Windows: Floating license installation

This guide is for Floating licenses ONLY which which also includes Faculty licenses. In case you own a Node Locked license instead, please see here.

Step-by-step video guide to installing and activating your Floating license

How to install and activate a Floating license on Windows

00:07 - Download
00:58 - Installation (RLM & Maxwell)
02:09 - Licensing a RLM computer
02:30 - Licensing a RLM computer which has an Internet connection
02:44 - License Activation
03:50 - Licensing other computers
04:24 - Licensing other computers: using the license activator
05:57 - Licensing other computers: copy/pasting the maxwell_license.lic file
07:00 - Licensing a RLM computer which does not have an Internet connection
09:19 - Changing the default port number of 5053

Before you begin

Please see the system requirements on this page.

Before installing: should you install also the RLM License Server or not?

Do NOT install

If you have already installed the license server on another computer on your network. Only one RLM License Server should be installed on your entire network.
If you already had an application installed which also uses an RLM License Server. See at the bottom of the page on how to make Maxwell Render work with it.

Do Install

If you want this computer to act as a license server for your network, and you have not installed the RLM License Server on any other computer previously. Check the box "RLM License Server" in the installer, this will then also install the RLM License Server.

Step 1 - Running the installer

Make sure that you right-click on the .EXE file and choose "Run as Administrator".
The installer will ask if you also wish to license Maxwell Render. Choose Yes if you have never licensed Maxwell Render on this computer, or No if Maxwell Render was already licensed and you simply updated it with a patch or a new V3.x version. If you choose Yes, see Step 2.

If you are installing a V3.x update, you do not need to re-license Maxwell. It is only if you are upgrading from V1.x or V2.x to V3.x that you need to re-license Maxwell because the licensing systems have changed.

Step 2 - Licensing Maxwell Render

The License Activator application will open and the following licensing options will appear:

I have a license key

Choose this option if you have a floating license key and have not already installed the RLM server on another computer. In the next window there are two options:

Click here to expand...

I want to activate the license on this computer now (needs internet connection). Use this option to activate the license on this particular computer.
- Enter your email/password you use for the customer gateway, then the license key which you should have received by email. If you can't find that email please check your spam folder. If you still can't find it please contact us through the "Contact Sales" form in the customer gateway or here and request your license key. If you are connecting your computer through a proxy, you may also enter that proxy here. It is important that any firewalls you may have do not block the license activator from reaching our servers, or the license key can't be validated.

Installation of RLM license server

If the license activator detects that you have entered a floating license key, and it can't find an RLM license server already running on this computer, it will ask if you wish to now also install the RLM server. Choose Yes.

- The license activator will connect to our servers and validate your license, after which it will store a license file in C:\ProgramData\Next Limit\Maxwell\licenses. Maxwell Render, Maxwell Studio, and all the plugins will check this location for that .lic file to see if Maxwell Render is licensed or not.
- Please restart Maxwell to make sure that it is properly licensed (check the Console panel for any red error messages).
- Enjoy Maxwell Render!

I want to activate the license on another computer not connected to the internet. Please note that the computer where the activator is running still needs internet connection. This option simply allows you to license a different computer which doesn't have internet connection.
- Host ID. You must specify that computer's Host ID, also known as MAC address. To find it, launch Maxwell Render on that computer, and check in the Console panel for the Host ID:

- Enter your email/password you use for the customer gateway, then the license key which you should have received by email. If you can't find that email please check your spam folder. If you still can't find it please contact us through the "Contact Sales" form in the customer gateway or here and request that they resend your license key. If you are connecting your computer through a proxy, you may also enter that proxy here. It is important that any firewalls you may have do not block the license activator from reaching our servers, or the license key can't be validated.
- The license activator will connect to our servers and validate your license, after which a Save dialog pop up will ask you to save the "maxwell_suite_floating.lic" file. Save this file somewhere on your computer, then move it to the computer you entered the Host ID for, and place it in the folder: C:\ProgramData\Next Limit\Maxwell\licenses on that computer. Maxwell Render, Maxwell Studio, and all the plugins will check this location for that .lic file to see if Maxwell Render is licensed or not.
- Please restart Maxwell to make sure that it is properly licensed (check the Console panel for any red error messages).
- Enjoy Maxwell Render!

