Activating a License Key in SmartPLS

Your license key is in the email we send once your payment has arrived. Activate it in SmartPLS in a few steps; switching to another key works the same way.

Activate or switch your license key

Open SmartPLS.
In the menu bar, click SmartPLS and choose Switch License.
If a license is already active (for example the Student License), click Deactivate.
In the dialog Choose your license type, select Professional license.
Paste your license key into the text field. Seat license and floating license keys both go here. If your university runs its own SmartPLS license server, enter the server instead of a key.
Click Submit. SmartPLS now runs with your new license.

If the activation does not work

Troubleshooting license issues covers the most common problems.
Offline activation helps if the computer has no internet access.
Still stuck? Send us a ticket, ideally with a screenshot of the message you see.

For administrators: silent activation

To roll out SmartPLS on many computers, for example in a computer lab, you can activate the license silently. SmartPLS then skips the licensing dialog and reads the license from its vmoptions configuration file:

Windows: C:\Program Files\SmartPLS 4\smartpls.vmoptions
macOS: /Applications/SmartPLS 4/smartpls.app/Contents/vmoptions.txt (in the Finder, right-click the app and choose Show Package Contents)

You need administrator rights to edit this file.

Seat license

Add these lines and replace the sample values with your license key and the contact address of your administrator. SmartPLS then always uses this key and never shows the licensing dialog. If there is a licensing problem, users see a message with the administrator contact.

-DlicenseKey=KYXXX-DRC39-GB4PY-NXXXS-UEYAM
-DlocalAdminEmail=admin@sample.org

Your own floating license server

If you host your own license server, add its host name or IP address and port instead of a license key:

-DlicenseServer=192.0.2.10:16090
-DlocalAdminEmail=admin@sample.org

See setting up a floating license server for the server installation.