Number of activations
Is it true that from V25.2 onward a single user license can be activated only on one computer (contrary to 2, as it was before)? I heard this from a nwesletter sent by country's Bricsys representative. Google still says 2:
But if you click on the link, product documentaion says only one:
If that's ture it's really discouraging for me, especially given it's a silent degradation of the software. I don't see it being mentioned in release notes, or even during purchase process. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Comments
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It appears that this applies to licenses purchased after March 16, 2025. If you go to the EULA page and scroll to item #2 (Grant License), it's all in the 2nd paragraph of "Software Product".
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It is indeed the case that if you purchase a single license, that you get a single activation, starting with the release of V25.2. In the past, even though it was possible to activate on 2 different machines, it was also already only allowed to be used by you as the primary user and for backup purposes.
This is also still listed in the EULA
"For singles licenses purchased before 17 March 2025: you keep the right to have a copy of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT on a second computer used by you, as the primary user. This additional copy is for backup purposes only and may not be used concurrently."-1 -
is it possible to have the software installed on 2 computers,
one activated and one isn't,
and de-activate the one I'm using and activate the other?
for mexample,
I normally use desktop but when I'm on the road I want to use my laptop?
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is it possible to have the software installed on 2 computers,
I think you can still install Bricscad on as many computers as you want …..
In the past you could activate that single license it on 2 Computers, are allowed to use it on one of them.
(AFAIR there was not really a mechanism to prevent you from using it on both - so I think that's the reason for possible new activation option changes)and de-activate the one I'm using and activate the other?
for mexample,
I normally use desktop but when I'm on the road I want to use my laptop?
That would be much more cumbersome than in the past.
That tedious online deactivation was usually only needed when you had an new machine to replace one of the olders ….
And that deactivation/free Activation works only fine as long as you can access your machine.
Like when you buy a new machine you want to activate Bricscad - because your HDD/SSD died, Your Activation is lost - forever.
(For me it was once in the past that I completely lost a Linux Installation I used for testing, but unfortunately had Bricscad activated there for testing it on Linux)
In this case you have to ask Bricscad Support and beg for a another activation …..In the past with 2 activations you may still have access to the other activation when in deadlines - when there is only single activation now, you may better hope for relatively fast Support Request answers.
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I do hope Bricsys re-considers that policy.
Even AutoCAD allows installation on second device (w/ non-concurrent usage).
I occasionally travel or do field work. Deactivating / activating licenses is burdensome.
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Okay, the release of V25 first shattered my hopes of having these issues resolved, and now this dealbreaker downgrade of simultaneous activations… I guess I am never going to pay for an upgrade. Thanks Bricsys.
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Really I don't see what the problem is (for Bricsys/Hexacon) if a paying customer wants to use Bricscad on a desktop at the office and also a laptop in the field or another desktop at home if the use is not "concurrent".
We switched to laptops last year so we can work on the road but would be nice if the option remained to use my desktop at home if said laptop got stolen, trampled by a rhino, or caught in a tornado. The license thing just keeps getting more confusing to me as I get older. How I miss the 1990's.
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It would be really useful to be able to activate on two computers, desktop and laptop, as long as you don't use it concurrently. Desktops are generally more powerful than laptops but they're less convenient to take with you when not at your main location.
Not to mention that laptops are often more hardware limited than desktops. I don't want to worry about my laptop overheating when having to use really large files with lots of objects and it struggles to keep up where a desktop would work quite a bit better.
Having only one activation allowed would mean a lot of deactivating/activating over time, not that convenient. Not to mention if you accidentally forget to deactivate the desktop and are on the road with the laptop, then it becomes a major pain.
If Bricsys/Hexagon insists on only one active activation then they should seriously consider using a cloudbased activation system as Rhino 3D is using, you can install it on multiple computers (though in reality that would be a desktop and a laptop) and when starting up the software checks the license in the cloud and automatically activates on the machine that is in use and deactivates the other install. If you later use it on the 2nd machine then it automatically activates there and deactivates the previously used machine.
