How do I apply a SETINIT license key to Altair SLC on a Mac?
Altair EmployeeMacOS requires the correct privileges for saving files to certain locations on the filestore. You will need admin privileges and even then once you have the software and the key you may need to install the key from the command line due to the elevated privileges needed to save files in the /Applications area. Try this:
Use Safari to download your license from the World Programming website. By default it is saved into your Downloads folder and the name is something like "Licence Key K#####/wpskey" (where ##### is a five digit number).
Note: Sometimes the filename is called "Licence Key K#####.wpskey.txt" with the .txt extension.
Note: Downloads may be named according to your language e.g. in French, Téléchargements, but the Mac will accept either.
Note: British spelling of Licence (not License).
2. Start a terminal window - this is found in the Utilities folder of the Applications folder
3. In the terminal, type in this command to apply the license (replacing the ##### with the actual number of your license file):
sudo /Applications/AltairSLC.app/Contents/MacOS/wps -setinit Downloads/Licence\ Key\ K#####.wpskey
The 'sudo' command gives you elevated privileges in order to create the compiled output file. The argument to the -setinit command line option is the path to your License key wherever you have download it to. The backslashes are there to escape the spaces in the license key filename if you have any.
(Tips: when you start typing the word Applications you can type a couple of letters "Ap" and hit the tab key for auto-completion. Same for each word in the path. Note MAC is a case-sensitive operating system.)
4. If the terminal simply accepts the command (and gives you a new prompt for the next command) then the application was successful.
You can try running Altair Analytics Workbench now and close the terminal window any time. But if there are error messages then please let us know and we will be more than willing to assist you further.
Note: Altair SLC saves the encrypted licence key into "/Library/Preferences/worldprogramming/WPS/4/setinit.dat" but (in WPS 4.3 onwards) if it does not have permission to write into "/Library/Preferences" (e.g. if the sudo command is not available to the user) then it writes the file into "~/Library/Application Support/com.worldprogramming.wps/4/setinit.dat" (where ~ represents the current user's home directory). These paths have been modified in version 5 to use 'Altair' instead of 'worldprogramming' and 'AltairSLC' instead of 'WPS.