Simcenter Testing Solutions Simcenter Testlab Tokens: What are they, and how do they work?

2023-08-24T14:43:05.000-0400
Simcenter Testlab

Summary

Details

With the release of Simcenter Testlab 2021 and higher, the number of software modules that can be accessed via token licensing has increased. The token licensing was expanded to include data acquisition and additional analysis capabilities.

This article explains Simcenter Testlab token licensing, and has the following sections:
   1. What is Token Licensing?
   2. How does Simcenter Testlab Token Licensing Work?
   3. Example of Token Licensing
   4. Configuration of Tokens
      4.1 USB License Keys
      4.2 Floating Server License
   5. Examples of Moving from Fixed Licenses to Token Licensing
      5.1 Impact Testing
      5.2 Vibration Control
      5.3 Distributed Team of Test Engineers
      5.4 Reusing Simcenter Testlab Neo Processes
   6. List of Tokenable Software
   7. Summary of Token Licensing

1. What is Token Licensing?

Simcenter Testlab tokens are a flexible licensing mechanism that gives users access to a large library of software modules for doing testing and data analysis (see Figure 1).

Testlab Token Library.png
Figure 1: Disciplines addressed by Simcenter Testlab tokens include Durability, Structural Dynamics, Acoustics, Rotating Machinery, and Vibration Control.

Unlike a fixed item licensing, where only specifically purchased licenses can be used, the Simcenter Testlab token licensing option allows users to run any combination of token-enabled software modules as long as the total amount of available tokens is not exceeded.

In the Simcenter Testlab token licensing system:

  • A quantity of tokens is purchased instead of buying individual software products.
  • Each Simcenter Testlab analysis and acquisition license has a fixed token amount required to run it.
  • Any combination of software options can be run, as long as the total amount of available tokens is not exceeded.
  • The application library available through tokens expands with each new release of the Simcenter Testlab software.
  • Simcenter Testlab tokens are reusable!  They last for the same duration as your overall license, and can be re-allocated as needed between different add-ins.

How token licensing works, and some examples, are covered in the next sections.

2. How does Simcenter Testlab Token Licensing Work?

An analogy with a library can be used to explain how token licensing works (Figure 2).

library.png
Figure 2: Just like a library allows books to be checked out up to a certain maximum, token licensing allows any token enabled software module to be run up to the maximum number of tokens.

In a library, any book can be checked in and out, but only a certain maximum number of books can be checked out at a given time. For example:

  • A single library card has a maximum amount of ten books that can be checked out at any instance in time.
  • Seven books of a fictional series can be checked out and still have the availability to check out three more books.
  • Checking out four more books would not be allowed since the maximum is ten books. However, once a single book is returned, all four books can be checked out.

Simcenter Testlab tokens works in the same way with its software module library. Token licensing provides a similar system of “checking out” certain analyses or acquisition modules. This allows for flexibility and added capabilities that a fixed license approach does not permit.

3. Example of Token Licensing

A test team decides to purchase 120 tokens to perform impact testing, modal analysis, and sound diagnostics. Table 1 shows a list of some key modules used for this type of testing and analysis. A more complete list of token-enabled licenses is at the end of this article.

A table showing possible tokenable licenses.
Table 1: List of modules needed with their token values

First, the engineer will perform impact testing to gather FRFs for a modal analysis.

The engineer acquires FRFs using a SCADAS system. To do so, they open the Impact Testing application, which uses the Desktop license and 25 tokens. This gives 95 tokens available to use on other features.

Table 2 shows the licenses being used highlighted in green.

A table of tokenable licenses, showing the Impact Testing license selected.
Table 2: Tokens used during data acquisition for Impact Testing

Once the data is collected, the engineer will perform modal analysis. Therefore, the Impact Testing project will be saved, closed, then reopened in Desktop to free up the 25 tokens used by the Impact Testing acquisition module, then Modal Analysis (77 tokens) will be turned on along with the optional Maximum Likelihood Estimator for a Modal Model (MLMM) to assist with their analysis (26 tokens).

