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FAQ

(Frequently Asked Questions)

 

Features

VUE uses data from externally provided servers, such as USGS or NextZen. As with any server, it might happen occasionally that a server is unreachable. If these servers are currently unavailable, VUE cannot access the data and thus cannot download it. If you notice such a problem, please don't hesitate to contact us through our support form and we will report the downtime to the external partners, so that the servers can get back up and running.

 

Sales

You can pay online through the e-commerce platform with a VISA or MASTERCARD. We are working with the e-commerce platform to integrate Paypal which isn’t available just yet because of the recurring payment mechanism.  
 
Should you want to pay by Paypal or wire transfer, drop us a line here, and we'll be happy to help!
Before placing your order, you will need to fill the tax-exempt status request form (found on your user account page), so that we can update your account accordingly. We will then send you a notification once you can freely place your order without being charged EU VAT. Please note, by legislation, we will have to apply VAT to orders placed for customers residing in France – even if you have a valid French VAT #. 
For annual licenses, you can request a refund up to a maximum of 30 days after your payment was processed. Please note a 15% processing fee may be applied. Contact our sales team for more information. 
 
For subscriptions, all past monthly installments are not refundable. You can cancel your Creator or Professional subscription at any time. Enterprise Solutions require a one year minimum commitment, after which you can cancel at any time. 
 
The full terms and conditions can be found here.
First, thanks for being a loyal customer and welcome to the new e-on!
To log onto your new account, just hit the ‘my account’ button on top of this page (or go to https://store.e-onsoftware.com/login.php)
  • If you had a VUE 11 or above product, or PlantFactory (whatever generation) activated on your old e-on user account, we have transferred your old account to the new platform, under the e-mail address we had on file and where your legacy product licenses were activated. Upon your first connection, you will have to set a password using the ‘forgot your password’ link.
If the ‘forgot your password’ does nothing, it usually means that your account wasn’t transferred at all – which indeed may have happened in some specific instances. If you are experiencing this, just contact our support so that we can investigate. 
  • If your most recent VUE version activated was below VUE 11, or the only products you had activated were any of Carbon Scatter, Ozone or LumenRT, your account wasn’t transferred at all. So you can freely create yourself a new account using the create account (https://store.e-onsoftware.com/login.php?action=create_account) link.
If your account wasn’t transferred, that does not mean you cannot get activation help on these legacy products (see further articles below). 
If you are still uncertain what to do at this point, contact the support team and we’ll be happy to help you out.
If you had a VUE 11 (Esprit/Studio/Complete/Infinite/xStream) or higher version activated on your old account, we have transferred your user data to your new user account on the e-commerce platform. Your login is the e-mail address under which you had activated your licenses. You will find your old serial numbers in the Legacy License Keys tab. 
Order history information wasn’t transferred to the new e-commerce. You can request any pre-December 2018 invoice from our sales team and we'll be happy to help!
Feel free to contact us through our sales contact form. We’ll be happy to help!
You can read all of it in legal jargon, here. 
Just go to your user account under the Accounts Settings tab and update your e-mail address from there.
If you were under a valid VUE Artist product subscription, all the fees you had paid in advance on the old program were transferred towards a Creator Solution subscription. You should have received a personal communication with more information. If you missed this communication, please get in touch with our sales team and we'll be happy to help!
If you were under a valid Maintenance plan for either VUE (Infinite/xStream) and/or PlantFactory (Studio/Producer), you have received a free subscription towards the Enterprise Solution. You should have received a personal communication with more information. If you missed this communication, please get in touch with our sales team and we'll be happy to help! 
There are quite a few!
  • You are always up to date! No need for costly upgrade fees.
  • Under Creator or Professional solutions, you are not tied to your subscription model. Stop and start it as you wish. You don’t need it for a month? No problem, cancel it, and get a new one when you need it.
  • It’s flexible! If you don’t need the Professional additional feature-set all the time, you can subscribe to the Creator Solution and then switch to the Professional Solution only when you need it. Then, once this is not required anymore, you can cancel the Professional plan and switch back to a Creator Solution.
There are quite a few!
  • When you get an annual license, you get the equivalent of 12 months of monthly subscriptions for the price of 10.
  • You are always up to date! No need for costly upgrade fees.
  • You can install the solution on 2 different computers (provided you don’t run them at the same time)
  • If your computer isn’t connected to the web, or you are running behind a firewall, you only have to activate your license once and you’re done for the year!

