By default, animBot is designed for individual installation and it won’t allow you to install it in a central location. However, Enterprise Edition is designed for companies, it’s powered by RLM float licensing system and allows you to install animBot in a central location and have full control over version deployment, just like you normally do with other tools in your pipeline. In addition to that, it’s possible to do some tweaks, thru a config file.

Step 1 – RLM license server initial setup

 


1.a) Selecting a computer to run the License Server


If you already have a RLM server setup for other software vendors (v12.4 or above), you can skip to 1.c).

You’ll need to select a computer that will host the Reprise License Manager (RLM) server. This computer will act as a server and must be on your internal company network, accessible by all the computers in your organization that will use animBot. RLM server is recommended to be hosted on a physical (non-virtual) server and it should also be a computer with high availability, i.e. never turned off.



1.b) Install the RLM license server


Please download animBot RLM package (right click + save as) and extract the ZIP file.

Copy the folder pertinent to your OS (win, mac or linux) anywhere you want in your server.

 


1.c) Install the animbot.set file


Make sure to copy the file animbot.set in your server install directory. This file is contained in the animBot RLM package.

 


1.d) Get your RLM server host ID(s)


Run the command “rlmutil rlmhostid”, more details in this video.

If you made a Self Checkout purchase, please visit Enterprise Edition License Generator to download your license file and config.json and move on to Step 2.

If you made an Assisted Purchase, please send your RLM server host ID(s) to alan@animbot.ca and wait for your license file.


Step 2 – Complete the installation

Once you have the files animBot_Enterprise_Edition.lic and config.json, please proceed with the instructions below.



2.a) Install your license


Copy the file animBot_Enterprise_Edition.lic to your RLM installation directory (the same directory containing the executables rlm and rlmutil). If you have multiple lic files, copy all of them. Make sure the hostname described in the license file matches with your license server. You can edit the lic file with any text editor at this line:

HOST <hostname> <hostid> <port>

* Do not edit the hostid.

 


2.b) Launch RLM license server


Run the command “rlm”, more details in this video.

* It’s recommended that you setup this application to run at system startup, to ensure the server is always up and running.

 


2.c) Install animBot files


Download animBot (preferably the recommended version for the Enterprise Edition)

Extract the zip file and look for the folder “animBot” which is inside the version folder i.e. “animBot_1_0_0_Bundled/animBot“. Copy it to a shared location in your network.

Add the config.json file to the same location. It should look like this:



Alternatively, you can set the environment variable ANIMBOT_CONFIGJSONPATH and add the config.json file to a custom location. This is useful when you have multiple animBot versions that point to a single config.json file.

 


2.d) Set your Python path


In order for Maya to know where you’ve installed animBot files, and be able to import the modules, you need to include the path to the folder animBot to Maya’s Python Path. Feel free to do that the way you are used to. If you are not familiar with this, please read this article.

 


2.e) Set the RLM license server host address so animBot can find the licenses


There are a few options to set the server’s <port>@<hostname>, the most common is to edit the rlmServerHost variable in your config.json file. Learn more about the config.json file.


Alternatively, you can set the animBot-specific environment variable animbot_LICENSE or RLM_LICENSE. Example: “export animbot_LICENSE=5053@serverhost”.

 


2.f) Add animBot to Maya’s shelf


Python command: 

import animBot; animBot.toggle()

Download the animBot shelf icon.

Alternatively, to add the animBot launch button to the current shelf, each user can run the following python command:

from animBot._api.core import CORE as ANIMBOT_CORE
ANIMBOT_CORE.trigger.animBotMenu_createToggleButtonOnShelf()

 

How do I know if it worked?


If you successfully installed animBot Enterprise Edition, animBot will show up on top of Maya's timeline when you run the command described in 2.f:


And if you go to animBot menu/licensing, you should see this:


Please read this article for Troubleshooting Enterprise Edition installation

Monitoring your license

After installation, you can also monitor the status of your floating licenses using the RLM server’s web interface. From the server machine go to http://localhost:5054 or from another machine use http://servername:5054 replacing servername as appropriate.


More details in the article Monitoring floating license usage