Hi Michael.

I currently own Moi V3 for Windows and maybe, in a few weeks, I would need to switch to a new computer while keeping the old one.

What happens if I will install Moi on the new computer ?
Is it possible to install it on more than one machine while using it only on one machine at a time ?

If this is not the case, what I have to do in order to use Moi on the new computer ?

Thanks and have a nice day.

- Marco (mkdm)

<< Is it possible to install it on more than one machine while using it only on one machine at a time ?

Absolutly!
You can install any number of Moi3D with only one licence!
The only restriction is use only one computer at a time!

Ps You can run any number of sessions on the same computer! ;)
Very useful for make some CTRL +C, CTRL + V between them !

A few years ago, after hard drive crash, while restoring programs to my main computers new hard drive/ssd,
I had my laptop sitting to the side, with I think a Bluetooth home network. MoI was installed on the new drive, and open,
and while trying to update more features by comparing to MoI on the laptop, attempted to open MoI
on the laptop. MoI declined to open, with some warning of multiple usage attempt,
so this indicates that MoI was able to recognize that a second copy of the same
single license of MoI was trying to be opened on the network. This is not permitted for a single license.

I am the sole user of my single license MoI. At work, MoI is also installed, but I do not use work MoI and home MoI at the same time.
MoI on the laptop could be used, "on the road," again single useage at a time.
To switch between single use of MoI, work vs home vs laptop is easy, just open the program when arriving at the location.
There is no cumbersome internet license check, such as Geomagic Design (Alibre) (3DSystems),
subjects and forces its users to suffer. (flexnet or flexura licensing...)

- Brian

Hi Marco, yes you can install MoI with the same one license key on any number of machines you own (including across Windows and Mac operating systems), just as long as it's only actively launched and running on one of those installs at any one given moment.

You don't need to do anything special to set up the multiple installs, just use the same installer and same license key on each one. If you need to get a new download of the installer or have your license key looked up, there is a web page here where you can do that: http://moi3d.com/reinstall.htm .

MoI is not "node locked" meaning it doesn't bind a license to a hardware signature and so it doesn't need any special process when moving to a new machine. The one check that it does have is when it is launched it checks the local area network to see if any machines on the same network are actively running this same license, so you can't have 2 different people running the same one license at the same time.

So you would only need to order a new copy of MoI on your new machine if you planned to have someone else running it on the other machine at the same time as you. If you're only going to be running it on one machine at a time you don't need to order any new license for that, just use your same existing license key on the new machine.

- Michael

Hi Michael, bemfarmer and Pilou!

Thanks a lot for the clarification.

So, the situation is perfect. Thanks Michael.

See you.

I have to say that Michael's license is extremely generous and IMO the absolute best way to work with software-- license it to a person, not a computer. A few other companies, like Adobe and MS, have done a similar licensing scheme only making it a tad bit harder as it needs to "phone home" occasionally to make sure it's licensed and only working on maximum 2 machines (they can be ANY 2 machines and change from time to time as the user desires).

Others, like KeyShot make it a bit more difficult as they force you to "delicense" a machine before licensing another-- and this becomes a problem if you 'forgot' to do that and are on the road wanting to use KS and finding out you forgot to delicense your machine at home.

And finally, there are the difficult ones, like Vray, who have the antiquated licensing model forcing you to use a physical copy protection dongle attached to your computer. If you lose it, your literally screwed as there's a HUGE set of hoops you have to jump through just to get a new one, and there is always a charge.

I'm not a fan at all of the dongle, as years ago I had a similar dongle for a now defunct company, let's call them Image Electric (IE), and my dongle quit working in the middle of a very important project. Took them 2 days to send me a new one AFTER I sent them back the damaged one. A week after I received the new one, I got a letter from their lawyer telling me they were going to sue me for tampering with their dongle! I couldn't believe it. A week later, another letter appeared saying they had discovered a virus had infected my hard disk and it was the virus which killed the dongle and they were sorry. I immediately switched to a different company and never looked back. Paying customers should not be treated as criminals.

I later heard IE sued ILM as ILM used IE on a project and IE calculated how many hours it would take to render the various scenes and concluded ILM didn't have the correct number of dongles. Talk about customer UN-FRIENDLY! Eventually they lost their whole customer base as nobody wanted to work with their product and the company had to shut down.

Another interesting story, the CEO of the long gone IE went to work years later at Newtek as the head of Lightwave. I know the CEO of Newtek and sent him an email and warned him of this guy. I immediately quit using Lightwave and a couple years later the guy was fired and I started using Lightwave again. Ugh.

Thanks Michael for being so reasonable!

Thanks a lot Chipp for this very interesting sharing!

@You : "...Another interesting story, the CEO of the long gone IE went to work years later at Newtek as the head of Lightwave. I know the CEO of Newtek and sent him an email and warned him of this guy. I immediately quit using Lightwave and a couple years later the guy was fired and I started using Lightwave again. Ugh."

@You "...Thanks Michael for being so reasonable!..."

I totally agree with you.

Thanks Michael!