How access works
Access belongs to your account and covers one device, checked online — what it unlocks, the access chip in the ribbon, the License window's states, and the offline grace period.
Access to SolarLayout Desktop belongs to your account — the email you sign in with at solarlayout.app — and covers one device. It is not a licence file: there is nothing to install, copy, back up or keep safe. Help ▸ License / Subscription… opens the window that shows this device's status and requests access for it. The Device ID tells the server which computer is asking, and status is checked online.
You need not open that window just to check status. The ribbon at the top of every window carries an access chip: ● Active — until <date> (with "(offline)" appended while a cached result is in use), ● Access expired or ● Access revoked with a Contact Us button beside it, or ● Access status unavailable if the last check failed. On a device with no access at all the chip itself is hidden and only a gold Get Free Access button shows in its place. The chip is refreshed at startup, whenever the window regains focus, after the License window closes, and every 30 minutes.
The application opens fully usable regardless of that status. Access only matters once you ask it to generate a layout or hand you a result.
What needs this device active
| Action | Needs active access |
|---|---|
| Generate Layout | Yes |
| The exports on the Export ▾ menu — KMZ, DXF, ICR-block DXF and PDF, cable schedule, the report, the PDF with piles | Yes |
| The exports elsewhere — Export TMY data CSV on the Yield tab, the SLD and BOM exports, the pile editor's Export to Excel…, an ICR block window's PDF… | Yes |
| Filing a support ticket from the Support button | Yes |
| Reading and changing every input, loading a boundary file, opening a project | No |
| The SLD and BOM views | No |
Because almost everything downstream is computed from a generated layout, a device without active access is in practice limited to exploring the inputs, loading a boundary file, and opening every menu, the in-app guide and the License / Subscription window itself.
Clicking Generate Layout or an export without active access does not show a separate message: the License / Subscription window opens itself, with the headline for this device's state, so you can act on it at once. At launch the window also opens by itself, but only on a device that has never had access.
The License / Subscription window
The headline and the line under it report the state:
| Headline | Detail |
|---|---|
| ✓ Active — until <date> | "You have access until <date>." |
| Start your free trial | "All features are available during your free trial. Activation takes one click in your browser." |
| ⏳ Waiting for activation | "This will update automatically when you return here after activating in your browser." — shown right after Get Free Access |
| Access expired | "Your free trial or subscription has ended. Contact us to purchase, or to request a trial extension." |
| Access revoked | "Access on this device has been revoked. Contact us to restore it." |
| Access status unavailable | "We couldn't reach the SolarLayout server. Check your connection and press Refresh." |
An optional line "Access granted to <email>" names the account.
The buttons depend on the state:
- While active: Access Details, which opens the same web page as activation for this device, and Support cases, which opens your list of support cases.
- While not active: Get Free Access and Contact Us.
- Always: Refresh and Close.
The Device ID sits behind a Having trouble? disclosure at the bottom: the group Your Device ID with the hint "If support asks for your Device ID, copy it from here and include it in your message." and a Copy button. The Device ID is the Windows registry MachineGuid — the same value Windows shows under Settings ▸ System ▸ About ▸ Device ID.
Getting access
Click Get Free Access and the application opens your browser at the activation page for this device. Complete activation there, then switch back to the License / Subscription window — it re-checks whenever it regains focus and the headline flips to ✓ Active — until <date> by itself.
Contact Us opens the SolarLayout contact page in your browser, for questions or to arrange paid access. Activate this device walks through the full flow.
Working offline
When this device cannot reach the server, a good check it already made is cached, and the application keeps working under that cached status for up to 3 days before it needs to check in again; the ribbon chip reads ● Active — until <date> (offline) meanwhile. An active result is treated as fresh for 5 minutes, so the application does not call the server on every check. If it cannot reach the server and has no usable cached check, the window reads Access status unavailable.
A second device
Free access is for one device per account. Click Get Free Access on a second computer and the activation page reads Your access is already on another device — "Your account already uses SolarLayout on another device, so this one cannot be added." It lists the Registered device and This device by Device ID, and activation stops there.
Two things to know:
- SolarLayout can move your access to a new computer. Write to sales@solarlayout.app with the new computer's Device ID. Once it is moved, the new computer unlocks on its own; click Refresh in the License / Subscription window to see it straight away. Your end date stays the same, and the old computer loses access the next time it checks.
- A device belongs to one account. If this computer was activated under a different email, the page reads This device is already in use — sign in with that account instead, or contact SolarLayout.
An expired or revoked account may still activate its first device; the device simply shows that status.
Updates, reinstalls, and other accounts
Access is server-side and belongs to your account, not stored in a file, so it survives reinstalls and application updates automatically — there is nothing to re-load, and reinstalling the application keeps this computer's place on your account. A reinstall of Windows or a new machine can change the Device ID, and a changed ID counts as a new computer: see A second device. See also Updates and reinstalling.
A second Windows user account on the same PC has the same Device ID, so access carries over to it too.
Where to go next
Updates and reinstalling
How Microsoft Store updates arrive, how to check for one by hand, why your access survives them, and how to reinstall or remove the application.
Activate this device
Add this device to your account's access from the License / Subscription window or the ribbon, complete it in your browser, and confirm it automatically.