Software license

This document explains how licenses are managed and what you go wrong, i.e. what you can do if you have a license and EDA cannot find it, i.e. runs in demonstration mode.

The software license is a three record piece information that is either found in the EDA.LIC file in the EDA library directory or in the profile using the (L11$, L12$ and L13$ records). Alternatively you might use the LFL$ (License File Location) record to indicate a different location for the license file.

When EDA starts up is is looking of a license and tries to establish whether the license is valid or not; if a valid license is found EDA runs in normal mode; in demonstration mode otherwise.

There are several types of licenses in terms of validity of a license:

1. A license valid for the current version of EDA; i.e. the license is only valid for the current release of EDA and minor revisions of it; you cannot use future versions of EDA with it. For example if you hold a license for version 2 of EDA, it will be valid for all minor releases of version 2 (2.1 2.2 through 2.9); it will however not be valid for version 3 or later. This is the normal license type.
2. A license can be time-limited, i.e. you can use the software for a specific period of time; then the license expires and EDA will run in demo mode.

You have a license, but EDA runs in demo mode

• EDA cannot find the license file. By default it should be found in the EDA library directory, i.e. in the same place as the main profile file; if it is not there or cannot be found for system specific reasons you should use the LFL$ directive or alternatively store it into the L11$ etc. directives.
• The license has expired or is not valid on a different computer platform.
• The license file has been altered. Do not change any information the license file as it invalidates the license, i.e. you MUST NOT change any information in the license file, e.g. you cannot change the licensee string (even if it contains a spelling error!)