Upgraded to Rhino7 now unable to refresh license for Rhino6

Rhino
#1

When the upgrade offer to Rhino 7 was emailed to me a few weeks ago I upgraded both my Rhino 6 licenses to Rhino 7. So far Rhino 7 has been running pretty much fine. However one of these licenses was cloud based, and now when I log on to the cloud based Rhino 7 license I get a popup message:

" Unable to refresh license for Rhino 6. Your license is or was in use on “****”. If no action is taken in the next 65 hours , Rhino 6 will close."

First of all I did not log on to my Rhino 6 license, I started Rhino 7. Why am I getting a message about my Rhino 6 license when I start Rhino 7?

Second I understand that a cloud based Rhino 6 license has a limited amount of time to open without without issue on a given computer unless it is used within that time period… Does this mean that now that I have upgraded a cloud based license to Rhino 7 I will be unable to use the cloud based Rhino 6 license without going through some reauthorization process unless I periodically go back to Rhino 6 just to keep it active?

This seems poorly thought out.

#2

I think you may be conflating details about refreshing your login, and refreshing your off-line local license “lease”.

Rhino accounts makes you login once every 3 months.
Google makes you login again once a month.
Your bank probably every 15 minutes.

Being logged in gives you access to our Internet based floating license manager.

When Rhino is using an accounts based license (like your V6 and V7 do), Rhino silently checks your license status and updates your local off-line access. You can check this in (Win) Options > Licenses, or (Mac) Preferences > Licenses. It will normally be about 2 weeks out.

This checking and updating the lease happens automatically, and independently for both V6 and V7.
If you do not have an Internet connection this checking will fail silently, but Rhino still runs because it has a valid local lease.

If you get within a couple days of the end of the lease, then Rhino will start complaining. You connect to the Internet, start Rhino, your lease is updated, and you’re all set.

If your 90-day account cycle is nearing it’s end, you’ll be asked to login again. This is the main login that gives you access to the license manager.

Does that make more sense now?

1 Like
#3

You have one of your V6/V7 upgrades in a login account, and the other V6/V7 setup as Single computer.

#4

Hi John thanks for the speedy reply. Yes this makes perfect sense and is exactly how I have understood that the licensing process works. However I am just about always online when I use Rhino, and I use Rhino nearly every day. So I believe that the my account should be registering that I am using the license actively. In the past there were a few occasions when I was traveling (those were the days!) and did not have reliable internet access so I received this type of warning about the license going inactive, but now this does not seem like it should be an issue.

#5

But you still will need to refresh your login (not your license) once every 3 months.

You can also force a login refresh by running the Rhino “Logout” command.
Rhino exits. Start Rhino again, Click Login, and provide your credentials.

#6

Yes this is correct I have a standalone license on my MacBook and share a cloud based license on 2 workstations-one at home and one at my office. When at work I just leave the workstation running most of the time but often need to go to a meeting with the MacBook

#7

The 3-month login is there as a safety net so if your computer is stolen or somehow lost, you haven’t lost your license.

This is one of the risks of stand-alone licensing if you lose your computer, that Cloud Zoo licensing avoids.

With CZ licensing, the license is not on the computer.
With Single Computer it is.

#8

If your V6 account licensed V6 is griping, start it, Logout, start it, and Login.
That should clear any problem.
Then look at the Options > license off-line date and verify it’s about 2-weeks out.

#9

If it is the account that needs to be refreshed not the specific license why should I need to go back to Rhino6 to refresh the account?

#10

For example I logged into my account a couple weeks ago when I upgraded to to V7 to check how the licenses were being assigned.

#11

I think maybe @aj1 might need to answer that.

I understand that the Login goes with the Computer.
While the 3-month login is active, the local Rhino license updating happens automatically.

I login and logout a lot with my testing and support job, so I never see the 3 month login warning.

#12

@abrahamwechter Rhino 6 and Rhino 7 store licensing information in different files, so they each keep track of login information independently of each other. FWIW, Rhino 7 introduces perpetual login, so you don’t have to refresh credentials anymore like Rhino 6. You still may have to confirm you are using your license if you switch back and forth from different devices.

#13

Thanks for your response. I think that if I am logging into my account within the 3 month window then my account should be active. As you know you don’t have to start any version of Rhino to log into your account. I just now logged into my account with no problem direct from the rhino3d.com website. I am currently logged in as I write this. So what does V6 have to do with this?

#14

Of course every time I close down the workstation at my office then open Rhino at home or vice versa I am asked to confirm that I want to move the license to the current machine. But if I am understanding you correctly in order to keep V6 active on a cloud based license I need to open it and login in periodically from V6? Even though the upgrade to V7 is in nearly daily usage?

#15

Yes, every 3 months. Rhino 6 and Rhino 7, are, at your computer, independent of each other in terms of licensing.

#16

So I need to open and log in to my Rhino account from V6 every 3 months on each of the workstations that share the license to keep the V6 license active? But on V7 I don’t need to do this? What happens if I just use V7 let V6 go inactive until I need it?

#17

Then you’ll be prompted to login to V6 when you start it a year (Or whatever) later before you can use it, because the credentials will be expired.

#18

Just to be clear, your V6 license itself never expires – just your credentials on a specific device. You just need to renew those credentials every 3 months (Or longer if you don’t start it for a longer period of time) for V6. It has worked like this since day 1.

#19

OK thanks for the explanation. I think that was not a problem before as I was using V6 all the time but now that I am using V7 I’ll just let V6 go inactive and reauthorize the active computer to use V6 if and when I need to.

#20

If you have internet access, not worrying about letting V6 expire is probably the least stressful path to take.