 

Monthly Subscription Plans FAQ

The subscription system tries up to 4 times to process the monthly renewal payments.
On the day of the renewal, 24 hours after attempt # 1, then 48 hours after attempt # 2, and finally 72h after attempt # 3 (so 4 payment attempts on the course of 6 days).
At every failed payment the system sends a “payment failed” e-mail like the one you have received.
At failed payment # 4, the subscription gets canceled entirely, and you will receive a cancelation notice.
 
When you receive the first failed payment notification e-mail, the only thing you should do is to check with us and/or your bank why the payment would have been declined. On our end, we only receive sparse reasons in these instances. Nonetheless, one of the main reasons we see is when the bank automatically refuses transactions from abroad – and the solution to that is to inform your bank that this would be a valid recurring transaction – so that they can add us to your/their trusted vendors.
Your bank is your best contact though to get more specific reasons as to why your payment was declined.
 
If you receive 4 failed payment notifications and the cancelation notice, then your subscription will be canceled completely, and you will have to re-subscribe (i.e. place a new order) to resume using the products.
While you will find your payment method information on your main user account page, under the "Account Settings" tab and "Payment Methods" link, the actual payment method that is tied to your live subscription is to be found in your Subscription details.
So you should go to the "Orders tab", in the "My Subscriptions" link. This is where you will be able to update / edit / add / delete your credit card information, as well as update the billing address information per subscription.
Canceling a monthly subscription is allowed for Creator and Professional solutions monthly subscriptions at any time. However, for Enterprise solutions you may cancel your monthly subscription plan only after 12 monthly installments were successful.
To cancel your subscription, go to your account page, under the "Orders" tab, you will see a "My Subscriptions" link. This is where you will find the cancel option.
Unfortunately, there is absolutely no relation between monthly subscriptions and annual licenses. When you switch to an annual license, you must cancel your monthly subscription from your user account to avoid being automatically charged your monthly renewal.

 

Annual Licenses FAQ

During the last month of validity for your annual license, the software will start warning you that it is time thinking about renewing.

Step 1 – renew: You just need to place an order online for any of our Solutions (there’s no restrictions on you changing your Solution level when renewing). There is no dedicated extension product in our store. Once your order will be finalized, you will receive a new activation key with your invoice. Keep this activation key secured (you can always find this back on your user account, in your order details anyway), as you’ll need it for step 2.

Step 2 - extend: 7 days prior to your current annual license expires, the software will prompt you a new dialog and offer you the opportunity to input your new activation key. Grab your new activation key and enter that in the dialog. Add the other necessary information in the dialog and let the software finalize the automatic activation process.
Note that your current license at this stage will still be valid, so we recommend you only apply the new key once the previous license is completely expired (so that you don't lose any overlapping license use-time).
 
Step 3 - enjoy: Once the automatic activation process is finalized, you're good to go!

 

New Solutions Support

The best way to contact support is through our tech support request form. This will ensure all your requests are tracked properly!
We’re usually pretty quick to reply to support requests that came from our request form, and in most cases you should get an initial reply within the day (we still need some sleep sometimes). However, depending on the complexity of your request, the resolution of your case can take some time. But in any case, we are committed to provide you with an initial answer within a maximum of 2 business days.
You can find a complete list of system requirements for both VUE and PlantFactory, along with a comparison of our solutions, here. 
You will find the latest solution updates download links directly on your user account page, under the Software Center Tab. We are notifying all current users by e-mail as soon as a new update is available.
 
