This article describes what to look for and ways to fix issues that may arise with your softkey license. This includes a license not being visible any longer, be available but not work to launch the software, or show up incorrectly. 

Authored By Don Dickinson

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Introduction

Occasionally, you may encounter issues with your OpticStudio or Lensmechanix softkey license. This article provides some of the more well-known errors and how to fix them.

Before proceeding, please read!

This article applies to software licensed via legacy Zemax softkey licenses, not Ansys releases. Legacy Zemax licenses include 6-digit alpha-numeric serial numbers beginning with "L" or "T" (e.g. L100000) , You can identify your license type using the guide located here: How to identify your legacy Zemax license.

If you are using Ansys license, see Ansys Zemax licensing overview and guides.

If you are trying to get a client machine to reach a Zemax legacy network network license, see Resolving network license issues on client machines (Zemax Legacy) ".

If you have issues with a red or green USB license, see "How to troubleshoot red or green USB license issues."

For a black USB license, see "Troubleshooting license issues with a black USB license."

Unable to view a previously activated license

This section applies if your softkey license is installed on your computer and does not show up in the Zemax License Manager (ZLM). In such instances, the ZLM will normally appear as shown below. Note that this assumes your machine has not had Windows reinstalled, as reinstalling would cause the loss of any installed license. 

To resolve these issues, work through the following steps one at a time. Test OpticStudio between each step! 

1. Restart the computer. If you are unable to restart the computer, you may also Restart the Sentinel LDK service.
2. Open the Zemax License Manager. If your license still does not appear, select Launch Sentinel Admin Control Center at the top of the application (or under the Troubleshoot section in May 2019 or higher releases).

3. After doing this, the page below should open in your web browser. If the page does not open, see Repair the licensing runtime. If the page does open, proceed to Step 4.

4. If the Sentinel Admin Control Center (SACC) does open, navigate to the Sentinel Keys section.

• If you cannot see any license listed with vendor id 114811 in the SACC, see Repair the licensing runtime.
• If you can see any license with a vendor id of 114811 and make note of the "key id" number. Then reopen the Zemax License Manager. Verify that the license is still not shown there. If it is not, contact support@zemax.com for further assistance. Please include your license number and/or Key ID in your correspondence. 

License is visible in the Zemax License Manager, but Opticstudio will not launch

If no valid license can be used by Opticstudio it will typically open the Zemax License Manager to allow you to find and select a working license. If you close the ZLM without a valid license, it will display "no key found," and you will not be able to access OpticStudio. This section addresses how to find and fix this problem.

The primary step in addressing this issue is to check the support expiration date of the license. Open the ZLM.

1. If the expiration shows an invalid date such as Jan 01 0001, skip to License is Cloned or displays Jan 1 0001 in the Zemax License Manager.
2. If the expiration shows a valid date but reads, "Key expired at:" (Classic Zemax License Manager - versions dated November 2018 or earlier), or if it displays the date is in bold red text (Zemax License Manager Version 2 - versions dated May 2019 or later), the license is now expired and is not valid to run any version of the software. This will be the case for all subscription licenses, and you should contact the Zemax sales team or your Zemax account manager for help. 

Note: For the Zemax License Manager Version 2 (versions dated May 2019 or later), expired subscription licenses are noted in bold red text; perpetual licenses with expired support are shown in plain red text.  

If the license has a valid date and says "Support Expiration" then the license is a perpetual license, and it is still valid for use. Perpetual licenses are eligible to run any OpticStudio version released before the support expired. If the support expiration date is earlier than the date at the top of Zemax License Manager, Opticstudio is too new to run with this license.

To resolve this, you will need to use a different license or install an older OpticStudio release. Check the OpticStudio Downloads page for a compatible release. Note that softkey licenses require OpticStudio 16 or higher.

License is Cloned or displays Jan 1 0001 in the Zemax License Manager

Occasionally, softkey licenses can become Cloned or display invalid dates in the ZLM. 

