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2015 Windows Dongle Issue


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Hi Team,

I have been battling this issue since the release of 2015 here in Australia. I'm hoping someone out there smarter than me has hit this issue and overcome it.

On initial release I installed VW2015 on the system listed in my signature. The machine has VW2014 still installed on it in case that's a factor. After installation I routinely rebooted the machine and on trying to start up I get ‘A Vectorworks Dongle could not be found. Make sure that the dongle is connected and all required drivers are installed. Vectorworks will now quit.’

I have spoken with our Distributor here in Australia and they assured me my dongle is the correct series and that the only known issue was the shortcut from the windows menu failing. I hadn't used that shortcut anyway, but I thought Id mention it here. We also un-installed and reinstalled the ''correct'' drivers for the HASP dongles.

OzCAD had me wait for the Service Pack 1 in hopes that that would fix it, today hat service pack was released and after installation I'm still in the same position.

I have now installed this on three machines, using three different dongles (We have four)and I arrive at the same issue. I'm concerned that I don't see the community boards swimming with people in my position, Id almost feel better if they were.

If anyone has any help on this, or more questions for me, please respond, I'm really stumped here. Thanks gang!

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

I have seen this issue with 10.10 a few times (reinstall of latest dongle driver seems to fix it mostly) but not on Windows.

Does the same thing occur if you run Vectorworks as an administrator, or not as an admin if that's what you're doing already?

http://kbase.vectorworks.net/questions/927/Run+As+Administrator

What drivers did you install? From the DVD or from a link provided to you? Could you post the link you used if so?

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Hi Jim,

Thanks for your time. I have installed the drivers both from the downloaded VW Installer and again from the Sentinel Website. The current driver I have installed is Sentinel Runtime Version 6.64.1.44877

http://sentinelcustomer.safenet-inc.com/sentineldownloads/?s=&c=End+User&p=Sentinel+LDK&o=all&t=Runtime+%26+Device+Driver&l=all

This was the driver I got from the website recommended to me by OzCAD

I will attempt the Administrator attack now!

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OK, Status Update.... I have tried running VW2015 in Administrator mode, no luck. Overnight OzCAD suggested to me that I try running the Dongle driver installer in administrator mode, and just for the record, that didn't change anything either.

Without sounding facetious I have 2014 running correctly on this machine that would lead me to believe that the driver is not really the issue, that said I'm happy to try ANYTHING that might help me out. Thanks so much!

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

I would not suspect the driver either since previous versions are working, unfortunately (or... fortunately?) I am able to use the dongled versions of 2015 here on the same OS with the same drivers and they work fine.

The issue is most likely nothing to do with the dongle itself hardware-wise either, as normally if a dongle fails, it fails all the way and stops responding entirely.

It is true however that there are slight differences between the OzCAD versions and the non-localized English version of the software (what I'm using to test here) so I'll grab a copy of the OzCAD installer and test it as well.

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Victory!

Ok, I now know the issue. In the 2012-2014 versions of Vectorworks you can install with any active licence number and once the program opens for the first time if the serial number doesn’t match the dongle it prompts you to enter the correct serial number for the dongle currently inserted (We have four dongles and they often circulate the office)

I had installed this Vectorworks 2015 using one 2015 licence and had a different dongle in when it opened, rather than prompt me to type the correct serial for this dongle it simply didn’t recognise it at all, after updating the registration through Regedit.exe > HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Nemetschek > Vectorworks 20 > Registration and correcting this I can now open it. This is a very small change, but inconsistent with previous versions.

I hope this saves someone from the headache. Thank you Jim!

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Hey Guys,

So with every answer comes a new question. We now have the issue where 5 of us share 4 dongles. The dongle used to install the program must be the one it runs with everytime. Whereas in the past if I grabbed another dongle on opening Vectorworks I was asked to enter the correct serial number and then Voila! With 2015 that has changed which lead to our original issue of the dongle not being recognised. I’ve now installed it for everyone and out current workaround is changing the regedit and re-typing the serial for the dongle were using that time. This is horrible and tedious and time consuming. I would love a fix that allows us to use the dongles the way they were intended.

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I'm intrigued Jim, Our computers are all connected over the network, but it has been my understanding that the dongles work as a key on each machine. Tis allows us to own four licences and spread them across the five of us here as well as allow them to use these on their laptops.

This has worked for us well up until now but for this new issue. where we now cant move a dongle from one computer to another without editing the registry to change the serial number applicable for that machine.

Please fill me in on how this server style connection might work, that could save a lot of time. Thanks so much Jim!

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Its specific to what distributor you have to which license types you would have available.

As far as the US licenses go:

A 'B' series license (Your serial number will start with B) is the single-seat dongle system, where you plug the dongle directly into the machine you want to use Vectorworks on at a given moment.

A 'G' series (Your SN will start with a G) has only one dongle installed on a "server" which just has to be any always-on computer on your network, and your various machines with Vectorworks installed on them connect and borrow a license, then return it when the application is closed. These all install with the same serial number, but link into one dongle and license manager that determines how many licenses you can have at a given time.

There was an older version called C series which is being phased out, as its not compatible with the latest OSes which was similar to G series.

For specifics, ask your distributor about other options, each of them can have different types available.

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Thanks Jim,

We have 'B' Licenced Dongles and at the moment it seems that they aren't working as they should. I know I've explained before but, during the installation process it asks for your serial number. If after installation the dongle is swapped with another 'B' Licence dongle the computer simply says it cant recognise a dongle and shuts down. In previous versions you would be prompted to enter the serial for the current dongle and off you'd go. This is causing enormous headaches for us here. Currently in order to use a dongle other than the one used to install the software you must enter RegEdit and change the serial within the registration.

Edited by Haydenovative
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  • 1 month later...

Hey Team,

Just a follow up on this since November. We have not yet seen a fix for this and its still a significant headache for our office. We are still having to edit the registration on each machine when we wish to use a dongle other than that of the dongle used during the installation process.

Thankyou to OzCAD for submitting this, we eagerly await a fix.

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