You will also see new release announcements on our blog and on our social media channels. 
The most recent builds for VUE and PlantFactory are directly downloadable from your user account page, under the Software Center tab. 
Please note that this can only be done through annual licenses. Subscription activation keys allow for only 1 fulfillment. 
Of course! However, you will need to follow a manual activation process. If you are under a subscription program, please note that this will require you to request a new license file every month! In such situations, we’d recommend you go with an annual license. 
Since all updates come free of charge, we will offer support on a given build for a maximum of 12 months after it’s been released – or until the 3rd subsequent quarterly release has shipped, whichever comes first. 
Absolutely yes. Though, since the licensing between the new solution and the legacy products has changed, you will need to first request a “Legacy Content Compatibility key”. First open VUE or PlantFactory (same for Creator). Go to the Help|Legacy Content Compatibility menu option.
 
You will find all the information you need in there, but namely the most important parts are the HostID information and any information that will allow us to find your former user information (most of the time, the e-mail address where your former licenses were registered to). Send that over through the support form (there’s a specific option for that in the dropdown!) and we’ll get right back at you.
No, the same activation key serves for both VUE and PlantFactory - a lot simpler!
This is possible only with annual licenses, but we’re still to understand why you would want to do that. 😉
In simple terms, the EULA says that you can do whatever you want with the content you create from scratch. Where this gets trickier is for when you use the content that ships with the software.
 
It’s perfectly fine to create images/animations that use the built-in content (even if you intend to sell those images/animations). What you are not allowed to do is to export such content – altered or not - and provide it elsewhere, be it free or for a fee.
Nothing changes – these licenses are yours to keep forever. You can still use these as long as you’ll be able to run them on a compatible OS. We can’t predict what Microsoft or Apple have in mind for their next OS updates and upgrades, but it should still give you plenty of time. Just keep in mind that we won’t be supporting these legacy products anymore.
You will find the application build number you are running on the splash screen (that appears when you open the software) or by going to the Help|About VUE (resp. About PlantFactory) menu entry in the software.
 
Then you need to go to the Software Center page and check from the “Incremental updaters” list if there is a more recent build number available. If the build number on the software center page is higher than the build number you are currently running, you can update your software.
 
There is no need to download the full installer if your software is already installed. Just download the incremental updater instead.
You will find a bullet point list of bug fixes and improvements included in each update directly in the Release Notes page.
First you need to go to the Software Center page, locate the appropriate software update file from the “Incremental updaters” list, and download it to your hard drive. There is no need to download the full installer if your software is already installed. Just download the incremental updater instead.
 
Once downloading is complete, please do the following to install the update:

Macintosh:
  1. Close the application you want to update if it is running.
  2. The archive will automatically unstuff itself and create an Update icon on your desktop. Double-click that icon.
  3. If prompted for a folder, browse to the folder where the application is installed. Your software will be updated automatically.
Windows:
  1. Close the application you want to update if it is running.
  2. Browse to the location where you saved the update and double-click on the file's icon to start the update.
  3. If prompted for a folder, browse to the folder where the application is installed. Your software will be updated automatically.

If you want/need to uninstall the update, use the "Cancel Last Update" command from the application’s File menu.
In such instance, you don’t need to re-download the full installer. You will need to download the standalone plugins installer that you will find on the Software Center, in the “Incremental updaters” list. You will also need to download the most recent updater file (it will have the same or a higher build number).
 
Simply unzip the plugins installer zip file to a temporary folder on your hard drive and execute:
  • Install plugins.app on Mac
  • Plugins Setup.exe on Windows
The installation process will be similar to the one you already went through when you installed VUE.
 
You will then have to install the latest Update to make sure both the plugins and the VUE core version have a similar build number.
Hotfix: hotfix is the first stage in the software updates public lifecycle. Hotfixes are new software builds that have been thoroughly tested by our private beta team and are ready for a broader test phase by the community. They are usually available only as incremental updaters.
 
