Anima 5.0.1 perpetual - how many installs?

Anima General
1

I currently have Anima 5.0.1 perpetual installed on 1 workstation with 3ds max.
I have a 2nd workstation with 3ds max I want to install anima 5.0.1 perpetual on.
I will only use 1 workstation at a time, except when I network render them.
I am running the Anima install now, do I select Workstation or Render node?

I think I ready Anima could be installed on 2 machines, like max can??

2

Hello Digital Magic

Each PRO license includes also 3 Render Node licenses, so you can use one of those if you only need to render Anima scenes in that other machine.

Just keep in mind that the Render Node license can only be used to load and render scenes in the plugins (3dsMax or Cinema4D), but it cannot be used to edit or modify the Anima content from those scenes. To edit the Anima scenes, a PRO or a Subscription license are needed.

Also notice that since Anima 5.6.0 the Render Nodes are free to use, so you could consider installing the Node versions using the 5.6.0 or 5.6.1 installers to avoid been restricted to 3 nodes only.

3

Thank you Albert Alomar,
I bought one Anima 5 Pro perpetual license,

So far, I installed Anima 5.0.1 on one computer.
On my 2nd computer, when I run installer do I select “render” node?
Sounds like I have to select render node and create and edit all scenes from the 1st computer, and then when I render I can network render them together?

2 computers are GUI 3ds max workstations and I have a 3rd computer that is render only (no GUI). Will Anima 5 work on the non-GUI 3ds max computer as a render only?

4

Yes, exactly. More details on that process here:

Regarding the Render Node installation of Anima, it makes no difference if you use 3dsMax wirh or without GUI, both will work.

5

Thank you again. Just to make sure before I do the install on the 2nd machine,
So I cannot install Anima as workstation on the 2nd computer so long as only one of the 2 computers is used as a workstation at a time, like V-ray does. I will always have to do my Anima adjustments/edits on the 1st computer.
They cannot both be a worksation one at a time like V-ray?

6

Strictly speaking, you can do the same as in V-Ray. However, the workflow for V-Ray and the Anima application is different. The difference with Anima installed in workstation mode is that, when using 3dsMax in a standard way (with UI), the plugin will try to activate the license on that machine whether you edit those scenes or not. As the edition tools are available in when Anima is installed in that workstation mode, the plugin tries to activate them always. We can’t know what is the user intention when loading the scene, so this happens even if the user is loading the scene without that intention in mind. That said, when the license cannot be obtained, it still will be possible to load the anima content, but it won’t be possible to modify it.

To clarify this, let’s consider the following sample use case. In this example, 2 devices (A and B) have Anima installed as Workstation, and the user has a single Anima license. In that case, the following workflow is perfectly possible:

  1. Open 3dsMax and load a scene with Anima content in device A with the intention of editing or adding more Anima content
  2. The license is assigned to device A
  3. Close 3dsMax in device A
  4. The license is automatically freed from device A and ready to be used by another device
  5. Open 3dsMax and load a scene with Anima content in device B with the intention of editing or adding more Anima content
  6. The license is assigned to device B
  7. Close 3dsMax in device B
  8. The license is automatically freed from device B and ready to be used by another device

However, in the same situation, the following use case may likely happen too:

  1. Open 3dsMax and load a scene with Anima content in device A with the intention of editing or adding more Anima content
  2. The license is assigned to device A
  3. Open 3dsMax and load a scene with Anima content in device B without aiming to edit or add more Anima content, but to work on any other part of the Max scene
  4. The Anima license will not work in device B because it is still assigned to device A
  5. The Anima content will be loaded in device B, and it will be possible to render scenes without issues
  6. However, the Anima Designer app and the Anima Drop panel will not work on device B, so it will be not possible to edit or add Anima content in the scene loaded in device B

Therefore, the users of devices A and B should organize themselves to use or not the license, depending on who needs to add or edit Anima content. For example, in the latter case, the user from device A would need to close 3dsMax to free the license. Then, user from device B should also restart 3dsMax to let the plugin get that license.

7

Thank you most kindly for explaining, Albert.
Since I am only one person this looks to work out fine.
Anima will never need to be edited on both devices at the same time so I will simply close max before using the other device. They will only distribute render together when I need more power.