Rhino 5 License Validation

Older Rhino version
This article covers Rhino 5, which is no longer current. For current licensing information, see Licensing.

Rhino 5 introduced a license validation system aimed at making it easier to recover lost or stolen license keys. License validation associates your license with your email address (or email domain, in the case of a Lab License) and, for upgrade licenses, your previous license key.

The Rhino license agreement lets you install Rhino on multiple computers at once, as long as the license is in use on only one computer at a time. The validation system lets you install your license on multiple computers, so long as you validate your license with the same information each time.

Upgrading from Previous Versions

When you upgrade Rhino from a previous version, license validation associates the license from your previous version of Rhino with the license you are upgrading to. A previous-version license can be used to upgrade only one Rhino 5 license. For example, if a company owns four Rhino 4 licenses and wants to upgrade to Rhino 5, each upgrade installation must be associated with a different Rhino 4 license for validation to succeed.

The Validation Process

After installing Rhino, you have a 30-day grace period to complete the validation process. Rhino displays the License Validation Wizard. Follow the on-screen instructions to validate your license.

If you get an error during license validation, contact McNeel Technical Support and include the error description.

Validating Offline

If your computer is not connected to the internet, the License Validation Wizard explains how to validate using a web browser on another computer:

  1. Visit the validation website given by Rhino.
  2. Enter your email address and license key.
  3. If required, enter a license key for a previous version of Rhino.
  4. Print or write down the validation code that appears.
  5. Return to the computer that does not have an internet connection. It must be offline for offline validation to work, so disconnect it from wireless or unplug the network cable.
  6. Start Rhino 5.
  7. Enter your validation code in the Validation Wizard and click Next.

Rhino is now validated.

Installing Rhino for Imaging

In a standalone Rhino installation (commercial, educational, or educational lab), validation is tied to a specific computer. When you image a computer and push the image to a new computer, Rhino requires validation again on the new computer. To avoid this, consider these options:

  • (Recommended) Use the free floating license manager, the LAN Zoo, on a server to manage the Lab License key and validate it once. Deploy Rhino as a network install on the computer you are setting up as the disk image, and then push that image to all computers.
  • Log in as a local administrator on each imaged computer, start Rhino, and go through license validation there. This is time consuming, and we don’t recommend it unless you can’t recreate the image with the hard drive’s serial number.