FAQ

The Plaxis programs have two types of licences: the flexible and the standalone licence. The flexible licence is a concurrent user network licence, where the number of licences is the number of users who can access the program at the same time. If you only need to use the program on one computer however you can also go for our slightly cheaper option of the standalone licence. This licence can only be installed and used by one user on one computer.

If you have a standalone license, the program checks if the computer hardware is still the same. When it is not, the Plaxis program responds with the message "The key is not bound to this machine". If you want to obtain a flexible license or for more information, please contact our sales department by filling in this contact form.

How to install Plaxis with a network CodeMeter dongle (grey USB key).

1. Install Plaxis software on the client PC, from the CDROM
2. Install the latest CodeMeter drivers from the Plaxis website
3. Install the same driver version on the server
4. Insert the USB key in the server.
5. On the server, open the CodeMeter WebAdmin, browse to Configuration and check the Run Network Server option
6. Restart the CodeMeter service on the server (Open the CodeMeter control centre, switch off the desired key, and reactivate it.)
7. In most cases it should work now

Trouble shooting:

• Check if the client pc can find the server: open the web browser and type: http://<IP-address server>:22350. Now you should be able to see the CodeMeter WebAdmin of the server. If not try to see if the server can be found at all by starting the command console and type 'ping <IP-address server>'
• Please note that the CodeMeter key uses port 22350 (default setting) for communication. Make sure that the firewall does not block the communication over this port. To check this, temporarily disablethe firewall and check if the program starts. Please do not forget to turn on the firewall again.
• Sometimes the automatic search for the CodeMeter server takes too long, and will result in a time out. In that case, please add the IP - address to the IP search list in the following tab-sheet of the local pc's WebAdmin ( http://localhost:22350/Configuration.html ) This is the client pc, not the server.
• Updates should be done on the computer containing the CodeMeter network key
  
  

Sometimes when updating the CodeMeter USB drivers, the old drivers cannot be removed. This can cause driver conflicts on your system for the CodeMeter drivers. This error occurs when the CodeMeter uninstaller is not able to stop the current running CodeMeter Service.

It is possible to fix this, but it needs to be done manually. Please follow these steps:

1. Remove the grey CodeMeter USB stick from the computer
2. Restart your computer
3. After rebooting, open the task manager and select Processes
4. Check if the processes called 'codemeter.exe' and/or 'codemetercc.exe' are running
5. If one of these are running, please stop these processes.
6. Go to the Add/Remove programs option in the Control Panel
7. Remove all CodeMeter programs
8. Now obtain the latest CodeMeter drivers from the download page and install these.

Now you should have installed the latest drivers correctly and you should be able to use PLAXIS.
 
In case of any questions, please consult your IT-department to help with your current computer configuration.

To reset the language in Plaxis 2D:

• Start the Input program
• Create a new project (which will be topmost radio button) and click OK (leftmost button at the bottom of the window)
• Accept the general settings by clicking OK (middle button at the bottom of the window)
• Now press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+R: a message appears that the language will be reset
• After a restart, you may choose a new language to use.
  
  

The new implementation of the stage regeneration (since PLAXIS 2D V9) will regenerate all stage settings and it directly will recalculate all stresses of the K0 procedure and the pore pressures based on a phreatic level calculation. (Groundwater flow and full phase recalculations are excluded in this regeneration.)

When optimizing the mesh, you tend to regenerate the mesh a few times. When you already have defined some phases for this project, the mesh generation will also start regenerating the phase settings. This regeneration of stages can take some while, since it will also regenerate the pore pressures for each phase.
It is possible to prevent the generation of these stresses. In order to exclude the regeneration of these stresses, please create a file called:
C:\2D_NO_STRESS_RECALC

Please note that this will prevent the regeneration of these stresses during the regeneration of the mesh:
- initial stresses using the K0 procedure
- all (steady state) pore pressures

When you are satisfied with the generated 2D mesh, and you want to continue with the project, you should still regenerate these stresses in order to be able to calculate the phases.
The best solution would be to remove this file, and then regenerate the mesh, so all pore pressures calculated by phreatic level calculations and the K0 procedure stresses are also recalculated.

Please use this special option with caution: if you do not regenerate the stresses before going to the initial conditions or the calculations program, the project might get into a state that it cannot be calculated any more.

PLAXIS 2D Version 8 and Version 9 can only import geometry files of the Delft GeoSystems M-Series software. Please also read the Plaxis Reference manual, page 3-6
Please find two examples of the *.geo files here. These are geometry files created by Delft Geosystem's M-Serie software (see: http://www.delftgeosystems.nl/). You can view the content of the files with plain text readers (like notepad).

In 2010, Plaxis will release new products in the 2D and 3D product lines with improvements on the CAD import functionality. This will become availabe under the Plaxis VIP license only.

Another way to quickly add points and lines is using the 'command' line. In the lower left part of the screen, you see the text Point number and coordinates. Here you can define coordinates by first specifying the X-coordinate followed by a space and the Y-coordinate. Make sure to activate a drawing tool first (e.g. lines, walls, interfaces).

When using the Plaxis material database, users should have full read/write access to the subfolder DB of the Plaxis installation folder, and to all its contents.

By default, this folder is located here:

• PLAXIS 2DV8: C:\Program Files\Plaxis8x\DB\
• PLAXIS 2DV9: C:\Program Files\Plaxis\Plaxis 2D\DB\

Please check if the current user has this full permission to this folder. Administrator accounts have full access, while most accounts with only user privileges do not have such permissions.

It is possible to obtain the data from the PlaxFlow curves:

• First generate the desired curve.
• Then browse to the Windows TEMP folder and open the folder XXGWFXX.DTA
• In this folder, you will find a file called XXGWFXX.GSD
• This is an ASCII file with the graph data in it.

Alternatively, you can also:

• Generate the desired curve
• In the Input/Calculation program, save the project
• In the project's data folder (<save name>.DTA), you can find a file with the extension *.GSD
• This is an ASCII file with the graph data in it.

Note: this file only contains the data from the latest generated curve.

Other related files are:
*.GSN Selected Nodes data
*.GSS Selected Stress points data

This error in iterative solver can be caused by:

• Not enough memory (or too many elements for the current memory)
• Badly shaped elements: good elements are those with the same size for width, length and height of the element.
• Large stiffness differences in your model (e.g. a difference ratio > 1E6). This also includes the use of structures (beams, walls)

So please check your mesh (both 2D and 3D) in detail, and check if you use large stiffness differences in the used materials. Sometimes a hint is given by the program: if you e.g. activate a plate in phase 4, and this phase shows the error, it is likely that the used stiffness for the plate is too high for the numerical model.