Official Release: Official Release is the final stage in the update lifecycle. In most instances, a hotfix becomes official within a couple of weeks of public availability - unless a major issue was reported by the community. Once an update reaches Official Release status, we will update the software full installer as well as all trial versions, and we’ll also send out a notification to all activated users.

 

PlantCatalog FAQ

Absolutely not!
It is not mandatory to own VUE and PlantFactory to use PlantCatalog. PlantCatalog comes with its own standalone tools (PlantCatalog Exporter, and a set of 3rd party importer Plugins) so that you're up and running without any additional hidden costs.
You can of course use the PlantCatalog collections directly in VUE and / or PlantFactory though (provided you activate the PlantCatalog within each application - see below for more information).
  Creator Solutions Professional Solutions Enterprise Solutions PlantCatalog Exporter PlantCatalog Importer Plugins

PlantCatalog Creator

$99/year

 ✔ ✗ Already included ✗ ✗

PlantCatalog

$249.95/year

✔

(PlantCatalog Creator Recommended)

 ✔ Already included ✔ ✔

 

The importer plugins are currently compatible with 3ds Max and Maya 2019-2020 (windows only). The importer plugins will automatically generate native materials for a subset of renderers:
 
  • In 3ds Max, the plugin can generate native materials for V-Ray Next, Scanline and ART Renderer.
  • In Maya, the plugins can generate native V-Ray Next materials.
 
The plugins will also generate host-generic material sets, and therefore should be compatible with any 3rd party renderer (such as RenderMan, Arnold, Corona, Octane, RedShift etc.)
 
Other host applications and renderers will be supported soon while we continue to expand our interoperability developments. You will get access to any new importer plugin released for free while your PlantCatalog (resp. PlantFactory Professional or Enterprise) license is still valid.
First, if you own an Enterprise Solution (monthly or annual), the PlantCatalog is already built in, you just need to download the PlantCatalog archive files from the Software Center tab on your user account page and add the content to your collections following the read-me file instructions you will find in each of the archives.
 
If you own a Creator or Professional Solution (monthly or annual), you first need to place your order for your PlantCatalog activation key from the store. Once your order is complete, you will receive an Activation key by e-mail, together with your invoice. In the software (VUE or PlantFactory), go to the Help|Activate PlantCatalog menu entry. Input the activation key you have received, enter your e-mail in the dialog, and let the software activate itself.
 
Once the automatic activation is successful, go to the Software Center on your user account page, and download all PlantCatalog archive files and add the content to your collections following the read-me file instructions you will find in each of the archives.
 
Since we release new species every quarter, keep an eye on our blog and/or social platforms for the announcements. You’ll then just have to go to the Software Center again to download your new collection content for free and install that following the above process.
First you need to place your order for your PlantCatalog activation key from the store. Please note that PlantCatalog Creator licenses won’t work with PlantCatalog Exporter, nor with the integration plugins as these PlantCatalog Creator licenses are specifically designed to work only with VUE and/or PlantFactory Creator.
 
Once your order is complete, you will receive an activation key by e-mail, together with your invoice. Go to the Software Center tab on your user account page and download the PlantCatalog Exporter application installer. During the install process, your activation key will be required. Input the activation key you have received when prompted, enter your e-mail in the dialog, and let the software finalize installation and activate itself.
 
Once the installation is completed and activation is successful, go to the Software Center on your user account page, download all PlantCatalog archive files and add their content to your collections following the read-me file instructions you will find in each of the archives.
 
Since we release new species every quarter, keep an eye on our blog and/or social platforms for the announcements. You’ll then just have to go to the Software Center again to download your new collection content for free and install that following the above process.
Yes, you can, however, you won’t be able to export your customized plant species from PlantFactory Creator to anything else than VUE Creator.
 
In VUE Creator, you will nonetheless be able to use the PlantCatalog content directly from the collection browser.
 
We therefore would recommend you get PlantCatalog Creator instead, as it will be a better deal for you.
No, the software will reject the key and prompt you to get a regular PlantCatalog License.
 