This is done from the main Simcenter Testlab menu under “Tools -> Add-ins” as shown in Figure 3.

ModalAddin.png
Figure 3: Modal Analysis and MLMM turned on in Add-in Menu of Simcenter Testlab.

Shown in Table 3, there are 103 tokens in use, with 17 tokens that can still be used to turn on other modules.

A table showing the Modal Analysis and MLMM licenses selected.
Table 3: Tokens used for performing Modal Analysis

Then a pressing sound quality issue comes up! The chief engineer needs results immediately! The engineer can turn off Modal Analysis and MLMM, restoring all 120 tokens, and then run Sound Diagnosis (62 tokens) instead. The token amounts required are shown in Table 4.

A table showing the Sound Diagnosis license selected.
Table 4: Tokens required to run Sound Diagnosis

Since performing modal analysis and sound diagnosis are two different analyses, it would not make sense to run them together. The modal analysis modules are turned off, and the sound diagnosis modules are turned on under the “Tools -> Add-ins” menu of Simcenter Testlab (Figure 4).

SoundAddin.png
Figure 4: Sound Diagnosis selected in Simcenter Testlab Add-in menu.

As seen in this example, 120 purchased tokens allowed an engineer to change instantly between different types of acquisition and analysis as needed.

Read on for more examples!

4. Configuration of Tokens

There are several different options for how tokens can be configured and accessed. They can be locked to a moveable USB key, or float on a networked license server:

4.1 USB License Keys

Desktop and token licenses can be assigned to small, individual USB keys that can be plugged into a computer. When the USB key (Figure 5) is plugged into the computer, the license file on the computer is checked for the USB key serial number, and any assigned Desktop and token licenses then become available.

usb_key1.png
Figure 5: USB License Key

A user can check out as many tokens that are assigned to the USB key plugged into a computer. Multiple USB keys can be shared across a local team of engineers. Multiple USB license keys can even be used on one computer simultaneously.

4.2 Floating Server License

Multiple desktop and tokens can be placed on a computer server on a network. Any computer attached to the network can access these licenses. This enables entire test teams in multiple locations to share tokens.

5. Examples of Moving from Fixed Licenses to Token Licensing

Some additional examples are explained below.

5.1 Impact Testing

In this example, by switching to tokens, conflicts and lost time are avoided due to a single fixed license of impact testing acquisition (Figure 6).

impact_test.png
Figure 6: Modal impact hammer test.

Without Tokens: A team of test engineers shares three USB license keys. One engineer needed to perform impact testing, however, only one of the USB keys had the license for impact testing. One of the team members accidentally took that USB key home and went on vacation for a week. Now that engineer has to wait until the team member comes back before doing the impact measurements.

With Tokens: The same team of test engineers share three USB license keys with a Desktop license and 90 tokens assigned to each key. One engineer needs to perform impact testing, so they can grab any of the USB keys and are able to start Impact Testing with the Impact Testing (25 tokens) add-in. There was no need to search for a specific USB key or wait until another engineer was finished.

5.2 Vibration Control

In this example, by switching to tokens, a vibration testing laboratory is able to take on a wider range of vibration control tests (Figure 7).

vibration_control.png
Figure 7: Simcenter Testlab Vibration Controller.

Without Tokens: In a vibration lab with several shaker systems, 95% of the tests are run with standard random, shock or sine testing. Occasionally, a test request comes in that requires a more complex test, such as sine on random or random on random. Because these licenses had not been previously purchased, these tests had to be turned down, or sent out to another lab. Management did not want to have a license that was only used on rare occasions.

With Tokens: With a Desktop license and 60 tokens for each vibration controller, this lab can run the complex tests in-house without having to send work out to another lab to get it done (example: Testlab Desktop + 22 token random control + 25 token sine on random). Using tokens, they were able to offer additional services as well, for example, Mission Synthesis (24 tokens) for Power Spectral Density profile development.

