A bit confused

[arail]

I ordered V-Ray 2 from Novedge. What will I be getting? A disc and a dongle? Or should I be downloading the software from Chaosgroup?

I really wish Chaos would adopt SketchUp and MODO's and Rhino's policy - install the software on any computer you choose, but only use it one at a time. Much more user friendly.

[corey]

Hello Arail-

I don't believe that Novedge will ship you a physical disk with V-Ray on it. Novedge will physically mail you a dongle and also email you account information for downloading V-Ray 2.0 for SketchUp from our website. Through your account on our website you get access to our full V-Ray Material library as well as software downloads, including future service releases, of V-Ray 2.0 for SketchUp.

The dongle licensing is, in some cases, less friendly than the other licensing scheme's. The dongle has been welcomed by most of our customers. Especially those customers who can now have one licensing platform for the multiple V-Ray versions and operating systems they run. With that being said, we do still plan on making both the installation and licensing more user friendly in future versions of V-Ray for SketchUp.

You may know this already but it's worth mentioning that V-Ray licenses or dongles don't have to be tied to a single machine. You can "float" the V-Ray licenses by installing the license server and dongle on your workstation or another dedicated machine. This allows you to install V-Ray on any computer that you want and each computer can access your your available V-Ray licenses. Also, if you have a meeting or want to work from home you can take the dongle with you to use V-Ray away from the office.

[arail]

Okay, now what?
I downloaded the demo but the demo doesn't seem to be set up to ask for a serial number to convert the demo to a licensed version like most software today.
So what do I do?

[arail]

This is now a disaster. I logged in under an earlier user name and password and that took me to a different page altogether. Fine. I uninstalled the demo version and installed the non demo version. Inserted the dongle.
Now I get this splash screen: "Unable to checkout V-Ray GUI license - ensure your license server is running and you have GUI licenses available."
I have no idea what that means! Furthermore (and this is where the disaster happens) I decided to put all this aside and go back to work in SketchUp 8 but when I open 8 I get a screen with a message too complicated to quote here - something to do with 'isThisDarwin' and my earlier copy of V-Ray does not install. So installing 2.0 on SketchUp 2013 blocks out earlier versions on SketchUp 8?
I work in AutoCAD, Inventor, SketchUp, modo and Rhino - no problems, no GUI licenses, no dongles. Now I have to export this model as an OBJ and re-texture and light in modo to get it done in time.
This is all circa Windows 95 (which, in fact, the Help file for the Wibukey seems to be written for).

[arail]

I thought I should keep this ball rolling so anyone else who is having problems can see what they might be up against as there is no documentation that I can see on your website about any of this - the link to the PDF manual for V-Ray 2.0 for SketchUp seems to be a retitled version of an older V-Ray for Rhino manual. Not a word about setting up the license server or anything else. Most of the Help file included with the Wibu software is aimed at Windows 95 users (!)

I tried to uninstall both V-Ray and the WibuKey software to start over again. I was able to uninstall V-Ray but my attempt to uninstall the WibuKey software resulted in an error screen telling me that the software " ... cannot be uninstalled properly (1139)" with no further comment about what to do next.

I uninstalled what I could but now inserting the dongle generates this error message: Device driver software was not successfully installed. WIBU-BOX/RU X No driver found

And when I go into programs to try and open Launch V-Ray License Server I get this error screen: One of the following licenses are required: WibiKey 250897:7758101 Failure reason: A suitable WibuBox entry was not found (17)

If I go to the Wibu website I have no idea what to download - WibuKey Runtime for Windows? Is that a driver?

And, to repeat what I mentioned above - my earlier version of V-Ray is MIA so rendering in SketchUp 8 is out.

[marthamaatkamp]

I found that the help files for V-ray 2.0 are a bit difficult to find.
If you go here:

http://help.chaosgroup.com/vray/help/sketchup/150PB

And click the Installation - Windows Installation PDF guide , it mentions that the wibu drivers are different for 64 bit systems, go to wibu site. This fixed the 'unable to checkout license' error for me. Also it mentions how to check which licenses are on your dongle, so you can try that too.

[arail]

Thanks marthamaatkamp -
Unfortunately after uninstalling everything and downloading the driver from Wibu and re-installing everything I end up with the same error screens. The same problem. No rendering today.

[corey]

Hello Arail,

We will get this resolved for you immediately. Keep your eye on your email inbox.

[arail]

Still dead in the water.

A question - most of my software operates on the premise that a download doesn't disable previous versions. This is kind of a 'fail safe' arrangement - if you have problems with, for instance, SketchUp 2013 you can keep working by using SketchUp 8 until you get your problems with the new version resolved. This is true of essentially all the other programs I work in - Rhino, modo, AutoCAD. Why did you disable my previous version? I paid (if I remember correctly) $700 for that software. It seems like I should have the right to continue using it.

[corey]

Hello Arail-

I just reviewed your support ticket in our system. Let's continue the conversation there to make sure everything is in sync.

[arail]

For anyone following this thread - unfortunately really a mountain out of a molehill.
The dongle needed to be programmed correctly with a license (the screw up was on the part of the reseller, not V-Ray). Once Corey and I actually managed to talk on the phone it took about 2 minutes to resolve.
So, rendering on ...