Hello,

I apologize for the repost, but I didn't get any answers in the separate subgroup and wondered if I may be asking in the wrong place.

I am trying to put a case forward to motivate the studio I currently work at to invest in an Engine license and just missing this piece of information:

https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/59099/ [www.sidefx.com]

(From the same post)

When creating an HDA to use on a separate software (such as Maya or Unreal)… How/When is the Engine License used?

Anytime the scene is loaded and open? Whilst cooking?

If a studio (which owns 1 Houdini Commercial license and 1 Engine license) has multiple artists using Maya and someone created an HDA to fracture geometry for example, would it be possible for multiple artists to use the same HDA as long as they don't cook it at the same time?

Thanks!


(Admins, feel free to delete either post should it be necessary)

When you have a artist that creates HDA every one can use the HDA. But for the execution you need at least a Engine license on the Artist Computer. What i not know when the license gets load on program load or execution of the HDA.

How many maya artist are there?

Thanks for the response.

I have used the Engine before and that's what I gathered, however, what I am most interested in is the use of the license to properly explain what would the process involves with as much detail as possible.

There are many Maya artists and the number of people who may or may not use he HDAs that get build is hard to predict right now.

But also, our licenses run on a server which allow us to run the software we want from any machine (as long as there are any spare licenses of course).

Hence the reason I would like to figure this one out to see if the studio can be convinced with at least one Engine license (for now) if it can still be used by multiple artists at separate times.

So I just did a test at home. Brought in an HDA to Unreal and while it was sitting in the browser, no license was used but the moment I placed the HDA on the scene the Engine license became unavailable. From that point on, no matter whether I got rid of the HDA everywhere (I even cleared the Undo history) the license wasn't freed until I closed my instance of Unreal Editor.

I don't have Maya at home, so I can't really test it, but would it be right to expect a similar behaviour with Maya? Once an HDA is used, the license becomes unavailable for anyone else until that instance of Maya is closed?

i haven't seen a command in the houdini engine docs where you could unload the engine license but what could be possible in maya unload/load the plugin by a mel command. haven't got maya but that could maybe a solution.

Oh! Didn't think about that but it does sound like a solution that could be good enough to make my case!

Thanks for the tip!

all the above sounds reasonable (I don't know the details of Engine licensing) but if you may want to send this question directly to support https://www.sidefx.com/support-programs/ [www.sidefx.com]

Thanks Michael!

I will do that as I'm interested in the technicalities behind it.
Much appreciated!