to modify the response waiting time counter. Here is the stepwise procedure for the same:
  1. Right click My Computer and choose properties.
  2. On system property dialogue box choose advanced tab.
  3. Click on the environment Variables
  4. On environment variable dialogue box choose system variables field and hit the new button
  5. A new system variable dialogue box with two fields appears; put “FLEXLM_TIMEOUT” in variable name and put 1000000 in variable value field.
  6. Click OK on all three dialogue boxes to close them
  7. Launch the AutoCAD application

 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 

If the problem persists, increase the variable value in multiples of 1000000 micro seconds and reach to the value which gives you satisfactory communication results.

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