Licensing

TunnelCAD is distributed under a modular license. The license state is stored locally in license.json inside the application’s per-user config directory:

  • Windows: %APPDATA%\TunnelCAD\license.json

  • Linux: ~/.config/TunnelCAD/license.json

The application ships with a bundled IQ License engine that supports three operating modes: Basic (free feature set), Trial (time-limited access to trial-enabled modules) and Activated (serial-bound, module-specific entitlements). The dialog surfacing these states is available from Home → Help → License (ribbon) or Help → License Manager… (menu).

License Manager dialog

The dialog is divided into three blocks:

  1. Status strip (top) — Mode, expiry date (if any), and a short machine-ID fingerprint for identification with your reseller. Status colouring:

    • Green — Activated;

    • Olive — Trial with days remaining;

    • Red — Expired;

    • Default — Basic.

  2. Modules list (middle) — One line per module registered by the application (Sections, Point Cloud, Analytics). Each line shows the module’s active/inactive state and, if the module is module-time-limited, its individual expiry date.

  3. Edit panel (bottom) — Server URL, Serial Key, and action buttons.

Server URL

The Server URL field shows the base URL the engine uses to reach the activation server (for example https://license.iqsoft.gr/api/v1 or a self-hosted endpoint). Editing the field is non-destructive — the new value is committed to the in-memory config when the user clicks Activate, Deactivate or Close. The URL is persisted into the application’s settings file on dialog close so that the next run of TunnelCAD uses the new endpoint without re-prompting.

Typical reasons to edit the URL:

  • Switching between production and staging servers during evaluation.

  • Pointing at a self-hosted activation server on an internal network.

  • Working against a different deployment region.

Serial Key

Paste your serial (the letter case is normalised automatically) and click Activate. The engine sends an activation request to <ServerURL>/activate carrying the serial, the product ID and the machine fingerprint. On success the reply is written to license.json, the status strip flips to Activated, and the dialog refreshes its module list.

Buttons

Button

Behaviour

Activate

Commits the URL edit, then calls /activate on the server. Requires a serial in the Serial Key field. Shows a message dialog with the result.

Deactivate

Standard online deactivation. Commits the URL, confirms with the user, then calls /deactivate. On success the license file is removed and the server frees up the activation slot. This is the preferred path when the machine is online.

Clear License

Local-only wipe. Removes license.json from this PC without contacting the activation server. Use this when the server is not reachable (machine offline, endpoint decommissioned, server migration). The server will still count this machine as activated until it is contacted again, so the regular Deactivate path is preferable whenever possible. The button fires only after a confirmation dialog that warns about the side effect.

Close

Persists the edited URL and dismisses the dialog.

Warning

Clearing a license locally does not free up the activation slot on the server. If you later want to re-activate the same serial on a different machine, you may need to contact your reseller to manually release the slot.

Troubleshooting

“Serial format invalid” — The serial-key format validator rejects the key shape before any network round-trip. Re-check the serial on your license certificate; serials are hyphen-grouped and case-insensitive.

“Activation failed: cannot reach server” — The URL is wrong or the network cannot reach it. Verify the Server URL, then check connectivity with a browser or curl to <ServerURL>/health (or the equivalent health endpoint your server exposes).

“Already activated on another machine” — The serial is bound to a different fingerprint. Either deactivate the other machine (online) or contact support to release the slot.

“Activated but modules are still marked inactive” — Some serials entitle only a subset of modules; the About dialog and the License Manager modules list both show which modules are active. Check the expiry dates: expired modules show as inactive even when the license is otherwise valid.

End-User Licence Agreement

TunnelCAD ships with an End-User Licence Agreement that the user must accept on first run (and on every material version bump).

Where the text lives:

  • EULA.md — authoritative Markdown source in the repository root.

  • EULA.txt — plain-text rendering shipped next to the binary; the in-app dialog reads this file at startup.

Acceptance record:

On acceptance, TunnelCAD writes a small JSON file alongside license.json:

  • Windows: %APPDATA%\TunnelCAD\eula.json

  • Linux: ~/.config/TunnelCAD/eula.json

The file records the accepted EULA version, the acceptance timestamp (ISO-8601 UTC), the OS username, and the Device fingerprint. It is only ever written on user click-through and read to decide whether the dialog needs to appear again after a version bump.

Re-prompt triggers:

  • eula.json is missing (e.g. fresh install).

  • eula.json exists but its version field is older than the current EULA_VERSION compiled into the application (material amendment).

Decline behaviour:

Declining the EULA exits the application without creating the main window. No telemetry is sent on decline.

TODO: the installer scripts (to be authored) must ship EULA.txt alongside the binary — the dialog will otherwise display a diagnostic message in place of the EULA text.