I have installed the RLM server on a different computer and wish to access it from this computer

Choose this option only if you have a floating license key, and you've already installed the RLM server on another computer in your network. If you have a floating license and have never installed the RLM server on any computer, please choose instead the first option - "I have a license key".

Click here to expand...

Name or IP, and Port. Enter the computer name, or the IP, of the computer where the RLM server is running. For the Port, you can leave the default port of 5053 or enter a different port number. Usually you need to change the port if there is an application on the RLM computer that already uses this port. Please see this page for more details on how to change the port number that the RLM server will use to serve licenses to your computers.
The license activator will try to connect to the RLM server that is running on the computer you specified. Please make sure any firewalls running on either this computer or the RLM one is set to allow connections to and from Maxwell Render, and the license activator.
Whether the license activator can connect or not to the RLM computer, it will save a "maxwell_license.lic" file in C:\ProgramData\Next Limit\Maxwell\licenses. This license file is a simple text file which contains only a single line of text:

HOST computernameorIP ANY portnr

This lic file tells Maxwell Render on this computer where the RLM license server is running, and what port it should use to connect to it. You can in fact license any other computers by creating this text file yourself with the same line of text, save it as "maxwell_license.lic" and placing it in the folder mentioned above. There is no need to go through the license activator.

Please note that most licensing errors at this stage happen because a firewall or router is blocking access on your network - Maxwell Render on this computer cannot connect to the RLM license computer. As a test, please try turning off firewalls on both your RLM computer and this computer, and restart Maxwell to see if it now correctly gets its license from the RLM computer. If it does, then please make sure any firewalls are set to allow incoming/outgoing connections to Maxwell Render, the RLM server, Maxwell Studio.

I want to try the demo

Click here to expand...

Simply choose Next for all the subsequent windows that appear, and finally click Activate. This will create a demo "maxwell_license.lic" file in C:\ProgramData\Next Limit\Maxwell\licenses. If you later purchase a license, please make sure to first delete this demo license file before running the license activator.

The most common licensing error messages

Connection error - Usually means the license activator and/or Maxwell Render is blocked by a firewall and can't reach our servers.
"License could not be validated" - Usually has the same cause as the above.
"License could not be saved" - This means Maxwell doesn't have enough permissions on your computer to write the license file to disk. Start the install process again, making sure to right-click on the installed and chosen "Run as Administrator".

If you still have problems, the first thing you should do is open Maxwell (not Maxwell Studio) and look in the Console panel for any licensing errors. Then go to the licensing troubleshooting page to see if the error message is listed there, and what the solution is.

How to make Maxwell Render work with an existing RLM License server

Many applications use RLM for license management. If you are already running a RLM License Server you do not need to install an additional license server for Maxwell but you can reuse the existing one. In order to do so please follow these steps:

Download the file nextlimit.set (it's in a zip archive so unzip it after download) and copy it where the existent RLM executable ("rlm.exe" in Windows, just "rlm" in OSX and Linux) is located.
Copy the maxwell_suite_floating.lic file generated with the license activator to where the rest of the license files are located.
Send a reread command to the RLM License Server to load the Maxwell Render license file. You can do this by opening a browser window in the computer that's running the RLM License Server, typing in localhost:5054 and in the RLM interface that appears, press the Reread/Restart servers link from the left hand side, then the Reread/Restart button on the page that appears.

Installing Maxwell in silent mode

Maxwell allows a silent installation of its components via command line on Windows. To do so, simply type /S when invoking the installer on the command line prompt:

On Windows 32Bits: maxwell_3.0_win32.exe /S /D=C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell
On windows 64Bits: maxwell_3.0_win64.exe /S /D=C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell

The additional arguments are:

/D=dir (to indicate the folder where Maxwell will be installed)
/MATERIALDATABASE= dir (to indicate the path to the materials database folder)
/SHORTCUTS=on/off (creates desktop shortcuts to the application. By default it is disabled)