If your license ends up in the cloned status, it has been disabled and is unusable. There are several reasons this can occur, but it depends on your situation. The only troubleshooting option you can is to transfer away the license, and back again to the same computer using the Zemax License Manager. For instructions on how to do this, see "Transferring and updating a softkey license."

If that fails, contact the Zemax support team. Please include as much information possible about your situation and a screen shot of the Sentinel Keys page from the Sentinel Admin Control Center that shows the exact error. Please include answers to as many of the following questions as you can:

• Is this license installed in a cloud computer or Virtual Machine such as Parallels, Vmware, or Virtualbox?
• What happened just before the key was disabled?
• Was the machine name changed or was it disjoined and rejoined to a domain?
• Was there a recent Windows update?
• Were you transferring a key and then got this error?
• Was there a hardware change to the computer where your license was hosted?
• Was Windows upgraded or reinstalled?
• Was a system backup restored?

Error: "Unable to apply softkey..." or "Unable to Find Vendor Library"

Generally, if you receive an error message in the Zemax License Manager, the license runtime software is not working properly. The two most common error messages are "Unable to apply softkey license information on this machine," and "Unable to Find Vendor Library." To fix these errors, see the instructions in the "Repair the licensing runtime" section below. 

   

OpticStudio requires a password

OpticStdio requires a password when using a subscription license. These license types are indicated by an "Activated" checkbox in the License Manager. To use a subscription license, your Zemax account must be authorized by your License Administrator. See How do I add an End User to a license? for additional details. If you have been authorized as an end-user, you will have received an email notifying you. After receiving this email, login with your email address and password. If it says you are not authorized to use the license, see the next section below to find the License Adminstrator. 

Error: You are not authorized to use this key!

To use a subscription license, your Zemax account must be authorized for that license by the License Adminstrator. See How do I add an End User to a license? for details. If you get the "not authorized" message you need to request access from the License Administrator.

To find the License Administrator for your license, follow these steps.

1. In the ZLM in the View License section, make note of the License number (e.g. L100000) that you are trying to use.
2. Sign in to your Zemax account using the Login button at the top of this page. Navigate to "Zemax account."
3. On your My Account page, see the Licenses table.

4. Click Company Licenses to display all licenses. 
5. Click on the License # for the license you would like to use. The License Administrator's name for the license will be displayed in the subsequent page. You can also see all the End Users listed for the license.

Repairing the licensing runtime

Repairing the licensing runtime software can resolve issues that arise while trying to activate a license, complete a license transfer, or when the license disappears from the ZLM. There are several ways to do this. 

Method 1 (Opticstudio 19.4 or newer) 

If you are using a version of Opticstudio that predates OpticStudio 19.4 or a version of the Zemax License Manager dated before May 2019, Skip to Method 2.

For versions of OpticStudio 19.4 and newer, follow the steps below.

1. Open the Zemax License Manager. TIP: Searching for "Zemax license" from the WIndows Start Menu will locate it no matter what Zemax software you have).
2. Navigate to Troubleshoot...Check HASP Drivers. Selecting these options will attempt to check for and repair a missing vendor library and attempt to restart the licensing service. 

If you get a popup asking for permission to run, click Yes or Allow. Once it is done, you should receive the messages, "HASP Vendor Library: okay" and "HASP Service: okay," as shown below. If you see any "failed" messages at the end of the process, proceed to Method 2.  

Method 2 (all versions)

The second method for repairing the licensing runtime software applies for all versions of OpticStudio. To complete this process, follow the instructions below. 

1. If possible, disable any antivirus software temporarily, as some are known to block the install process. 
2. If OpticStudio is installed on the machine, open the file "C:\program files\Zemax Opticstudio\opticstudio_prerequisites.exe. If only the Zemax License Manager is installed on the machine (keyserver machines only), open the file "C:\program files\zemax licensemanager\licensemanager_prerequisites.exe." Both of these executable files will reinstall the licensing runtime as well as other components needed. You should see a window similar to that shown below. 

