Labs, classrooms and shared computers

This chapter is for the person who sets up Studio on computers that several people use: in a lab, a workshop or a classroom.

One licence for the whole computer

The licence folder belongs to the computer, not to one Windows account (see The licence folder). A licence activated on a computer works for everyone who signs in to it.

A paid seat is used by one person at a time, on up to three computers, and a computer that several people share counts once. So:

• give a shared computer, such as the one beside the machine, a seat of its own;
• people who also use the paid features on their own computers need seats for those.

Activate the shared computer once, with the account of the person who looks after it.

What each person keeps

Studio installs for each Windows account. Each person has their own:

• settings and AI keys: the keys are encrypted for that account, and other accounts cannot read them;
• program versions, reports and audit log, in their own Documents\Twinwright Studio.

A trial of an edition counts once for the computer, for everyone on it: the licence server gives each computer one trial of each edition.

For installing on many accounts and computers, see Installing Studio.

Classrooms

The Learning edition is free on every computer, for learning and teaching. Nothing needs to be activated: install Studio, and the whole twin, the editor and the CAM for everyday parts work.

Give each student their own Windows account if you can. Their settings, programs and logs then stay apart.

To teach with the paid features, schools and training centres can get Pro seats. Write to hello@twinwright.com.

Computers that are restored at each start

Some lab computers return to a saved image at each start, which also empties the licence folder. On such a computer:

1. Activate the computer once, offline (see Activate a computer without internet), and keep its licence file.
2. Put the file into the image's licence folder, or import it at each start:

   TwinwrightStudio.exe --licence-import D:\licences\lab-pc-3.twlic

A licence file is made for one computer. Each computer of the room needs its own request code and its own file.

Computers without internet

Activate them offline, and renew them by hand: before a subscription's period ends, and once after the first 30 days of a licence bought outright. See Activate a computer without internet.

When the licence folder cannot be written

On Windows, any account can create %ProgramData%\Twinwright\licence. The account that creates it can change its files; the other accounts can read them. That is enough: one person imports the licence, and everyone uses it.

If your organisation's policies do not allow this:

• an administrator creates the folder and lets the users write in it; or
• the system environment variable TWINWRIGHT_LICENCE_DIR names a folder everyone can read.

On Linux, the folder is /etc/twinwright/licence when your account can make it or write in it; otherwise Studio uses your own ~/.local/share/Twinwright/licence (under $XDG_DATA_HOME when it is set), for you alone. To share one licence among the computer's users, make the folder once with sudo install -d -m 1777 /etc/twinwright/licence.

AI on a shared computer

Each person connects their own AI provider or AI client, with their own key. The audit log of each account records what that person and the AI had the machine do. See Privacy and what Studio sends.