FAQ - Licensing

Which types of licenses exist?

There are three types of licenses:

• University license

• Government institution license

• Company license

How many people can use the software simultaneously?

This depends on the type of license:

• A University license and a Government institution license are issued to a particular research group (e.g. a professor or group leader) and can be used by all group members simultaneously. The university and government institution licenses can be used on several computers simultaneously. A university license includes 10 computers, a government institution license includes 5 computers.

• A Company license applies to a single and named user or a single-PC.

The license is an annual license. After the license has expired, no further simulations can be done. Visualization of previous results of calculations is still possible.

If a user has a valid license, this license can also be installed on a private computer.

Which license do I need for Cluster computing?

Only .lic licenses can be used for cluster computing. Any computer that has the free HTCondor software installed can be connected to a licensed computer. There is no need to activate a license for the cluster computers or install nextnano on them. They can be used to execute a batch list of nextnano simulations.

Is there a possibility to evaluate the nextnano software before purchasing?

Yes, we offer evaluation licenses with feature restriction. You have to register with an institutional email address. Register now.

If you got granted an evaluation period for a product of the nextnano software, you will receive an evaluation license key by mail. Your evaluation license (free-of-charge) will be valid for 1 month starting on the day you receive the mail and can be activated on 1 computer. If you need a prolongation, please do not hesitate to contact us. Note, we reserve the right to not grant an evaluation license, for example if the same user already used an evaluation license in previous years.

I remember there have been .txt licenses before, what happened to them?

.txt has been the extension of our outdated license format. This license format has been abolished due to security risks and is not used anymore. The current format has the .lic extension and enables a wider range of features within the nextnano software.

License activation

I don’t have a license (key)

Before being able to run any simulations with nextnano, you need a valid license. After your purchase order is complete you will receive a license key by mail. This key is necessary to activate your license. If you haven’t purchased your license yet, please contact us.

I already purchased a license

For each PC where you want to use nextnano, you have to activate your license(s). For the online activation, you need an internet connection. There are also possibilities to activate your license without an internet connection. The license activation procedure is documented here: License Activation

Can I activate my license without using nextnanomat?

The license activation procedure via command prompt is documented here: License activation via command line.

I encounter an error during license activation

There are multiple possible error sources…

Connection error

It can help to retry a couple of minutes or an hour later.

We are currently using the port 8001 to establish a server connection. If this port is blocked by your IT department, a connection cannot be established. Either you can open the port or use the offline activation.

User cannot be found

Check for spelling errors in your license key. Also, make sure you are using the license key of this year and not your previous one. If it cannot be resolved, contact support.

No licenses have been saved

This means a connection to the server has been established and a valid user has been found. But still no license could be saved. It could be that the number of licenses exceeded, the xml reading process of the license failed or the directory cannot be accessed. Please contact support to figure out the source of this error.

If you are unable to resolve the error, please make a screenshot of the error message and contact nextnano support.

Licensing.dll cannot be found

This error prevents the license check within nextnanomat. It is not a critical error as local simulations can still be run without any problems, hence you can choose to ignore it. (Each product performs its own license check).

However the error can normally be resolved by installing the visual studio tools C++ runtime environment. This is needed for most applications based on C. Download page for visual C redistributable download. Choose the corresponding version matching your operation system from the Visual Studio 15/17/19/22 download section. Note, the name is misleading, but the package is a standalone to support runtime of apps. So Visual Studio does not have to be installed!

This solution is assuming the .NET framework is above version 4.7. In case of uncertainty it can be looked up within the Troubleshooting Snapshot text file which is documented here: Generate System Snapshot for Troubleshooting. If .NET framework is below 4.7 a more recent version should be installed.

License could not be verified

If you encounter this error when running a simulation, we recommend to install the visual studio tools C++ runtime environment. Download page for visual C redistributable download. Choose the corresponding version matching your operation system from the Visual Studio 15/17/19/22 download section.

If installing the runtime environment does not resolve the error, please contact support via nextnano Help Center.