3. Restart the computer.
4. To verify that the licensing runtime installed correctly and is working, move to the "Verify the license runtime" section below. If it is not working, proceed to Method 3.

Method 3 (all versions)

The third method for repairing the licensing runtime software applies for all versions of OpticStudio. To complete this process, follow the instructions below. 

1. If possible, disable any antivirus software temporarily, as some are known to block the install process. 
2. Download the Zemax License Repair kit from the Article Attachments.
3. Open the downloaded .zip file and Extract all files within to a new folder.
   
   

4. After extracting, open the folder you extracted to, then the file "HASPusersetup.exe." It will walk you through the install. You can simply click Next at each step as there are no special steps required. If it says a newer version is already installed or otherwise fails to complete, move to Method 4.

5. Open the file "Restore_vendor_dll.bat" to copy the DLL file Zemax requires to the correct location. It will open a command prompt window for a short time and may ask for approval to run; if it does, click Yes. 
6. Restart the computer to complete the setup.
7. Move to Verify the licensing runtime. 

Method 4 (uninstall and reinstall)

The final method for reparing the licensing runtime software applies for all versions of OpticStudio. It involves uninstalling and reinstalling the software. To complete this process, follow the instructions below. 

1. If possible, disable any antivirus software temporarily, as some are known to block the install process. 
2. Download the Zemax License Repair kit from the Article Attachments.
3. Open the downloaded .zip file and Extract all files within to a new folder.
   
   
4. Open the folder you extracted to, then the file "remove.bat" to uninstall the licensing software. It will ask for permission to run the Windows Command Processor. Click YES, and it will proceed to run the uninstaller as below.

5. After about 30 seconds to 1 minute, you should receive a message confirming if it finished successfully.
6. Open the file "install.bat." Again, it will ask for permission to run the Windows Command processor. Click YES.
7. After about 1 minute, you should receive a message confirming it finished successfully. Make note of any errors.
8. Restart the computer to complete the setup.
9. Move to Verifying the license runtime.

Verifying the licensing runtime

1. Open Zemax License Manager.
2. Select Launch Admin Control Center. This link is either located at the top of the Zemax License Manager (Nov 2018 or earlier), or on the "Troubleshoot" page (May 2019 or later).

     

3.  Your web browser should open to the Admin Control Center Help page, as shown below. If this completes as expected, your licensing runtime software is working correctly. If this page gives an error message, try another repair option. 

Restart the Sentinel LDK service

If restarting the computer is not an option during the troubleshooting process, you can alternatively restart the Sentinel LDK Service. To do so:

1. Navigate to Windows Start and search the term "services.msc." This will launch the Services window.
2. In the Services window, locate Sentinel LDK License Manager from the list. 
3. <Right-click> on Sentinel LDK License Manager and select Restart. If Restart is unavailable, select Start instead.  

License is not recognized version older than Opticstudio 15.5 

This refers to Zemax 2006 to 13, as well as Opticstudio 14.2 to 15.5. These releases will say "Zemax key not found" Softkey licenses are not compatible as they were introduced after these legacy releases were discontinued. These old releases required a black USB Sentinel key to work. See the legacy license compatibility chart on this page for a complete list. Note that Black USB licenses are no longer being produced by the license vendor and are no longer available for purchase or exchange from Zemax. 

Getting help

If you are still unable to resolve your license issue, contact Zemax Support. Please include as many of the following items as you can with your request:

• License key number (L1XXXXX)
• A description of the issue you are having and any error messages you received
• What you have already tried to resolve it
• A screenshot of:
  • The License Information or View License sections of Classic Zemax License Manager or Zemax License Manager Version 2, respectively
  • The Sentinel Keys and Diagnostics pages from the Sentinel Admin Control Center

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