Activation and licenses
This pages regroups information on how to activate and manage your licenses to unlock the application.
Activation process per application type
Depending on where the application has been downloaded, the activation process may be different:
| Application Type | Activation process |
|---|---|
| Creative Cloud Desktop | See the dedicated page in the Helx documentation. In case there are any issues the Creative Cloud documentation may provide additional answers. |
| Steam | Launch the product directly from the Steam application itself. |
| Substance 3D standalone | See the activation process described below. |
Activation steps
Using the activation wizard
Three choices are available:
- Evaluate this product: generate a license file based on your hardware which will be valid for the next 30 days only.
- Activate using licence file: activate the product with a license file (*.key) downloaded from your account page the Substance 3D website.
- Activate using your account: activate the product by using a login and password to connect to your account and automatically retrieve the license file.
To install the license file during the wizard process, make sure you are running the software as an administrator and to temporary disable your anti-virus.
Manual activation
It is possible to manually activate Substance Painter by putting the license.key file in the following folder:
| Platform | Version | Path | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | 11.2 or newer | App Data (local) | C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Adobe\Adobe Substance 3D Designer |
| App Data (roaming) | C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Substance 3D Designer | ||
| Legacy | App Data (local) | C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Allegorithmic\Substance Designer | |
| App Data (roaming) | C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Allegorithmic\Substance Designer | ||
| Mac | 11.2 or newer | /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Substance 3D Designer | |
| Legacy | /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Allegorithmic/Substance Designer | ||
| Linux | 11.2 or newer | /home/[username]/.local/share/Adobe/Adobe Substance 3D Designer | |
| Legacy | /home/[username]/.local/share/Allegorithmic/Substance Designer | ||
Some of the directories in the paths mentioned above may be hidden by default. Type the path manually in the file explorer or display hidden files to view them.
Make sure that the file is called license.key otherwise the application will not be able to find it.
Environment variable
Similar to the manual activation, but the location of the license file can be overridden via an Environment Variable.
