The Cloud Zoo is free, cloud-based licensing through your Rhino account. Add your licenses to your account or to a team, then log in to Rhino on any computer. See an overview of Rhino licensing.
Is Cloud Zoo Right for You?
Cloud Zoo is designed for:
- People who use Rhino on more than one computer, at home, at work, or on the road.
- Offices and schools that share licenses among people in different places.
- Anyone who doesn’t want to run a license server.
A LAN Zoo or single-computer license is probably a better choice if:
- Your computers never connect to the internet. Rhino needs to go online every few weeks when licensed using Cloud Zoo.
- Your users can’t or won’t have their own Rhino accounts.
Rhino Account or Team Licensing?
- Rhino Account: the license is yours alone. Use it on any of your computers, one at a time.
- Team Licensing: a group shares a pool of licenses. Each person logs in with their own Rhino account.
Rhino Account
A license in your Rhino Account belongs to you. Log in on any of your computers and the license follows you, one computer at a time. Nobody else can use it.
- Create a Rhino account.
- Add a license to your Cloud Zoo.
- Log in to Rhino when it starts.
Team Licensing
A team is a group of people who share a set of licenses. You create teams, invite members, and link a team to your organization’s domain from your Rhino account. See Teams for the full walkthrough.
Once the team exists:
- Add licenses to your team.
- Each team member needs their own Rhino account and must accept the invitation sent to that account’s email address.
- Team members log in to Rhino at startup with an account that belongs to the team.
For larger teams, link the team to your organization’s domain. Anyone with an email address in that domain can join the team automatically, without an invitation, and you can manage members with your own identity provider (such as Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, or OneLogin). See Link Team to a Domain.
Automatic Downgrades
When your license is assigned to your Rhino Account or Team, you can start any previous version of Rhino, log in to your Rhino account, and use the current license. You don’t need to request a legacy license key. Previous versions back to Rhino 6 are supported.
More Cloud Zoo Information
- You can switch a license from one licensing method to another, but it doesn’t happen automatically. See Changing Your Licensing Method.
- Compare all four licensing methods in the licensing overview.
Migrating from LAN Zoo to Cloud Zoo
Move your Rhino 6, 7, and 8 licenses (Windows and Mac) from the LAN Zoo to the Cloud Zoo, so your users can use them from any computer in the world with an internet connection.
You don’t need a constant internet connection. Rhino only needs to connect every couple of weeks.
Steps
A. Gather Required Information
- Open Zoo Administrator on your LAN Zoo server.
- Find your serial numbers. In Zoo Administrator, Rhino 6 serial numbers look like
6-1NN-NNN-NNNNN-NNNNN. - Find your license keys. Search for the emails you received when you bought your licenses; they contain the serial numbers from the previous step. Rhino 6 license keys look like
RH60-NNNN-NNNN-NNNN-NNNN. Find your Rhino 7 and 8 license keys the same way. Do not continue until you have all the license keys. - Optional: If you plan to create a domain-linked team, make sure you have access to your domain’s web server, or the help of an IT administrator who does.
B. Create a Rhino Account
If you don’t already have one, create a Rhino account at https://accounts.rhino3d.com to administer the team.
C. Create a Team
- Create a team.
- Optional: Invite other users to be team administrator.
- Optional: Link a domain to your team.
D. Configure Your LAN Zoo and Network
To move your licenses from the LAN Zoo to the Cloud Zoo without help from McNeel, your LAN Zoo must be up to date and your LAN Zoo server must be able to reach the internet. Otherwise, adding your licenses to the Cloud Zoo (step F) will fail.
- Install the latest LAN Zoo.
- On your LAN Zoo server, open a web browser and go to https://api.mcneel.com.
- If the page doesn’t open, ask your network administrator to allow access to api.mcneel.com. The LAN Zoo needs it to return the license validations to McNeel so you can use the licenses again.
E. Remove Licenses from the LAN Zoo
- Open Zoo Administrator.
- Select one or more Rhino licenses to remove.
- Click the Delete button in the toolbar.
You can’t delete licenses that are in use. Either:
- Ask all your users to close Rhino, or
- Disconnect the LAN Zoo server from the network and wait 15 minutes. The LAN Zoo then recovers all the licenses, as if every Rhino on your network had crashed.
F. Add Licenses to the Cloud Zoo
- Go to https://www.rhino3d.com/licenses.
- Click your team name.
- Click Add License.
- Enter your license key, then click Add License.
G. Invite Users to Your Team
If You Use a Domain-Linked Team
- Email your users and ask them to create a Rhino account at https://accounts.rhino3d.com.
- Ask them to use their email address in your domain.
If You Don’t Use a Domain-Linked Team
- Go to https://accounts.rhino3d.com/?controller=groups.
- Click your team.
- Click Action, then click Invite Members.
- Fill out the form, then click Send.
H. Configure Rhino to Use the Cloud Zoo
Send these instructions to your users after they have created an account:
- Start Rhino.
- From the Tools menu, click Options, then click Licenses.
- Under the Rhino license, click Change your license key.
- Click Login.
- Log in with the email address that belongs to the new team.
To automate this, delete the LAN Zoo license file on each computer. The next time Rhino starts, users will be asked for a license and should click Login.
- Rhino 6: %PROGRAMDATA%\McNeel\Rhinoceros\6.0\License Manager\Licenses\55500D41-3A41-4474-99B3-684032A4F4DF.lic
- Rhino 7: %PROGRAMDATA%\McNeel\Rhinoceros\6.0\License Manager\Licenses\59FF75C9-9C71-4EF8-A290-6B590F3FC63A.lic (Rhino 7 also uses the 6.0 folder)
- Rhino 8: %PROGRAMDATA%\McNeel\Rhinoceros\6.0\License Manager\Licenses\868C63F5-3760-4A45-8600-5399CC57B47C.lic (Rhino 8 also uses the 6.0 folder)
