---
title: "Preferential licencing"
slug: "preferential-licensing-all-configuration-options"
description: "Learn about the configuration options available for your Flood Modeller license, and their respective outcomes"
tags: ["error messages and diagnostics"]
updated: 2024-08-14T15:32:30Z
published: 2024-08-14T15:32:30Z
canonical: "help.floodmodeller.com/preferential-licensing-all-configuration-options"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.floodmodeller.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Preferential licencing

It is possible to [speed up licence searching](/v1/docs/how-to-speed-up-license-searches-within-flood-modeller) performed by the software. It is also possible to [select the edition of Flood Modeller](/v1/docs/how-to-change-edition-of-flood-modeller) to be used by both the interface and the software.

The full list of configuration options for the above optimisations, together with additional options relating to losing your licence connection and finding your network speed, are provided in the table below.

To add these options to your configuration file:

1. Completely close Flood Modeller
2. Locate your formsed.ini file. By default, this is located here: *C:\Users[your_username]\AppData\Roaming\Flood Modeller*
3. Open the formsed.ini file within a text editor
4. Navigate to the [Preferences] section
5. Add lines within this section as desired; these lines can be added anywhere within the [Preferences] block. See table below for a full list of available options.
6. Save and close the formsed.ini file
7. Open Flood Modeller

| Tag | Acceptable values (case insensitive) | Outcome |
| --- | --- | --- |
| PREFERREDLICENCETYPE | NETWORK4 NETWORK[1] | Use network licence (4 concurrent simulations per licence) in preference (NB WIBU[1] product licence codes 151, etc[2] need to be available) |
| NETWORK1 | Use network licence (1 concurrent simulation per licence) in preference (i.e. WIBU[1] product licence codes 151, etc. are not available) |
| STANDALONE *(default)* | Use standalone licence in preference |
| THISLICENCETYPEONLY | T Y 1 | **Only** use licence type specified by PREFERREDLICENCETYPE. (Do not search for others as backup) |
| F N 0 *(default)* | Search for other types in sequence as backup |
| PREFERREDDONGLETYPE | CMACT | Use CmAct (virtual dongle) licence in preference |
| CMSTICK DONGLE *(default)* | Use CmDongle (physical dongle) in preference |
| UFC | Use with dongles, virtual and cloud containers (usually for > v6.0) [3] |
| THISDONGLETYPEONLY | T Y 1 | **Only** use dongle type specified by PREFERREDDONGLETYPE. (Do not search for the alternative as backup) |
| F N 0 *(default)* | Search for the other type as backup |
| PREFERREDLICENCESUPPLIER | SENTINEL | Use Sentinel licensing in preference |
| WIBU *(default)* | Use WIBU licensing in preference |
| THISSUPPLIERONLY | T Y 1 | **Only** use supplier type specified by PREFERREDLICENCESUPPLIER. (Do not search for the alternative as backup) |
| F N 0 *(default)* | Search for the other supplier type as backup |
| PREFERREDEDITION[3] | LITE | Use LITE edition licence |
| STANDARD | Use STANDARD edition licence |
| PROFESSIONAL | Use PROFESSIONAL edition licence |
| UNLIMITED | Use UNLIMITED edition licence |
| DEFAULT *(default)* | Use highest available licence edition for the interface and lowest available licence edition for the solvers |
| THISEDITIONONLY[3] | T Y 1 | **Only** use licence edition specified by PREFERREDEDITION. (Do not search for others as backup) |
| F N 0 *(default)* | Search for other editions as backup |
| LICENCEPERSISTENCE[3] | N (where N is any positive integer) | If the licence connection is lost, retry to find a licence N times |
| -1 *(default)* | If the licence connection is lost, retry to find a licence indefinite times |
| LICENCEPERSISTENCEPAUSE[3] | N (where N is any positive integer >1000) | If the licence connection is lost, retry to find a licence after a pause of N milliseconds |
| 5000 *(default)* | If the licence connection is lost, retry to find a licence after a pause of 5 seconds |
| MAPCMNETWORK[3] | T Y 1 | Scans the network for all available combinations of servers and containers, and stores these for later use. Used to check network speed but can considerably slow down initialisation time of Flood Modeller. |
| F N 0 *(default)* | Does not scan the network for all available combinations of servers and containers. This option is recommended as the scan can considerably slow down initialisation time of Flood Modeller. |

[1]From v4.5 only, [2]And 154 (1,000 1D nodes), 155 (unlimited 1D nodes), 158, 159 (TUFLOW link), as appropriate, [3]From v6.0 only

### Notes

1. Preferential licence search applies to all Flood Modeller modules from v6.0. Legacy versions (<v5.1) use the preferential search for 1D River simulations only.
2. If no tag is used, or an invalid value is entered, the default setting applies.
3. For network licences, it is possible to reduce network searching time by targeting the licence server directly – further details are given in the [Network Licence Admin Guide](/v1/docs/network-licence-administration-guidance).

### Example

The following excerpt from the formsed.ini (settings) file shows the location of the above commands in the file (note: they can be positioned anywhere within the [Preferences] block). This example is to force the software to search only for a CmAct (5000219), network licence. You can copy and paste this into your formsed.ini if this is your licence type.

```none
[Preferences]
PREFERREDDONGLETYPE=CMACT
THISDONGLETYPEONLY=1
PREFERREDLICENCETYPE=NETWORK
THISLICENCETYPEONLY=1
```

Note:If you try the above and receive a message when running simulations that there is no licence found/available, please change to PREFERREDDONGLETYPE = UFC.