www.si-community.com

Just tried to install this thing and got this error "Cannot determine a product license to use."

Others seem to have had similar issues and I found this:

"...This suggested to me that I needed to set the environment variable ADSK_COMPOSITE_LICENSE to Softimage, and that did the trick (when I checked, that environment variable was set to 3DSMAXDESIGN, and that’s why Composite was silently failing)...."

http://xsisupport.com/category/licensing/

Not being too experienced with "environment variables" can anyone give me a tip on how to do this?

you don't know how to set environment variables in Windows?

Click the Windows menu, and type “Env”
It will find “set environment variables for your account”. Click it
Click “new”
Enter the name and the value in the proper edit boxes

Thanks! The info I found mentioned changing it, not making a new one so I thought I was missing it somewhere. Mine had nothing there about Composite.

Well, absolutely NONE of that worked. I guess AD really doesn't want us to actually use it. Did nobody ever try this even once before shipping? Doesn't bode well for the rest of Toxic if the can't even make an installer...

Finally figured out how to set the variable but it had no effect, it still fails on start.

ActionArt wrote:Well, absolutely NONE of that worked. I guess AD really doesn't want us to actually use it. Did nobody ever try this even once before shipping?

Yes. I have run Composite with every release of Softimage.

If you want to troubleshoot and fix this problem, we'd need a bit more info.

Do you have Softimage 2013 installed on this computer? (sorry, I have to ask obvious questions just to be sure)
Do you still get the same error ("Cannot determine a product license to use") ?

That suggests it is a PIT file problem. Can you check the log. See this post for more info on where to find the log file:
http://xsisupport.com/2012/07/17/advent ... site-2013/

Yes, I have SI2013 SP1 installed. I have two machines, one at the office and one at home on the subscription home license. Both do the same thing.

Yes, it's the same error ("Cannot determine a product license to use").

The log file you're looking for doesn't seem to exist at all.

Don't worry about this too much Stephen, I was just curious to try it, not that I need to use it right now. I have to get to work now so won't have time to fiddle with it until later.

Thanks.

Just a few updates here. I tried installing Composite 2013 SP2. It crashes on startup without so much as an error message.

Just for fun, since I'm a subscription customer who paid for tech support (whether I wanted it or not) I thought I might as well submit it and have them earn their keep. So far, they haven't been able to even figure out what Composite is. It's taken 3 emails so far to try to explain that it's not SI. Wow. They really shouldn't have let you go Stephen!

This is a low priority thing for me but if anyone has any other suggestions, post them when you have time. I can't imagine I'm the only one who has encountered this and there likely won't be any support from AD.

ActionArt wrote:Just a few updates here. I tried installing Composite 2013 SP2. It crashes on startup without so much as an error message.

Just for fun, since I'm a subscription customer who paid for tech support (whether I wanted it or not) I thought I might as well submit it and have them earn their keep. So far, they haven't been able to even figure out what Composite is. It's taken 3 emails so far to try to explain that it's not SI. Wow. They really shouldn't have let you go Stephen!

This is a low priority thing for me but if anyone has any other suggestions, post them when you have time. I can't imagine I'm the only one who has encountered this and there likely won't be any support from AD.

Composite should be creating a log file somewhere (it did for me).
I'd use Process Monitor to track it down.
Also, try creating a C:\flexlm folder. Then Composite may create an ADLM log file there.

I think this may very well be a PIT file problem. The log would confirm that.
Another way would be to try with another PIT file eg I could send you one (PM me if you want to try).

If it is a PIT file problem, then you may have to re-install all your Autodesk software (unless you can get a PIT file from a working system).

I've got the same problem, adding the Env variable does nothing. This is with Composite 2013 SP2 and SI 2013 SP1.

Composite 2013 SP1 worked fine.

@ActionArt & @TwinSnakes007
Did any of you file this a potential show stopper over at Support (and by that I mean the "anonymous" Support that lives in the “Subscription Center”, not our very own (former) “Head of Support" xsisupport).


This is something they should help you fix, this is lost functionality if you cannot get it installed. Let them sweat a little bit over it. Better yet: do submit this problem both of you, so they can see immediately it’s not a fluke.

Personally I skipped SP1 and installed SP2 side-by-side to the original Composite 2013 and haven’t found a problem yet, apart from that installer overwriting my original Tokix user folder…
;)

I can repro this error on my system by setting ADSK_COMPOSITE_LICENSE=3DSMAX:

---------------------------
Composite - Fatal Error
---------------------------
Cannot determine a product license to use.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

And, unfortunately, it doesn't look like Composite does any ADLM logging for this error.
Composite does create the standard toxik logs in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp\toxik\logs, but that's it.


If you set ADSK_COMPOSITE_LICENSE=SOFTIMAGE, and Composite.exe cannot, for some reason, find setenv.bat, then you would get the "Cannot determine a product license to use" error.

There may be, of course, other weirdness that could cause that error. I'd be curious to see a Process Monitor log for composite.exe.

So, then, if I take the following steps at the command line:
then shouldnt that work? Just as a Proof of Concept.

Actually, if the "txcheck License" doesnt succeed, then there is probably no need to try to run composite.

TwinSnakes007 wrote:So, then, if I take the following steps at the command line:

Code: Select all

set ADSK_COMPOSITE_LICENSE=SOFTIMAGE
setenv.bat (from SI install dir)
composite.exe

then shouldnt that work? Just as a Proof of Concept.

Actually, if the "txcheck License" doesnt succeed, then there is probably no need to try to run composite.

No, I mean if you deleted setenv.bat, or if the Softimage InstallationPath was wrong in the registry, then Composite would not find setenv.bat, and then you would get the error.

What you typed above should work.

I remoted into my desktop at home, from here at work and ran those commands from the command line, and composite at least started for me, obtained a license, started loading plugins and building the GUI.

So I saw the startup screen and some messages during its loading process. It did crash before it could actually display the full default screen, but that's not a license issue.

Will try again this evening and report back.

-TS-

TwinSnakes007 wrote:I remoted into my desktop at home, from here at work and ran those commands from the command line, and composite at least started for me, obtained a license, started loading plugins and building the GUI.

So I saw the startup screen and some messages during its loading process. It did crash before it could actually display the full default screen, but that's not a license issue.

Will try again this evening and report back.

-TS-

Cool. The crash could be because of the remote session (lower OpenGL level).