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Version: 15

Installing and running the software

Please ensure that the following software and hardware requirements are met in order to run the Consteel program. Otherwise, it may not run at the expected speed or may not run at all.

Minimum hardware requirements:

  • Processor
  • Memory
  • HDD
  • Video-card
  • Operating system

Intel Core i5 or equivalent
4 GB
300 MB
512 MB non-integrated
64-bit MS Windows 10

Recommended hardware:

  • Processor
  • Memory
  • Video-card
  • Operating system

Intel Core i7 or equivalent
32 GB
2 GB non-integrated
64-bit Windows 10

Installation needs administrative or power user rights. Without that, the hard lock driver and those .dll files, which are indispensable for the system is cannot be installed.

Downloading the install package​

The ConSteel install package can be downloaded from the Downloads/Install packages section of the ConSteel website (https://consteelsoftware.com/downloads/) for registered users only.

Registration process

To create a new user account, click the LOG IN button in the upper right corner of the Consteel website, then click Register at the bottom of the pop-up window. Then enter your email address, your name, and a chosen password in the Create Account window that appears. It is important to enter a real email address because you will receive an email to confirm it as the next step. At the bottom of the window, it is possible to subscribe to Consteel's professional newsletter and you must accept the terms of use and privacy policy. You can then click on the Register button to proceed, and another window will inform you that the registration confirmation e-mail has been sent to the specified e-mail address and the registration must be completed using the link included in the email. If you don't receive the email in a long time, you may need to check your spam and promotional folders in your email system. If the email is not found there either, you can request to send the confirmation email again if you try to login with your email address and password, then clicking on the Send confirmation email again text. After confirming the registration, you can log in to your user account.

Installing Consteel

To install Consteel, start the downloaded installation file and follow the instructions. As a first step, the language of the setup must be set. Consteel will use this language for the first time you start it, but you may switch to another language later. The installing program will copy the elements of the software into the directory you have specified (default directory: C:\Program Files\Consteel xx - where xx=version number), then it will position the Menu of the program onto the selected place of the „START”-menu. Finally, the install shield will place the desktop shortcut onto the desktop. The last step of the setup is the hard lock driver installation. This has no progress signal, so you have to wait until it finishes.

Network operation​

If you have purchased a network-enabled hardware key, it can be connected to any computer on the internal network with a free USB port on which the hardware key driver has been pre-installed. This driver is also part of the Consteel installation package, which is installed on the computer by default (see the previous section), but it is also possible to install it independently if you want to connect the hardware key to a server computer. To do this, start the Consteel installation package as described above, then in the Select Components window all you have to do is select the Hardlock driver item, leave the rest blank and click Next to complete the installation.

After Consteel 15 Update 6 release, the hardlock driver is removed from the installation package. It is available from our website Downloads menu. After downloading the exe file, install the driver on the usual way.

Starting the program​

There are differences between in starting Consteel 14 and Consteel 15, therefore we describe the two versions separately. To see the Consteel 14 version description, click here.

Launching the program for the first time you have to select whether you use Consteel with a hardware key dongle or with an online license. You have to select it according to your contract. If you own a hardware key dongle you have to select USB dongle. If you have already switched to the new online license and have already sent back your dongle, then you can select the Online license.

You can save this setting as a default setting. Do this only if you are sure about your choice! (If you have accidentally saved the online license as default but you do not have it the solution is at the moment only reinstalling Consteel.)

Students, teachers, or trial users only can request an online license. Please for trial users read our guide here, for educational members, read the steps here.

Hardware key dongle

Online license

Selecting USB Dongle​

Before starting the program, you must plug the hardware key (dongle) into an empty USB port on your computer, or in the case of a network key, the key must be available on a computer on the local network. If, after startup, Consteel cannot find the correct hardware key connected to the computer (or over the network), a login window will appear to launch the program using the online license assigned to the Consteel user account.

Selecting Online​

You will need to log in with your online account to use Consteel with your online protection. If you are on a Personal plan you can choose the available seat then start Consteel. In the Team plan, each software seat comes with two software accesses by default, but more software accesses can be requested for an additional fee if required. Therefore, if you are on a Team plan, you can select from different seats if your license holder has been given access to multiple seats. For more information about how to give access to seats: read here.

According to your membership level, you can take the chosen seat as an offline seat for 72 hours maximum. To do this, select the check box behind the selected seat and enter the length of offline use by clicking the clock icon that appears. (You can also do this later, while the program is running, using the License menu item in the main menu.)

