How Rhino 5 for Windows Finds the LAN Zoo

Older Rhino version
This article covers Rhino 5, which is no longer current. For Rhino 6 and later, see How Does Rhino for Windows Find a LAN Zoo Server?

When Rhino needs a license from a LAN Zoo server, it looks for the server’s name in these locations, in this order:

  1. The Current User hive of the Windows Registry.
  2. The Local Machine hive of the Windows Registry.
  3. Your Domain Name System (DNS) server, which it queries for the default LAN Zoo server name.

Registry Lookup: Current User

In HKEY_CURRENT_USER, both 32-bit and 64-bit Rhino look for the host name or IP address of your LAN Zoo server in this location:

Hive:  HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key:   Software\McNeel\Rhinoceros\5.0\License Manager
Name:  Server
Type:  REG_SZ
Value: <host name or IP address>

Registry Lookup: Local Machine

On 32-bit Windows, 32-bit Rhino looks in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE for the host name or IP address of your LAN Zoo server in this location:

Hive:  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key:   Software\McNeel\Rhinoceros\5.0\License Manager
Name:  Server
Type:  REG_SZ
Value: <host name or IP address>

On 64-bit Windows, both 32-bit and 64-bit Rhino look in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in this location:

Hive:  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key:   SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\McNeel\Rhinoceros\5.0\License Manager
Name:  Server
Type:  REG_SZ
Value: <host name or IP address>

Using DNS

If Rhino can’t find the name of the LAN Zoo server in the Windows Registry, it queries your DNS server for the default Zoo server host name, __mcneel.__zoo5. For example, if your company’s domain is mcneel.com, add a DNS alias of __mcneel.__zoo5.mcneel.com that points to your LAN Zoo server.

If a LAN Zoo server name is found in the Windows Registry, Rhino only tries to get a license from that location. For more on DNS lookup, see How Does Rhino for Windows Find a LAN Zoo Server?