License expired

You get “automatically” logged out of your Rhino account periodically (“security measures”). You can choose to ignore it for a moment - you have about 4 days left before Rhino stops working - or just click “Login now” Sooner or later you will be forced to re-log into your Rhino account anyway if you want to continue using Rhino.

Thanks Mitch, but what does “security measures” mean? Is this making my rhino license safer, and if so how? Is it harder to crack Rhino? Do people steal other people’s licenses? Do I have a higher risk of losing my license if there wouldn’t be this log in protocol?

Don’t shoot the messenger…

I didn’t design the system, for those questions you’ll have to ask @aj1

I’m not shooting you, sorry if it came across like that. I know you’re not behind implementing this and appreciate your reply.
The “why” is my original question in this topic. I understand they implemented this log in procedure but I don’t know how this helps me or mcneel and therefore don’t see the point.

“Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die…” :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

(Charge of the light brigade, Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1854)

“I’d like to know why, since it’s a small annoying thing to need to do if I don’t see the reason…”

(Mcneel Discourse forum, Siemen, 2018)

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@brian “enquiring minds want to know”.
Let me put it another way: Is this just McNeel “piling on” to the current industry trend toward increasingly annoying brainless “security” features just because you can, or does this specific annoying feature actually solve a specific significant problem for McNeel that makes annoying every single Rhino 6 customer somehow important and a small price to pay for the overwhelming damage that McNeel is suffering?

@siemen
It does not say your license is expiring.
It says your Rhino account login will expire in 95 hours.
It like logging into a bank, except they expired your session after a couple minutes of inactivity. Before they do, they pop up a warning message.
We’re doing the same thing.
If you use a Web based email like Google, you are asked to refresh your login monthly.
That’s all we’re doing.

Your Rhino account login period is good for about three months.

The Rhino account is what gives you access to this discussion forum, to the Cloud Zoo, and to several other “services”. We plan on adding more tools in the future that will use your Rhino account to gain access.

Now that you understand this, please read the pop up message again.
Do you understand what it’s trying to tell you?
Does it make more sense now?

How could we word it differently so you understood it and avoided coming to the wrong conclusion?

I guess I should have known that a window popping up saying “Licensing” on top is NOT meant to say your license is expiring. Silly me.

I can see why that might be confusing.

What about the content of the message?
Certainly it is related to licensing.

I’ll see about changing the title of the dialog since that seems to have derailed you.

Hey JB,

Look at the message window in the first post…

It says “If no action is taken in the next 95 hours, Rhinoceros 6.0 will close”

I think that’s pretty dang clear, no?

And in fact, if your license is in the cloud zoo, and you are not logged into your Rhino account, you cannot start Rhino 6 (without first logging in). Unless I have it all wrong…

https://mcneel.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/RH-49682

Hi @John_Brock,
I hope I didn’t come across as rude earlier today, and if so, my apologies.
I was aware that my license was not actually going to expire and I would get logged out and just not be able to use Rhino until I log in. But I was wondering why I get logged out automatically even though I’m using the software daily and to be honest I still don’t really know. (Google & banks do it so Rhino should do it as well?)
Whether you log me out every day or every month, I’m still gonna use Rhino, even though I find it annoying. I’m just curious in which situation this would be beneficial. Are there users who ask(ed) for being logged out every now and then?

Your message wasn’t rude at all.
It was clear that based on the dialog and message, you got the wrong impression about your license expiring.
I added a bug report to fix the dialog title and asked if there was different wording so you would not be confused.

As to why Rhino accounts, Google, your bank, etc. require logins, it’s is a security thing but I’ve not taken a deep-dive on understanding it. It’s just something we seem to need to do.

The point of the dialog is to get you to click the Login Now button to refresh your Rhino account.
Let’s say you didn’t touch Rhino for several months and then started it, you would be asked to Login so you can use your license. That’s all this is about.
I’m sorry it’s so confusing.
We’re trying to make it less confusing so it just works.
It’s pretty clear, we aren’t quite there yet.

I understand why my bank logs me out after some inactivity, the reason is obvious. I don’t understand in what way it makes Rhino secure and that was what I was after, but I understand you don’t know either. As long as there actually is a reason for it I’m fine with it.

The dialog box is not that confusing I think. In fact, I logged in immediately I think even before posting on the forum about it here. The only thing that was confusing to me was why it logs me out. I mean: people can still steal my files from my computer whether I’m logged in or not.

This isn’t about keeping your Rhino or your Rhino files secure.
It’s about finding a way to keep your license secure, keep you in compliance with the license agreement, and makes it possible to securely move your license between different computers with only an occasional Internet connection.

So. I logged in a few days ago and here’s what happens today. I try to open a new Rhino window and get this:


I press the Login button and the screen just keeps loading and loading without doing anything.
I cancel and end up on the same licensing window. I try login again. The same problem: loading and loading.
I try to exit: it starts the same loading window as if I pressed “Login”.
I press cancel again and end up on this licensing window again.
I press the “x” again, now I get a window saying rhino needs a license to run and Rhino will close now.
Rhino closes. I try again and end up in the same problem as before: licensing window & loading. After 3 times of trying to close it I end up on the window saying rhino needs a license to run and Rhino will close now.

Then, before I decide to restart my computer and hope that that will fix it I start writing my reply here. I try to restart rhino so I can take a screenshot of the “rhino needs a license” window and now for some reason it does work without an issue.

I’m not asking for any advice on what to do now, as my Rhino now seems to be working again. This is just not the kind of stuff I feel like dealing with when I want to do some work in Rhino. Is it maybe an issue with my computer? Or are these steps expected?

I also remembered I ran into this issue before: Cannot open new Rhino window: "Contacting McNeel server" Restarting my computer fixed it back then which is why I wanted to restart but then it somehow got fixed without restarting.

Hi @siemen, what you have experienced is not expected behavior. Two things I can’t think of:

  1. If this problems reoccurs, it may be due to “hidden” Rhinos in task manager. You can look for them and end them by using the Windows Task Manager.
  2. Are you using the latest version of Rhino? Some bugs have been worked out over the months that may solve this issue.

AJ

If the Rhino blocked by firewall or any other protection software must be allow it.

Could it be because I’m running multiple rhino windows at the same time often?

Running version 6.10.18311.20531, 11/07/2018 - (Never understood why one would put months in front of days when the year is in the back but I guess that’s a different topic)