5.3 Distributed Team of Test Engineers

In this example, by switching to tokens, an engineering group (Figure 8) avoids lost time due to license unavailability.

engineering_team.png
Figure 8: Test team using Simcenter Testlab tokens.

Without Tokens: A global test team has a Simcenter Testlab license server with fixed licenses that they all access and share. They have three fixed licenses of Time Signal Calculator to perform analysis. Sometimes, five engineers want to use Time Signal Calculator. When this happens, team members are forced to wait to process their data until their coworkers are finished using the licenses.

With Tokens: The team switches to several Desktop licenses and 400 floating tokens on the server. Five engineers can run Time Signal Calculator (26 tokens) at once. Or they can run five copies of Operational Deflection Shapes (28 tokens) at once. Or three copies of Operational Deflection Shapes and two copies of Time Signal Calculator at once. The tokens permit any combination of software modules to be run as needed (up to the available token limit).

5.4 Reusing Simcenter Testlab Neo Processes

In this example, an engineer saves a process in Simcenter Testlab Neo (Figure 9) and provides it to a co-worker to use.

An image of a Simcenter Testlab Neo process, comparing with all required licenses to missing a license.

Figure 9:  A Neo process, with (left) and without (right) the Anomaly Library add-in.

Without Tokens:  An engineer has created a process to integrate data in the Time Domain within Simcenter Testlab Neo and tried to share the process with a co-worker.  Unfortunately, the co-worker has a different set of licenses and lacks the Anomaly Library add-in that was used to create the process, so they have to choose between risking drift by skipping the detrending step, or not running the process at all.

With Tokens:  The co-worker can re-allocate their tokens from the File -> Add-ins menu (Figure 10) based on what is needed for the process, to include the Process Designer (19 tokens), Interactive Analysis (16 tokens), and Anomaly Library (16 tokens), and is then able to use the full process.

Selecting tokenable add-ins in Simcenter Testlab Neo.

Figure 10: Selecting add-ins in Simcenter Testlab Neo.

6. List of Tokenable Software

There are more than 50 different tokenable software modules, from Human Body Vibration to Operational Modal Analysis to Transfer Path Analysis. The token licensing is structured as follows (indents indicate pre-requisites):

Desktop

  • Simcenter Testlab Desktop must be purchased separately, it is not tokenable. It is the base license required to start the Simcenter Testlab software, and includes data viewing, and reporting. One Desktop license is required per concurrent user.

Acquisition

Analysis

Exceptions

  • In addition to the Simcenter Testlab Desktop, as of Revision 18, the Simcenter Soundbrush software is not available via tokens.
  • For installations prior to Revision 2021.1, the Frontend Driver license (12 tokens) was a pre-requisite of acquisition licenses.
  • For installations prior to Revision 2206.0002, the Simcenter Sound Camera and Simcenter HD Acoustic Camera software were not available via tokens.

Contact your local Siemens representative for a complete list of software modules that are available with tokens.

7. Summary of Token Licensing

A token licensing system allows:

  • Access to various applications without having to buy specific products
  • Increased capabilities over time
  • Users to try out modules without having to purchase a license

For more information about Simcenter Testlab tokens, feel free to reach out to peter.schaldenbrand@siemens.com or contact Siemens Support Center.

 

*** All information in this document subject to change at the discretion of Siemens Digital Industries Software ***

 

Simcenter Testlab Links:

KB Article ID# KB000044200_EN_US

Contents

SummaryDetails

Associated Components

Simcenter Testlab Digital Image Correlation Testlab Environmental Testlab Acoustics Testlab Data Management Testlab Desktop Testlab Durability Testlab General Acquisition Testlab General Processing & Reporting Testlab Rotating Machinery & Engine Testlab Sound Designer Testlab Structural Dynamics Testlab Turbine