After selecting the desired seat the Project Center will appear. If Consteel hasn't found an available seat you can check your account on our website to request to see your license status or ask your license holder to give you access and seat to use Consteel.

If you have other problems please contact us.

Seat selection

End-user management tool for teams​

Regarding teams, any access can be flexibly connected to any seat in the End-user management tool by the License holder. The End-user management tool is located at the license holder's online account/subscription submenu under the Plan & User management.

(1) "The Subscription plan details" covers all license-related information, online access and seat amount, and available memberships for online accesses.

The software license grants the use by software accesses and software seats, the number of them is defined in the subscription plan. In the Team plan, the User management section holds the panels for assigning software accesses (2) and software seats (3).

(2) First the License holder has to assign users to software accesses. Every access is connected to a Consteel Community Membership level. Cloud services available in Consteel are set by these membership levels.

By clicking on the "Add user" card the license holder can type the user's email address registered as a Consteel account then click add to assign that particular access. By clicking on the three-dotted icon the license holder can move a user to another available membership or remove the user. One user can be assigned to only one software access at a time.

(3) After assigning users to software accesses the license holder can give online seat access to these users. By clicking on a seat's panel the panel will open and the license holder can select a user from the list of assigned users to give access to that particular user. After selecting a user the "Give access" button will be active and clickable. Users can be removed from a seat by clicking on the "X" icon. One user can be assigned to multiple seats.

Subscription plan information and end-user management

Project Center​

The Project Center unites all the functionalities for model and account management.

On the left side of the screen, you can view learning materials on the Learn tab, or open a model from your computer or from the cloud if you are logged into your Consteel account (1). On the Home tab, you can create (2) New model, access your (4) Recent models from your computer and read news and updates from the (5) Info hub. You can access your license information and change the online protection setting to offline mode by clicking on the Licence button (3). You can log in to your account at the top right corner if you haven't logged in already (3). The top bar will have an active button as well when a new update is available to download or your access will expire soon. Support options are also available from the left bottom side of the Project Center (6).

At the Licence settings (3), you can access your license information and also go offline mode if it's available or change the launch settings.

From the Learn screen, you can access various learning materials and example models from the Knowledge base.

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Learning Center

Opening models​

To access your models from your computer just click the "Open from Computer" button.

Cloud open​

If you have models in your cloud storage or someone shared a model with you, you can access those models by clicking on the "Open from Cloud" button.

The folder tree can be seen on the left side of the screen (1).

You can execute different actions (2) in your cloud storage from left to right: "create new folder", "move", "share model", "delete", "search", "sort by date or name", "list or card view", and switch "model or folder information" on or off.

A descriptive panel will appear regarding the selected model or folder if the model information is switched on (3).

Every model opening and sharing cost data bandwidth from your storage. Your monthly bandwidth limit is set by your membership level. You can monitor your current bandwidth usage at the left bottom corner (4).

Cloud storage provided by the Steelspace platform

When you open a model from the cloud it is always downloaded to the local device into the folder: C:\Users(username)\AppData\Local\Consteel\CloudModels and kept synchronized. The amount of data bandwidth is set by your subscription's membership level and it will renew every month.

Starting Consteel 14​

Consteel can be started with hardware key protection for a purchased copy or using an online protection. Currently, the online license is only available for students, teachers, or trial users for free through a registered Consteel user account. See the link below for details on how to apply for a license: https://Consteelsoftware.com/how-licensing-works

Before starting the program, you must plug the hardware key (dongle) into an empty USB port on your computer, or in the case of a network key, the key must be available on a computer on the local network. If, after startup, Consteel cannot find the correct hardware key connected to the computer (or over the network), a login window will appear to launch the program using the online license assigned to the Consteel user account. To do this, you must enter the username (email address) and password registered on the website.

If the user does not have an online license, pressing the “Sign in to online account” button will open the default internet browser application and load the Consteel website. Here you can apply for a new license by clicking on the "Login" button in the upper right corner of the page and then entering the "Licenses" menu.

The starting of Consteel opens a startup dialog window which allows to create and open models easily. The latest models can be opened without browsing folders. They are sorted by the last modification date as a default setting, but they can also be sorted by name or by the model path.

The first big button (#1) is for creating a new model, the second (#2) is for opening models from your computer.