Installation and Activation
Getting a licence
- Sign up or sign in at parametriq.co.uk, and subscribe to ParametrIQ CAD (Subscribe in the program's licence panel takes you there too).
- Open Account › Licenses. Your ParametrIQ CAD licence is listed with its status and its Product key,
a serial number such as
XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXX, with a button to copy it.
Free trial
You can try ParametrIQ CAD free for 14 days before buying, with everything a licence gives (on up to two computers, and up to seven days offline). No card is needed.
- Start ParametrIQ CAD and click Start a Free Trial…: on the start page's banner, in the licence panel (the person at the top right), or in the Activate dialog.
- Enter your email address and click Send Link.
- Open the email that arrives (Start your ParametrIQ CAD free trial) and click Start my free trial within 24 hours. Leave the program's window open: it notices by itself and activates the trial on this computer.
If you have no account, one is made for the address: its password and the trial's Product key are emailed to you as well, so you can sign in at the website and activate the trial on a second computer in the usual way.
Each email address, and each computer, can have one trial. An address whose account already has a licence can't start one: sign in and activate that licence instead.
While the trial runs, the start page and the licence panel show the days left, with a Buy button that opens the plans on the website. Help › Licence… shows the same.
Buying after the trial
Subscribe on the website signed in with the same email address as the trial (the trial's account). The trial then becomes your bought licence, with the same product key, on the same computers: there is nothing to activate again. The program picks it up the next time it starts, or straight away from Help › Licence….
When the trial ends
After 14 days (even offline) the program says Your 14-day free trial has ended and works view only, as below: you can still open and look at drawings, but not save or export them. Buy a licence to carry on: once bought with the trial's address, the next start makes everything available again.
Installing
While the subscription is active, the licence has a Download button. Download ParametrIQ CAD and install it.
Activating
- Start ParametrIQ CAD and click the licence button (the person) at the top right of the window. It shows your Subscription Status.
- Click Activate.
- Enter the E-mail Address of your account, and choose how you sign in: E-mail (then enter your Password), Facebook or Google.
- Enter the Serial number: the product key from your Licenses page.
- Click Activate.
The licence is checked with ParametrIQ's licence server, so the computer must be online. If the e-mail and password don't match, or the serial number isn't an active (or trial) licence of that account, the dialog says so and you can try again. Once activated, the computer remembers the licence, and checks it each time the program starts.
From the same licence panel, Manage Subscription opens your Licenses page, to see or change your subscription.
Without a licence that can be used
When the licence can't be used on the computer (not activated, removed from the licence, the subscription cancelled or unpaid, a free trial ended, or more than seven days without reaching the licence server), ParametrIQ CAD says why when it starts, and works view only: drawings can be opened, looked at and changed, but not saved, saved to the library or exported (nor can reports or 3D models be saved). Trying to says why, and offers to activate; the licence panel shows the reason too. Closing a changed drawing asks only whether to close it without saving.
Help › Licence… checks the licence again and shows its status (with a free trial's days left) and the licence panel's buttons. Help › About ParametrIQ CAD… shows the version, the licence's status on this computer, the account it is activated with and the computer's name (and, if it can't be used, why).
Two computers
A licence can be activated on two computers at once: an office computer and a laptop, say. Activating on a third lists the two it is on; choose one to Remove and Activate Here, and that one stops working until it is activated again. You can also make room:
- on the computer itself: Deactivate This Computer in the licence panel;
- from anywhere: your Account › Licenses page lists the computers each licence is on, with when each was last used, and a Remove button for each (useful when a computer is lost or broken).
The activation belongs to the computer, not to the program's files: copying them (or its settings) to another computer doesn't activate it there. That computer must be activated itself, and takes one of the two places.
Working offline
Each time the program starts online, its activation is renewed. Without the internet it carries on working for up to seven days since it last reached the licence server; after that, connect once to carry on. A computer removed from the licence finds out the next time it is online, and says Deactivated On This Computer: activate it again (making room, if need be) to use it there.