ArchiCAD 10 serial key or number

Did you know there is more than one type of ArchiCAD license? For whatever personal reasons this is on my mind recently. So let&#;s talk about license and key types. And yes I admit this is more nerdy than day-to-day helpful. Nevertheless, I think you&#;ll enjoy the post and learn a thing or two.

First the Form

There&#;s the classic pin key. Did you know that? They are rare these days. I know a firm in Minneapolis that was still using their pin keys up until early Before they upgraded from ArchiCAD 7 to ArchiCAD 15, they called me because their computers no longer had pin connections. So they had to buy special pin to USB adapters. How archaic! Which the upgrade they had to trade in their collector&#;s items.

After the pin key came the second evolution of the WIBU key: the traditional turquoise WIBU key that looks like a regular USB thumb drive. These keys still work, but you can no longer get new ones. They lack some of the functionality of their replacements. From the ArchiCADwiki:

The internal memory of a WibuKey does not allow supporting more than 3 products. Therefore it can not hold all the key-protected Graphisoft products (ArchiCAD, EcoDesigner, BIMx and MEP Modeler ) at the same time. This is why CodeMeter, as a newer option was introduced with ArchiCAD WibuKey also does not support license borrowing. Running different versions of ArchiCAD parallel on a computer may result more than one used license on the Wibu Server. For details see: ProtectionKey#WibuKey_compatibility

The latest (and current) iteration of the ArchiCAD key is the CodeMeter key. This is the fancy, shiny silver key. As mentioned above it was introduced with ArchiCAD If you have a CodeMeter key and want to use ArchiCAD , you need to download the CodeMeter Enabler. If you have a CodeMeter key and need to run ArchiCAD 9 or earlier&#; wait, why would you possibly need to run ArchiCAD 9 or earlier? Instead use the ArchiCAD 10 file converter to open files as far back as ArchiCAD If you really need to open files that are even older, I bet they are on floppy disks or Jaz Drives. Best to just find the printed documents and build from scratch what you need in the latest version of ArchiCAD.

Back on track now&#; the CodeMeter key is very flexible. It can have lots of licenses on it (ArchiCAD plus all the add-ons&#; and then some). Much of what follows applies to the CodeMeter key.

Followed by the Function

Not for Resale Key (NFR key) — This is the license your reseller or friendly Graphisoft Employee has access to. Simply put, it&#;s a key for official business, not doing design work. We&#;ll gloss over this one. It&#;s just interesting to know it exists.

Educational License — This license is renewable yearly while you&#;re a student (manicapital.com) and is keyless. All you need is an activation code, which you can get via manicapital.com For a real nice FAQ on using your Education Version of ArchiCAD, Graphisoft Australia has an old but still good list.

Full License — (Commercial License) What you&#;re most familiar with. Someone bought a seat of ArchiCAD and that license sits on a key. FOREVER. If you have a pin key from ArchiCAD and you never upgraded, you still own and can use ArchiCAD with that key. FOREVER. Well that&#;s not true. Because I bet you there isn&#;t a computer used professionally in an architecture firm in the USA that&#;s old enough to still run ArchiCAD I know no Mac produced in the last few years could possibly run that version of ArchiCAD (or any ArchiCAD older than 10). Similarly I wouldn&#;t be surprised if a Windows 8 machine couldn&#;t run a version that old. Anyways, if you have that key, it&#;s yours. And you could still upgrade it to ArchiCAD 16 or whatever the current version is. Though you&#;d have to trade in your key because it&#;s too old. But still it&#;s yours. Anyways, this is the key you&#;re probably most familiar with.

Rental License — (Commercial License) Did you know you can rent ArchiCAD by the month? Yup. In intervals of 1 month, 3 month, 6 month, and 12 months. Until recently you could also rent ArchiCAD by the hour in the USA. I loved the hourly keys, but alas they are gone. I really like the rental licenses because if your workload isn&#;t permanently going up, or you&#;re not sure yet, you can plug the gap by renting the extra capacity you need. Or if you&#;re doing some short-term moonlighting&#;

Network Key — Does your firm have a lot of keys? Are you always concerned about someone losing one? Or spilling Dr Pepper on one? Crushing one under their chair? Or jamming one into a pear (yes I&#;ve had a coworker accidentally do that when both his key and a pear were in the same bag&#; don&#;t ask)? Well instead of having 10 licenses on 10 keys, you can have 10 licenses on 1 CodeMeter key. And then all the machines with ArchiCAD on them just need to connect to the server that has the key. A much cleaner and nicer solution than worrying about lost, stolen, or broken keys. Though as an aside if you have your keys on an ArchiPLUS subscription you don&#;t need to worry as much about broken keys, or stolen ones.

