Change AutoCAD network to standalone to network

James Maeding shared this great tip.

This is a fairly well documented subject, except for Land Desktop Companion.

The well documented part is:

The two tweaks you must do are

1)      change the registry key of:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R17.2\ACAD-7000:409\AdLM

Set item Type as 2a for going to Standalone (this is a hexadecimal value)

Set item Type as 19 for going to Network (also hex value)

2)      Be sure you copied your LICPATH.LIC file to the install root of given program.

Licpath.lic is a text file that typically has these lines:

SERVER FLEX 0010100a0010

USE_SERVER

The server name and key will vary for you. (FLEX is the server name)

I put that file in install roots of all adesk progs, just so it’s there if I need it when switching.

You must have the “Cascading License Service” installed to switch LDC from standalone to network. This might be true for other applications as well.

C3D works without it, but LDC needs it.  This is because LDC is considered a non-top level program by the FlexLM server.

To install it, simply copy the file:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Service\AdskNetSrv.exe

from a computer that has it from an original network seat install, to machine without it.

Then install the service with this at Start->Run of Windows:

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Service\AdskNetSrv.exe" –install

Then LDC network works.

What I have found is the serial must be correct for your standalone seat, if switching to standalone so it can authorize.

The serial does not matter if switching to network!  What a convenient twist.  EULA probably wants it correct to the seat type though.

The Help->About item in acad lets you switch serials so make use of that as needed.

While most places have plenty of acad seats right now, I am getting random startup crashes that I have narrowed to the licensing.

Its useful to switch a seat to standalone and back for troubleshooting.

Previous post on NLM to SLM convertions. Change AutoCAD from standalone to network

UPDATE: For newer versions take a look at How to change AutoCAD from network license to standalone, Change AutoCAD 2013 from Network license to Standalone and Change AutoCAD 2014 from Network license to Standalone