Problems with license files


If WinGX or Ortep3 complain about a missing license file, it means that no file with the correct name is found in the directory pointed to by the environment variables WINGXDIR or ORTEP3DIR. There are THREE (and only THREE) possible reasons, and at least one of them MUST be the cause of your problem. Please look at these VERY CAREFULLY - I will not respond to any emails on this topic, since this page says all I have to say about the matter.
  1. Most likely the file is incorrectly named (misspelt) or is in the wrong place - please check carefully with the information given in the email. The license files should be called "Ortep3-license" or "WinGX-license" as appropriate (the programs now also accept these names with a ".txt" extension). They must be in the directories pointed to by WINGXDIR or ORTEP3DIR as appropriate. Make sure that Windows Explorer is showing you the FULL file name (and not hiding extensions) !
  2. The environment variables WINGXDIR or ORTEP3DIR have been incorrectly set, i.e. they do not point to the directory you think they point to. Please check here on how to verify this.
  3. Finally, if the license file is present but the program cannot read ANY of the entries, it may also report that a license file cannot be found. This can happen very occasionally if your emailer really screws up the text file. For example, on one occasion, a user sent me a license file which was correctly named and in the correct place, but the program could not read a single line. The reason was because his/her emailer added a blank space between every single character in the file !!!. Even the best written parsing programs cannot cope with that kind of idiocy. Please check below about invalid licenses.
If WinGX or Ortep3 complain about an invalid license file, then probably your emailer has screwed up the ASCII file sent you. To see if this has happened, open up your license file in any text editor (like NotePad NOT Word for Windows). The last part should look very similar to this (any text before the first ######## marker is irrelevant, and of course the license number will be different). 
########################################################################
Program license for : WinGX
User name  : Louis J. Farrugia
User email : louis@chem.gla.ac.uk
User affiliation : Department of Chemistry, University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ, Scotland UK
Windows version  : Windows 98
License number   : 0000000000
########################################################################
There should be six and only six text lines between the delineator markers #####, each beginning with a designator name. Each piece of information starts on a new line. If it does not, then edit the file to look as above (if e.g. lines have become wrapped - the User Affiliation string can be a very long line and some emailers wrap this line over several lines). The most important information is the license number and email address. These must never be changed. Please edit your file so that the layout is EXACTLY as above in the example.

Louis J. Farrugia

Department of Chemistry, Joseph Black Building,
University Of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ
Telephone +44 (0)141 330 5137
FAX +44 (0)141 330 4888

E-mail louis@chem.gla.ac.uk

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