License Borrowing — This is a great feature that works in conjunction with Network Keys. More and more of us use laptops instead of desktops. And we work all over the place. At the office, at home, on the road, on site, in coffee shops, you name it. Furthermore having to worry about the WIBU or CodeMeter key sticking out of your machine is always annoying. As is remembering to bring the key with you and making sure not to store it with your fruit or drinks. License Borrowing allows you to virtually borrow a license or temporarily put it on an empty CodeMeter key. Going virtual means the physical CodeMeter key is safely at the office in the server room, while the license is where ever you are. The licenses can be borrowed for up to a month. Whether you have 1 key or keys you can set up license borrowing so that your USB key doesn&#;t get carted around (though I know there&#;s a max number of licenses that can be put on a single Network Key). And since you can borrow remotely AND recall remotely (I think), as long as you can access the server with the key on it, you don&#;t have to worry about forgetting the key. The other great function of License Borrowing is they are perfect for freelancers and engineers. Are you working on a huge project and need some help? Or want the structural engineer or contractor to have access to the model? Well if you have license borrowing, they can (with your permission) access one of your keys remotely to do their work. And you don&#;t have to worry about them losing, keeping, or breaking the key. Now that&#;s all a bit big picture. For more details and answers, you can read the wiki article on License Borrowing or talk to your local reseller. I know I glossed over a few things.

Add-on Licenses — Licenses for add-ons like MEP, EcoDesigner STAR, & BIMx can also be part of Network Keys (in addition to living on a regular CodeMeter key). Which means they can be borrowed on a first come, first served basis, or taken for remote use.

What else am I forgetting?

I know I&#;m missing a few things. I didn&#;t talk about Day Trial Licenses or STAR(T) Edition Licenses, but this post is already long enough. Read more about those and all the other license types here. In addition, that link has a good chart of file compatibility between license types. I should mention that all this information is what I&#;ve gleaned, read, and researched over the years. Anyone with more official knowledge or authority want to add some corrections or clarifications in the comments? I saw a mention of some ancient pre-WIBU keys: Rainbow Sentinel and Microguard. Anyone old school enough to know what those are? Other than maybe robots from some cool 80s anime I wish I watched as a child&#;

So who else has questions about keys and licenses?

For all the latest drivers for WIBU and Codemeter keys, click here.

If you're a student, educator, or educational institution and a member of the Autodesk Education Community, you can find your serial number and product key in the following locations:

Note: For additional help, go to Education support.

During product download

• The serial number and product key are displayed as you download the product from the Free Software tab on the Education Community site before you choose your download method.

An email with this information is also sent to your email address. If you lose the email, you can retrieve the serial number and product key again by completing the product information on the download page.

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From the download email

After you specify which software to download, you'll receive an email that lists your serial number and product key.

Note: This email is sent to the email address used to register for the Education Community. If you haven't received it within a few hours, check your spam folder. If necessary, add manicapital.comity@manicapital.com to your email program's safe senders list.

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In Autodesk Account

After your software has been activated, you can also find the serial number by signing in to your Autodesk Account using the Autodesk ID used to register with the Education Community.

1. Sign in to Autodesk Account and go to All products and services.
2. Select a product to view subscription details including serial numbers.

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See Also:

Your ARCHICAD License Key

When you start ARCHICAD, the program automatically checks to see if you have a license available. If so, you are ready to work.

To update, download and otherwise manage your license keys, use the License Manager Tool.

The License Manager Tool is automatically installed to your computer as part of ARCHICAD 24 installation. It is also available for download at

manicapital.com

Hardware Key

The Hardware Key (Dongle) contains your license information on a USB stick. Before you start using the latest version of ARCHICAD, this Hardware Key must be updated.

For the update process, use the License Manager Tool:

manicapital.com

Start the License Manager Tool (LMT) and follow the directions to update your Hardware Key.

Now you are ready to use ARCHICAD

Note:&#;After updating your license key to ARCHICAD 24, you can still use older-version ARCHICADs (versions ).

Software Key

The Software Key is a software-based license. Using the License Manager Tool, a software key can be downloaded from the License Pool to a local client computer. To update your software key to the latest ARCHICAD version, start the License Manager Tool and follow the directions to update your license&#;to the latest version.

If you are using a single license and plan to work on a different computer, you should upload the software key to the License Pool, so that you can access it from a different location. (Internet connection is required.)

Note: If you are using a network license, there is no need to upload the software key to the license pool.

Serial Number (Education Version or Trial Version)

If you are using the Education or Trial version of ARCHICAD, you must activate it when starting ARCHICAD, using a Serial Number. Students and Trial users can register to obtain a Serial Number that is valid for a limited time.

•If you are using a Trial Version and later obtain a commercial version, insert your Hardware Key (or download a Software Key), then start ARCHICAD. Open your projects and save them again, this time as full-version project files.

•The ARCHICAD Education Version cannot be converted to a commercial version, because it is designed for use by students or for educational purposes only. The Education Version cannot be used for commercial purposes.

Demo Mode

When you start ARCHICAD, the program automatically checks to see if you have a license available. If you don’t have a license at all, you can continue in Demo Mode.

Demo Mode gives you full functionality except file saving and Teamwork. Use Demo mode to open, view and try out functions using any ARCHICAD file.

The unavailable commands and menu items are disabled, and the ARCHICAD title bar changes to ARCHICAD 24 Demo.

Lost or Defective License Key

In case of a lost or defective License Key, contact your local distributor.

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