Computer Software for Steel Professionals
Structural Material Manager Version 14.1 Upgrade
Introduction: The Version 14.1 Structural Material Manager software system is a free upgrade to all registered owners of its predecessor, Version 14.0. The Version 14.1 upgrade provides:
- Addition of numerous aluminum material grades
- Flexibility to invest in any number of “floating” licenses rather certain pre-determined numbers
Details of these individual topics are presented below.
Addition of Numerous Aluminum Grades: Structural Material Manager has always considered certain grades such as 6061 and 6063 as aluminum. Those are some of the most commonly-used aluminum grades, and the system has recognized them and several others as such without the user having to do anything more than enter one of those grades.
In order to keep pace with evolving industry practices, the Version 14.1 Structural Material Manager upgrade greatly enhances the set of grades that are automatically considered as aluminum. The updated list follows:
- 1050, 1060, 1100, 1199
- 2011, 2014, 2017, 2024, 2219
- 3003, 3004, 3005, 3102
- 4041, 4043
- 5005, 5052, 5056, 5059, 5083, 5086, 5154, 5356, 5454, 5456, 5754
- 6005, 6060, 6061, 6063, 6066, 6070, 6082, 6103, 6105, 6111, 6162, 6262, 6351, 6463
- 7005, 7022, 7046, 7068, 7072, 7075, 7079, 7116, 7129, 7178
- 8000, 8090
Flexibility to Invest in Any Number of “Floating” Licenses: Customers utilizing server-based security keys can now purchase any number of “floating” licenses rather than being limited to license counts matching pre-determined security key denominations.
From 1985 until 2006, all Structural Material Manager software systems were licensed under what is known as "seat licensing." That is a simple one-security-key-per-PC concept that, although intuitive to understand, does not always represent the best value.
In 2006, concurrent user licensing was introduced as an alternative to seat-licensing. It involves a single security key connected to the server rather than any individual PCs, and that key is shared by a pool of potential users. You might have heard this called a "floating" license, and it requires the lowest per-user investment.
Over the years, Structural Material Manager's concurrent user-licensing system matured to near perfection in terms of ease-of-use and reliability. By late 2014, only one minor drawback remained in Version 14.0's concurrent user licensing system: customers still had to purchase a number of “floating” licenses matching one of the available server-based key denominations: 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 25 or 50 users. That meant that there was no way to implement say 4, 7, 9 or perhaps 13 server-based licenses.
With the release of the Version 14.1 upgrade, customers can now choose whatever number of server-based licenses best meets their needs. The network keys still are provided in 1-, 2-, 3-, 5-, 10-, 25 and 50-user denominations - that will never change - but customers can now invest in any number of licenses. E.J.E. Industries simply supplies a network key with at least enough capacity to handle the purchased license count. Think of the physical key’s denomination as it’s hard limit and the actual number of purchased licenses as the software-imposed soft limit.
As a real-world example, consider an actual Structural Material Manager customer that required (6) concurrent users to have simultaneous access to the software. E.J.E. Industries accommodated that need by issuing a 10-user key, and the Version 14.1 software provided that customer with (6) concurrent licenses out of the key’s 10-license maximum. If at some point in the future that particular customer’s needs grow so that a 7th user needs access to Structural Material Manager, they can simply invest in another license while retaining the same 10-user key.
Upgrade Price Quote and Ordering Info: If you are an existing customer with an older Structural Material Manager version, please e-mail us at Sales@ejeindustries.com to obtain a price quote on the latest upgrade. You can then use the Online Upgrade Order Form to conveniently place the order for the latest Structural Material Manager upgrade.
Other Upgrade Versions: This page specifically covers Version 14.1 upgrade features. For information concerning other upgrade versions, visit our main Structural Material Manager upgrade page which contains links to pages describing improvements in each software release from Version 10.1 (circa 2007) to the present.