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Getting Started

[!IMPORTANT] The public beta is live. See Installing & launching to download the current build for macOS or Windows. A beta license is free, and beta testers get a free one-year license when Locus ships.

Licensing & activation

Drawing and building are always unlocked; saving and exporting need a license. Here's how activation works.

Locus Studio is licensed per machine. Drawing, constructing, wiring the node graph, and importing artwork are always available - open the app and build freely. What needs a valid license is keeping your work: three actions are gated.

Save a .locus file
Export SVG
Export DXF

Try one of these without a license and Locus opens the Activate dialog instead of writing the file.

The Activate dialog

Open it any time from the App menu > License... (the "Locus Studio" menu), or let it appear on its own the first time you Save or Export. It shows:

Your machine ID: a fingerprint of this computer - with a Copy button.
A box to paste a license, and an Activate button.

A license is tied to the machine ID it was issued for, so that ID is what you send to get one.

Getting a license

Locus Studio is in public beta, and a beta license is free. Copy your machine ID from the Activate dialog and email it to [email protected], the address the dialog itself shows. A license comes back, you paste it in, and you Activate.

On release day, two things happen. Everyone who tested the beta is issued a free one-year license, automatically: you won't have to ask, and you won't have to send anything, because the machine ID you already gave us is enough. And anyone else can get a free 90-day license by sending their machine ID the same way, so they can try the app properly before paying for it.

[!NOTE] Activation is fully offline. There's no account to create and nothing phones home - the license is a signed token verified on your own machine. A self-serve purchase page is planned; until it lands, licenses are issued by email.

Moving to a new computer

Because a license is bound to one machine, a license from your old computer won't activate a new one - the dialog will say it's for a different machine. Copy the new machine's ID from its Activate dialog and email it for a transfer.

Renewing

When a license reaches its expiry date, Save and Export lock again and the dialog reports that the license has expired. Email to renew, then paste the new license.

[!CAUTION] Confirm against the build Licensing is actively evolving - trial length, the purchase flow, and the exact dialog wording may change between versions. The stable parts are the three gated actions (Save, Export SVG, Export DXF) and the machine-ID-by-email flow.