Draft. This manual is new and still growing. If something here does not match what you see in the software, the software is right — tell us and we will fix the page.
Tier limits
A limit says the same thing in two places at once, in different words, and neither is a fault in your case.
- The Problems tab carries an entry saying what to change about the case, because it sits in a list of things to fix.
- An upgrade notice appears at the top of the pane, in a coloured box, saying what the tier does not include, because it sits above a link to the pricing page. It can be dismissed with the ×, and nothing brings it back before the next launch.
Nothing is locked, read-only or deleted by any of these. The notice says so itself: "The setup stays exactly as it is — nothing has been lost, and nothing is deleted."
The tier-gated messages you meet during set-up — restarting from a result, analysis types, cell zones — are on the main troubleshooting page. This page is the ones about size, cores and where the job runs.
Back to Troubleshooting.
Mesh size
"This mesh is 412,900 cells and the Free tier is limited to 250,000. Coarsen the mesh, or upgrade to remove the limit."
A Problems error against Mesh, and the run will not start. The count is
checkMesh's own, from a mesh that exists.
"This mesh is estimated at about 380,000 cells, over the Free tier's limit of 250,000. The estimate is a projection and snappyHexMesh routinely lands well under it, so mesh it and the real count is checked instead."
The same limit before a mesh exists, and it is a warning rather than an error for the reason it gives: the figure is a projection from the case settings, and the mesher routinely lands well under it. Mesh the case and the real number is what gets judged.
Being refused by a projection and being refused by a fact are different situations, which is why the wording differs.
"This mesh has 180,000 nodes and the Free tier is limited to 100,000. Coarsen the mesh, or upgrade to remove the limit."
The same rule for the structural, thermal, electromagnetics, acoustics, explicit and shape-optimisation families, which are capped in nodes rather than cells. A Problems error against Mesh.
Nodes, not elements: element order changes the node count without changing the element count, so the same tetrahedral mesh at second order carries several times the degrees of freedom.
"This mesh needs about 410k cells. The Free tier stops at 250,000."
The upgrade notice for the same event. The request is rounded and the limit is exact, deliberately — it reads as a measurement against a rule rather than as an accusation of missing by a specific amount. The nodes form reads "This mesh needs about 180k nodes. The Free tier stops at 100,000."
Cores and concurrency
"The Free tier solves on 1 core, so this run will use 1 of the 4 requested and take longer. Upgrading uses the whole machine."
A Problems warning against Simulation control, not an error — the run goes ahead on the cores the licence allows. The second number is what you asked for in Simulation control.
"The Free tier runs one job at a time. Wait for this run to finish, or stop it."
A Log line, written when a second job is started while one is going. Nothing is queued: the second job simply does not start.
Where the job runs
"Running on a remote machine is not part of the Free tier. Choose the bundled runtime, or upgrade."
A Problems error against Simulation control. Set the run back to the bundled runtime and it proceeds locally.
The licence itself
"This licence says Basic but arrived without any limits in it, so Free limits are in force. Re-activating on this page fetches a complete one; if it happens again, contact support - nothing is wrong with your subscription."
On the Licence page. Your subscription is fine and the application is not accusing you of anything — a licence arrived without its entitlement map, and rather than assume no limits the application applies Free ones.
Press Activate again on that page. If it recurs, support@shd-sim.com.
See also Licensing and activation for what each tier includes, and the Licensing section for a licence that lapsed or a seat held by a machine you no longer have.
Previous: The solver log · Next: Structural, thermal and the other solid families