Managing licenses with command line switches

Mastercam X lets you request specific product licenses from the NetHASP by using command line switches when you start Mastercam. Earlier versions of Mastercam had separate program files for each product type, such as Mill9.exe, Lathe9.exe, and so on. Checking out different Mastercam product licenses often required you to exit and restart a different Mastercam program. In Mastercam X, all products are run from Mastercam.exe. Product licenses are checked out at startup and then exchanged each time you choose machine definitions for different machine types (Mill, Lathe, Router, Wire). This flexible structure allows NetHASP licensing to be dynamically allocated.

If you start up Mastercam X without using command line switches, Mastercam first checks out a Mastercam Design license, if one is available. If not, it checks out the highest level license available for Mill, Lathe, Router, or Wire to ensure that a product-level license is allocated. When the active machine definition changes to a machine type (Mill, Lathe, Router) that is different from the current product license, the current license is released and a product license matching the active machine is checked out.

	Adding command line switches to your Mastercam shortcut

For example, to create a shortcut that checks out only Level 1 licenses when a Mill, Router, or Lathe machine type is selected, add the following command line switches to your Mastercam shortcut:

/M1 /R1 /L1

Note: Make sure to separate each line switch with a space.

To edit your shortcut, right-click on the Mastercam icon on your desktop and choose Properties. Add switches to the Target field as shown in the picture. Click here to see a complete list of command line switches.