It seems there is a trend to reduce allowed installs on a second machine for business software, which only increases costs for the (smaller) end users on a single license if they need some flexibility with regard to being at the office or on the road. Or the accountants (aka bean counters) want to increase "shareholder value" by finding ways to force people to spend more. I hope they don't go the AutoCAD way where single users and small companies are becoming the kind of customer they can't be bothered about and only want big corporate clients.
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I really do not understand the new policy. I also want to use BC on my office desktop and to take a laptop to the client. BS should gain new users by better features, not to lose them by downgrading.
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Exactly! This is for me a deal breaker. I wall not pay to "downgrade" from V23 to V25.
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I use BricsCAD on a Windows desktop in our office, and on a Linux desktop when I am traveling or at home. If this new policy should apply to all users (on subscription) from V26 onward, this would definitely keep me from renewing my subscription.
Besides, I think that hiding such change in the EULA instead of openly communicating it in the release notes is a customer-relations disaster.
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I alternate between two locations, and I have had Bricscad installed on the office computer and a copy on the laptop. Yesterday I noticed that I was not able to use my license on the laptop anymore. From the discussion above it became clear that Bricsys had changed the licensing conditions, which in my case meant that I would have to buy a second Bricscad license for the laptop. I am not going to do that. I will revert to Autocad, from which I migrated to Bricscad several years ago, because there is no cost advantage to me anymore.Meanwhile, Autodesk has a introduced a prepaid token based licensing option where you can install any of their software on your computer and you only pay when you use it (pay per day per product). For occasional use it can be very cost effective.1
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But how did it happen? Have you upgraded to V25?
In any case, the sneaky rollout of this limitation is downright shameful. Bricsys won't make more money by this move, it just looses the trust of customers.
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I had upgraded to V25 earlier. My 1-year subscription of Briscad Pro expired in April. A couple of days later I purchased a fresh 1-year subscription, which I used on my office computer. When I opened Bricscad on my laptop at a later point in time, it asked for a license number, and when I entered the number of my new subscription I got a message that the license was already in use.
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Who's able to write a pair of simple 'double click' scripts with the license tool,
One for Deactivate
One for Activate
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The link in post above details downloading the license tool.
For users, download license tool from the link on the page from link in post above.
Save & decompress (I elected for creating a
0_BricsCAD_Licensefolder at root of 'C' since it's universal and placed the lictool folder inside0_BricsCAD_License)so path is for my naming is
C:\0_BricsCAD_License\LictoolLaunch Powershell, paste:
CD C:\0_BricsCAD_License\Lictool##This is 'Change Directory' Powershell to operate in the folder where lictool.exe app is)
to Deactivate paste either or both of the following, one at a time and hit enter then wait for it to provide a response to the action
.\lictool deactivate -p=bricscad.\lictool deactivate -p=communicatorTo Activate paste either or both of the following, one at a time and hit enter then wait for it to provide a response to the action:
.\lictool activate -p=bricscad -k=PASTE-CODE-DIGITS-HERE [-f="C:\0_BricsCAD_License\BricsCADv25.lic"].\lictool activate -p=communicator -k=PASTE-CODE-DIGITS-HERE [-f="C:\0_BricsCAD_License\BricsCOMv25.lic"]Now for those of you out there that have 'Threatlocker' on your work PC (courtesy of the thoughtful IT department for making everything so inconvenient) the
lictool.exewill be blocked so need to request from Threatlocker to allow it to run.0 -
If you have BricsCAD V25, then
Lictool.exeis included with you installation. Look for it in your programs folder.0 -
This question is related to my current predicament described in another thread. Briefly, the two revocations BricsCAD now limits you to have already been used. But, I am hoping BricsCAD will relent and let me have another revocation. Still, I need to somehow try to prevent this issue in the future. So, at the very least, I would like to activate BricsCAD every time it starts up, and deactivate every time I shut down. But, I also wonder if a user deactivates a license from within BricsCAD, does it permit you to still continue working for that session. I can't test this now, because I am using the demo mode on my laptop (expiring in 7 days).
