Hello,

I'm very new to Houdini (moving from SI) so please bear with me if this is a very simple question, but couldn't find something similar.

It has happened a couple of times lately: when I try to open Houdini Indie, it won't launch and a windows asking for a valid license appears. I have fixed the issue by returnning the license and then reedemming it again.

It works but I honestly have no clue why is this happening. I'm a bit concerned about having a reedem limit or something. Everytime I've done this has been in the same PC (windows 7 btw).

Does anybody know what could be happening? why I lose my license so often?. It's strange because my Redshift license is also locked to my hardware and that one is ok, no problems so far. Of course I haven't changed anything on the pc hardware. Neither software other than some windows updates, but hardware and software have been the same for at least one month.

Thanks for any help,
Orlando.

Moin, Orlando,

not sure, but maybe your license server is working in network mode and you are having network issues (maybe more than one machine are using the same name?), have you tried setting the license server type to “standalone” (local server only)?

Marc

please contact support for things like this - they can help you sort out what is happening.

Thank yout Marc, Michael. I just sent a mail to support. I thought it was faster to ask here.

Cheers,
Orlando.

This is what worked for me.

How do I install licenses (without internet access)?

If you do not have internet access from the machine running Houdini, you will need to use a second machine with internet access to acquire your licenses.

Start the Houdini License Administrator from the Start Menu if using Windows or from the Applications folder in Finder if using Mac. If using Linux, run hkey after sourcing the houdini environment (source houdini_setup or houdini_setup_bash if using the bash shell)
Click on the Server Information tab and record the license server host and the server code.
From the machine with internet access, go to https://www.sidefx.com/services/non-commercial-license/ [www.sidefx.com] . Enter the server name and server code and select the Houdini product to activate.
Cut and paste the SERVER and LICENSE keys and and save them to a file on a disk.
On the machine running Houdini, select File -> Manually Enter Keys…. Paste each key into a text box using Ctrl+V and press OK.
You can now run the Houdini product.
If installing licenses in local licensing mode, you may need to set the read-write permissions on the license directory (C:\Windows\keys or /usr/lib/sesi or /Library/Preferences/sesi/) so that the License Administrator utility can create the “licenses.local” file. Otherwise you may get grayed out fields in the License Administrator dialog box.

Hi All,

Same issue on High Sierra. I manually installed my licenses (Indie) and was still getting the error. I opened the Apprentice version and installed the non-commercial license as a random thought and BOOM… my paid licenses worked.

Hope that helps someone else experiencing the same.

Cheers,

O.

Thanks for all the tips.
Running Mojave on my MacPro laptop and needed to install Apprentice before I could get the hindie license to work.

G

jotowaty
If you do not have internet access from the machine running Houdini, you will need to use a second machine with internet access to acquire your licenses.

This fixed my problem doing a first-time install on Windows 10, even though my machine was connected to the internet the whole time. This solution is not just for the internet-impaired. Thanks @jotowaty.