Hi All,

First, coming from a Modo background, recently fell in love at first sight with Houdini for VR development.

Anyway, initially installed the eval with the Apprentice license only to find out shortly thereafter that the Unreal Engine Plugin requires an Indie license or higher.

So I've searched this forum, looked at the FAQ, and tried random searches on CG sites etc following every course of action from revoking the license(s) to deleting the license inside the `windows` directory, and finally to completely uninstalling and reinstalling Houdini - but for some reason I can NOT get the Houdini app on Win10 to use the Indie license.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Mike

Moin, Mike,

another ex-modo-user here

First off: It sometimes helps to run the license manager as “Administrator” in Windows. Once, to install the licenses, after that you're usually good to go.
Start the license administration tool and check that you have your Indie license installed - if you haven't, use the manual input form the “File/Manually Enter Key” form. That should correctly install your Indie license. If it doesn't work, check that your license host is “local server” or showing your computer's network name.

If the link created by the installer does not fire up “Indie”, correct the link to point to your Houdini installation directory/bin/hindie.exe

That should, hopefully, get you up and running.

Marc

Hey Marc, thank you for your great reply.

malbrecht
license manager as “Administrator” in Windows

malbrecht
check that you have your Indie license installed

malbrecht
check that your license host is “local server”

malbrecht
correct the link to point to your Houdini installation directory/bin/hindie.exe

However, even after trying the steps above launching “hindie.exe” shows “Houdini Apprentice Non-Commercial” edition with an option in the Help menu to “Upgrade to Indie.”

I'd like to paste screenshots and the Diagnostic output from the license manager but am unsure if there is confidential info in the output. Otherwise is it worth emailing support@sidefx.com or something? Houdini looks amazing, just need to get some models into Unreal Engine.

Thank you again for your help.

Moin,

License Manager should show something like this (attached), the important bit being that you have more than none “Indie license available”. If that is the case, the most likely problem is that, for whatever reason, your license server type (local/named/network) isn't correct.

In any case, support is really helpful (I know, because I dared to ask very dumb questions), so instead of not using Houdini, I'd give it a shot

Marc

Hi Marc and thanks again. It turns out I didnt understand the difference between Houdini Indie and Indie-Engine. Will be upgrading soon because the $199/year is a out of this world. Looking forward to talking more and joining the community.

Thanks again!