If BricsCAD will keep operating after a deactivation, then it may be viable to use the LIctool.exe to activate the BricsCAD license every time I want to start BricsCAD, and a startup lisp routine can deactivate it immediately after the program starts. Then, the only time i could run into my current problem is if my computer were to break during the time it takes between the activation and deactivation.
Does deactivation from within BricsCAD take immediate effect and stop it from functioning?
-Joe
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I’m not liking this new corporatisation anti user policy.
Too many inconvenient situations will occur.
What happens when you activate at home on a desktop, then go to work to the laptop but realised forgot to deactivate the home machine? What drive all the way home, to deactivate it. That’s gormless.
If BricsCAD could be configured to deactivate when quit the app then activates when it is launched, that’s not noticeably different than having the license on two machines, either way only one or the other can run. There’s no way I’d want to run BricsCAD a POS slow work laptop with a tiny screen when I’m at home with a my hi end desktop with 3 monitors. The laptop will be on only to copy to and from the network drive via a USB stick. The screen is so small the tool palette and properties panels take up 80% of the screen space.
What would happen if BricsCAD crashes, does it deactivate on a fatal error or get stuck in a loop?
Bricsys need to step this back. My Autodesk account lets me have installs with a license on both machines, though I’ve never had a situation where I’d have two machines running an Autodesk app at the same time.Microsoft accounts allow install and license two machines and those can run concurrently.
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This topic has been running for a while now - just a big silence from Bricsys - they must know it's happening.
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Exactly! As if the silent roll out of this policy wasn't shameful enough, now keeping the silence in the face of backlash... Of course they know it's happening. I guess they even PREDICTED it; that's why they didn't even mention such important change in the Release Notes.
And this whole policy change is such an unnecessary and damaging move. They would say it's to prevent piracy. I mean who in their sane mind pirates a software by paying for it (thus exposing their identity to Bricsys) to use it on multiple computers!? Pirates gonna install cracked software anyways, not paying a penny.
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Does not Autocad ping a server every time you open Acad ? Bricscad could do this if you have a version running then a second can not be started theoretically, could load the software onto as many pc's as wanted but can only run one. There would be a timer limit to handle internet down. Bit like a network version which has multi users, but limit to sessions available.
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lictool.exe doesn't even run on my machine, a window just flashes after double click, so can't even deactivate, and a license is stuck on a laptop which can't run the lictool because Threatlocker blocks it from launching.
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@Joe Dunfee Revocations are done through the user account and meant for deactivating BricsCAD if a normal deactivation is not possible (e.g. severe computer crash that prevents the computer from starting up). That way of deactivating is limited to two times per year or just two times for a version of BricsCAD (i.e. when a new version comes out and you upgrade the revocations allowed should reset to two again).
As long as you can activate/deactivate normally through BricsCAD through the license manager you should be able to do this as often as necessary to switch between desktop and laptop if you are restricted to having only one activation (i.e. on subscription of having bought the license on or after 17 January 2025)
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I am hoping I can a way to automate the activate/deactivate without using the Powershell program.
I've tested what happens when BricsCAD v14 is deactivated, and you continue to use the program. The good news is that it continues to work. So, theoretically I might be able to activate BricsCAD when it is launched, then immediately deactivate it. That means that the only way a computer failure will cost you a revocation, is if your computer fails during that brief time.
Here are the steps I have so far. First there were some preliminaries. I downloaded the Lictool.zip file and placed the contents of that zip file into a new folder I created, called
C:\Program Files (x86)\Bricsys\BricsCAD V14 en_US\Bricscad Licensing Tool
Step 1) The batch file to activate and load BricsCAD.
