Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Licensing

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ is licensed software that operates according to license feature keys that it checks out from the license management system. Apart from the default mode, you can launch Simcenter STAR-CCM+ in Read-only Mode, Lite, Power Session, and Power on Demand.

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ has multiple product configurations. Each product configuration may require a different type of license, depending on what add-on modules you want to use. Further information is provided on:

Product Configurations

The following Simcenter STAR-CCM+ product configurations are available.

Table 1. Product Configurations
Product Configuration License Feature Description
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ ccmpsuite The Simcenter STAR-CCM+ product license contains all the standard features in Simcenter STAR-CCM+. The default ccmpsuite feature license is used for this configuration.
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite ccmplite

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite is a version of Simcenter STAR-CCM+ that provides a limited set of features. Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite configuration uses the ccmplite feature license. See Capabilities of Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite.

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Power Session ccmppower

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Power provides all the features of Simcenter STAR-CCM+ with the added benefit of running one job on an unlimited number of cores. When this type of license is used, other licenses such as ccmpsuite remain inactive.

If you start a job using the Power Session, only one copy of the ccmppower license is checked out.
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Power Session Plus ccmppowerplus

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Power Plus provides all the features of Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Power Session, with the additional benefit of running one job on an unlimited number of CPUs and GPGPUs.
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Power on Demand ccmppower, ccmppowerplus

The Power on Demand (PoD) session is a licensing model that enables you to use a Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Power Session from a Siemens Digital Industries Software public license server rather than a license server on your own network. This option also permits running simulations on GPGPUs (using the ccmppowerplus license).

For more information, refer to the Power on Demand section.

Power Tokens DOEtoken

Power Tokens provide you with the following capabilities:

  • Together with one ccmpsuite license feature, Power Tokens allow you to run one Simcenter STAR-CCM+ job on multiple cores. Each Power Token allows you to utilize one additional core.
  • 10 Power Tokens allow you to launch one Simcenter STAR-CCM+ session and to access all pre- and post-processing features (with the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ solver being deactivated).

For more information, see Power Tokens.

Additionally, together with one ccmpsuite license feature, Power Tokens can be used as serial and as parallel license feature for the design simulations of a design exploration study in Design Manager.

For more information, see Design Manager Licensing.

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Intelligent Design Exploration innovatesuite The Intelligent Design Exploration license enables you to run optimization, DOE, and stochastic studies in Design Manager.

For more information, see Design Manager Licensing.

Teamcenter Share share Teamcenter Share is a license for a cloud storage account that allows you to share your simulation and CAD data across your organization. You access this data using a web browser or through collaboration functions provided within Siemens Digital Industries Software products. Teamcenter Share provides engineers, designers, managers, and other users with managed access to the same data files.

A comparison table listing the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ add-ons is provided below. A short description of what the configuration includes, along with any pre-requisites is also provided for each configuration. For more information, see STAR-CCM+ Add-on Modules.

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Add-on Description Pre-requisites Feature License Name
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Client for CATIA V5 Enables Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Client for CATIA V5 Simcenter STAR-CCM+ or Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite and CATIA V5 with ME2 or MD2 + GPS configuration license star-cat5
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Client for Creo Enables Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Client for Creo Simcenter STAR-CCM+ or Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite and Creo or Pro/E license star-proe
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Client for NX Enables Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Client for NX Simcenter STAR-CCM+ or Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite and NX license star-nx
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Client for Inventor Enables the STAR-Inventor client Simcenter STAR-CCM+ or Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite and Inventor license star-inventor
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ CAD Exchange Adds native CAD reading capability to Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Simcenter STAR-CCM+ or Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite license cadexchange
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ JTOpen Reader Adds a reader for JT Open files Simcenter STAR-CCM+ or Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite license JTopen
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ In-cylinder Enables internal combustion engine modeling in Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Simcenter STAR-CCM+ or Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite license enablestarice
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Battery Enables Li-Ion Battery and Concentrated Electrolyte models in Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Simcenter STAR-CCM+ license batterysim
Smoothed-Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) Solver

The only license requirement for the SPH module is solver execution.

When the SPH solver is used, one sphflow license is acquired until the server exits. This license is not acquired when the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ server starts.

  • Only one sphflow license is required for any number of parallel cores with each core acquiring a hpcdomains license or DOEtoken license as in other parallel scenarios.
  • Only one shared sphflow license is required for any number of simultaneous Design Manager runs.
  • This license is not valid with the ccmplite license.

If the sphflow license is not available, the SPH solver does not run but the server does not exit. If the license becomes available later, it is acquired on the next run attempt.

 Simcenter STAR-CCM+ license sphflow
Note You can configure Simcenter STAR-CCM+ to release a license automatically when it detects no activity for a set amount of time.

Capabilities of Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite is a version of Simcenter STAR-CCM+ that provides a limited set of features. In Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite, when you view models for a physics continuum in the selection dialog, models that are not available with the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite license are grayed out.

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite gives you access to all the pre-processing features of Simcenter STAR-CCM+ such as 3D-CAD, meshing, and surface repair. Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite also gives you access to the post-processing features including scenes, streamlines, rendering features, and animation.

For physics, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite is focused on providing you with enough capabilities to solve basic fluid flow and heat transfer problems using the segregated flow solver. Specifically, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite provides access to:
Flow characteristics
  • Inviscid, laminar, or turbulent
  • Newtonian and Non-Newtonian viscosities
  • Porous resistance
  • Gravitational acceleration
  • Passive scalars
Temporal discretization
  • Steady
  • Unsteady (implicit and PISO)
Equation of state
  • Constant density
  • Ideal gas law
  • Polynomial density
Heat Transfer
  • Conduction
  • Convection
Turbulence
K-Epsilon (RANS) models
  • Standard
  • Realizable
  • Two-layer
  • Low-Reynolds number
  • Elliptic blending
  • Lag elliptic blending
Materials
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite comes with a database of common materials in categories of solid, liquid, and gas.

You can use Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite to post-process the results of a simulation that was solved using Simcenter STAR-CCM+. It is also possible for Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite to run the simulation for further iterations providing all models are available in Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite. Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite can run Java macros that were generated by Simcenter STAR-CCM+, but if the macro activates any models that are not permitted under the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Lite license, the simulation fails to run.

Read-only Mode

The read-only mode allows you to view a simulation without consuming a Simcenter STAR-CCM+ license. However, the license manager must still be detected by the launch process. When this mode is selected in the interactive startup, the OK button is grayed out unless you specify a file path.

When you open a simulation file as read-only, most of the workspace is grayed out (inactive).



Since this mode is designed for you to review the settings of a simulation, you can view objects and properties but not edit them. Only right-click actions that you can use are visible, such as Copy.

You can copy objects from a simulation in read-only mode to one that is open in read-write mode. You can also compare two read-only simulations using the comparison tool.

License Manager Control

The license manager FlexNet monitors the consumption of licenses for your Simcenter STAR-CCM+ jobs. By default, if you launch a Simcenter STAR-CCM+ job and FlexNet detects that the required licenses are not available, the job terminates.

In queuing or batch systems, it can be useful to adjust this behaviour so that FlexNet waits until the required licenses become available. The following environment variable allows you to control the FlexNet behavior:

Variable name Variable value FlexNet behavior if required licenses are unavailable
STARWAIT 1 FlexNet waits for the required licenses.
0

(or not setting the environment variable at all)

FlexNet reports that the required licenses are unavailable—the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ job terminates.

For more information on FlexNet, see Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Installation Guide.