Femap Start Reduce Heartbeat Time

Engineering Tools — Femap Start Reduce Heartbeat Time

What this tool does

Launches a fresh Femap instance with two FlexNet license-server environment variables overridden so a borrowed license behaves snappy even when the PC is still on a network where the original license server is reachable but slow to respond. The current Femap session is left running — this tool spawns a second instance configured for fast license checkout.

What it sets:

  FLEXLM_TIMEOUT = 200000     (microseconds; 0.2 seconds)
  FNP_IP_ENV     = 1          (prefer IP-based handling, skip DNS)

That's all it does. It does not borrow or return a license, does not change which license server the client uses, and does not modify any global setting. The effect lasts only for the Femap session it launches; closing that Femap restores the default behaviour for the next launch.

The problem this avoids

When a user borrows a license for offline / on-the-road work and then later opens Femap on a PC that's still connected to a network or VPN where the corporate license server’s address is reachable, the client may keep trying to contact the server even though the license is already borrowed locally. If the server is blocked, down, timing out, or being slow to respond, every license checkout / heartbeat attempt waits the default FlexNet timeout (which is several seconds on most builds) before falling back to the borrowed copy.

The visible symptom is that Femap pauses between commands — opening a model, switching views, running an API tool — for seconds at a time, sometimes minutes, with no obvious cause. It is the license client waiting for the network round-trip to fail.

Setting FLEXLM_TIMEOUT=200000 caps that wait at 0.2 seconds, which is enough for a local-LAN responder to answer but short enough that a blocked-or-down responder fails fast and Femap falls back to the borrowed license without making you wait. FNP_IP_ENV=1 is a belt-and-suspenders setting that asks FlexNet to skip hostname resolution in favour of direct IP handling, which avoids DNS-related stalls on top of the network-level ones.

When to use it

  • You have a borrowed license.
  • Femap runs fine fully offline (license is found and used).
  • Femap gets sluggish only when you go online or connect to VPN.
  • The pauses feel like the same several-second multiple every time, which is the signature of a license-server timeout cycle.

When NOT to use it

  • You need to borrow or return a license — that workflow needs to talk to the license server normally; this tool makes the conversation fail fast, which is the opposite of what you want during a checkout / return.
  • You are intentionally on a floating network license — same reason. Floating licenses depend on the server being reachable for ongoing operation.
  • Femap can’t see the borrowed license at all — this tool won’t fix that; you have a borrow problem, not a timeout problem.

How to launch

The tool appears in the Engineering Tools custom-tool menu under Other Tools → Femap Start Reduce Heartbeat Time (super-user installs only). Click it, read the confirmation dialog, click OK, and a new Femap window opens with the fast-mode environment variables applied. Your current Femap session keeps running so you can close it on your own terms.

A short cmd window flashes during the launch and prints the resolved values:

  Launching FEMAP with borrowed-license fast mode:
     FLEXLM_TIMEOUT=200000 (microseconds)
     FNP_IP_ENV=1
     FEMAP_EXE=C:\Program Files\Siemens\Femap 2506\femap.exe

The launcher walks a list of known install paths in newest-first order — Femap 2506, 2501, 2406, 2402, 2401, 2306, 2301 — and uses the first one that exists. If you have a non-standard install location, set FEMAP_EXE as a Windows environment variable and the launcher will honour it:

  setx FEMAP_EXE "D:\my-portable-femap\Femap 2506\femap.exe"

Verifying it worked

Once the new Femap finishes loading, you can confirm the env vars took effect by running a one-line API check inside that Femap:

  feFemap.feAppMessage(2, Environ("FLEXLM_TIMEOUT") & " / " & Environ("FNP_IP_ENV"))

If you see 200000 / 1 in the message area, the launcher delivered. If you see two empty values, the Femap you’re looking at was started by some other launcher and didn't inherit them — close it and re-launch through the tool.

FAQ

Q. Does this make Femap faster?

No — it stops Femap from being made slower by a license-server problem. On a properly-online floating-license setup you would see no difference; the tool only helps when the license client is spinning on failed server contacts.

Q. Does it borrow a license?

No. Use Femap’s own borrow workflow before going offline, then use this launcher if the borrow + reconnect-to-network combination makes Femap stall.

Q. Will my IT department notice?

Probably not. The license server still sees the borrow record; the client just gives up faster on routine heartbeats. No changes are made to the license file, the license server, or any registered service.

Q. Why 200000?

That’s the documented minimum for FLEXLM_TIMEOUT, expressed in microseconds (0.2 sec). Below that the client refuses the override and falls back to default behaviour.

Q. Will this conflict with other Femap launchers I use?

No — the environment variables are scoped to the cmd process the launcher spawns, which in turn spawns Femap. Closing that Femap ends the scope; nothing persists between sessions.

Q. Can I just set these env vars myself?

Yes, absolutely. This tool just packages the recipe into a one-click Custom Tools entry with the right Femap path detection baked in. If you prefer, use the underlying batch file directly — it lives in Other Tools\Femap Start Reduce Heartbeat Time\ in your toolbox install.

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