Create a batch file that has the text below, using Notepad and saving to a *.bat file.
—
CD C:\Program Files (x86)\Bricsys\BricsCAD V14 en_US\Bricscad Licensing Tool
Lictool.exe activate -p=bricscad -k=xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxCD C:\Program Files (x86)\Bricsys\BricsCAD V14 en_USBricsCAD.exe—
By double-clicking on that .bat file, or creating a shortcut to use it, it will activate BricsCAD and then load BricsCAD. The only difference from normally starting BricsCAD a delay while Lictool runs, that lasts between 2 and 10 seconds. The other side-effect is that the DOS command window stays open, even if there is an Exit command at the last line.
Step 2) Create LISP code in BricsCAD to deactivate BricsCAD. Place that code inside the start.lsp file, which will automatically run as soon as BricsCAD starts up.
However, I am not familiar enough with LISP to figure this out. I can't just use the COMMAND option to send just use the _licproperties command, because it opens a window and I can't figure out how to press the buttons.
I also tried to create a macro button. But even though pressing enter twice on the keyboard will successfully press the right buttons, using the ; in the macro doesn't work.
Any ideas how I can get BricsCAD to automatically deactivate right after it loads?
-Joe
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well. This is news to me.
Here was I, getting excited to upgrade! Might have to reconsider! I find occasional use on my laptop invaluable, but like others, the far more powerful PC, multiple screens is my number one use.
I wonder how many of us are single users with no one else using our activated
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Richard, if we can get an easy way to automatically activate/deactivate BricsCAD, then that would solve your problem.
-Joe
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@RSW Your description of license revocation relates to the previous license arrangement where each new release came with a new license key, which in turn provided the ability to revoke the license twice during that license cycle.
Under the new licensing arrangement, activation keys no longer change between versions. Revocation rights remain at twice, meaning you can now only revoke an activation twice ever.
As much as possible, users should Deactivate their license if they are making changes to their license arrangement, such as moving BricsCAD to a new machine.
Revoking a license should only be used in the situation where it is no longer possible to access the licensed machine, such as through hardware failure or theft. Once you reach the 2 revocation limit, then you would need to raise a support request to ask Bricsys to clear the activation for you. This option is only available for users that have a current maintenance contract or subscription.
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Jason this seems to be getting worse by the minute, as they say.
I gather then, if our computer goes up in smoke the only option is to revoke the licence to get going again.
2 strikes and we're out. I've had the computer go west 3 times in recent years. No questions asked, just didn't wake up. Whilst I appreciate maintenance helps the coffers tick along, for those of us who don't it seems the old ways are now, or will be a distant memory.
I came into Bricscad because we had Aussie input, thanks Damien, and it was a program free of the grumbles associated with the "Big League", and if i messed up was retrievable. And its a very robust program for my use and handles our large geo images without a murmur.
my surveying software runs on a dongle and that allows me to run on laptop and pc. Providing I remember to take the dongle with me! 🤔🤒
So I'm not sure, even with Joe's suggestion I'm confident on moving forward in an upgrade. Certainly appreciate the comments here. Bit of mulling over to do.
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Yes this could be a situation with crashing computers where a dongle is preferable. The caveat is that usually the dongle is also your license, so if you lose the dongle (or it gets stolen, or destroyed by e.g. a power spike etc.) you lose your license. Though it could be insured but that adds to the overall cost of the license.
And the dongle should be replaceable in case of wear (from the regular pushing/pulling into/from USB ports. So I would rather have the Rhino3D system of issuing activations as I mentioned earlier instead of a dongle and revocation limits, regardless of whether you are allowed one or two activations depending on when the original license was bought. Though a dongle would work if internet is down and the activation server cannot be reached. It will always be a compromise for some people.
You could try filing a support/feature request for using the Rhno3D activation/deactivation method, though it would require the plug-in/add-on developers to use that system too to make it usable for those using plug-ins/add-ons otherwise you would still be stuck.
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