If you have purchased a PlantCatalog Creator by mistake, please contact our Sales support to discuss possibly exchanging your license.
No, the software will reject the key and prompt you to get a regular PlantCatalog License.
 
If you have purchased a PlantCatalog Creator by mistake, please contact our Sales support to discuss possibly exchanging your license.
Yes and No.
 
No: Technically the PlantCatalog assets were authored in the most recent PlantFactory builds and use the most recent PlantFactory feature sets. Therefore, it would be impossible for a legacy VUE or PlantFactory to open the plant species as is. Additionally, PlantCatalog is tied to the licensing mechanism we introduced with the current solutions (RLM based) which the legacy products can’t work with.
 
Yes: Legacy VUE versions can load generic geometry assets, such as .3ds, .obj or.dae (the latest legacy versions of VUE 2016 can also load .fbx and .abc). So technically speaking, you could get PlantCatalog Exporter (which requires a full PlantCatalog license) and export the plant species as standard geometry to use within your legacy VUE software. You will however not be able to retain the procedural definitions within VUE (to populate EcoSystem with different instances for instance).
 
So it’s not technically impossible, but we strongly recommend you get under the most recent versions of VUE and PlantFactory to give the PlantCatalog content its full potential.
No, the PlantCatalog is an annual license-based offering, where you get access to the entire vegetation collection together with all associated software tools, incl. all new quarterly species additions, while your license is still running.
Yes, we collect user requests to prioritize our species development roadmap. The more requests we get for a given species (or plant type, region, biome etc.), the quicker it’ll get developed. You can submit your request (please be as specific as possible in your initial request) using the PlantCatalog form at the bottom of the PlantCatalog page.
 
If you are in a rush or have very specific vegetation needs that are not addressed by the current offering, we can also offer custom development deals. Contact us using the PlantCatalog form at the bottom of the PlantCatalog page (please be as specific as possible in your initial request), and we’ll start the discussion.
All the meshes you will have exported to standard geometry formats (such as .OBJ, .FBX etc.) will continue working and are yours to keep and use (even commercially) forever - provided you stick to the EULA terms (see the Can I resell [...] FAQ article below for more information).
 
Nonetheless, when your license expires, all species part of the PlantCatalog won’t be useable directly within VUE, PlantFactory, PlantCatalog Exporter and/or the integration/importer plugins.
 
All the species you will have derived from the official collections using PlantFactory and saved as PlantFactory format (.TPF or .TPFP) will also be unusable.
 
After your PlantCatalog license has expired, opening a VUE or PlantFactory scene that would include official or derivative PlantCatalog content in native PlantFactory file format will prompt a warning and offer to replace or skip such content.
Yes, there’s nothing preventing that. However, please understand that your right to use the collections starts once you have activated the PlantCatalog license and is valid for a period of 365 days after that. So, to get the most bang for your bucks, we recommend you keep your Solution monthly plan running during the whole duration of your PlantCatalog license.
 
We will NOT prorate (i.e. extend) PlantCatalog usage, should you use the stop and restart option for the Creator and Professional monthly subscriptions. We will also NOT refund unused time for your PlantCatalog license should you completely cancel your monthly plan.
 
In short, no. Using the PlantCatalog is subject to your acceptance of our standard End User License Agreement (EULA). This EULA states that it’s perfectly fine to create images/animations that use the built-in content (even if you intend to sell those images/animations). What you are NOT allowed to do is to export such content – altered or not - and provide it elsewhere, be it free or for a fee. This is valid for both the vegetation geometries, but also all texture maps and additional content that ships with the PlantCatalog.
 
Example # 1: you can use and embed the PlantCatalog content (original or modified) within your games, provided there is no way for the end user to extract and re-use the content from the engine.
 
Example # 2: you are in violation of the EULA if you sell or share publicly a plant species you have created from scratch, but such species uses any of the texture maps (unchanged or modified) that ship with the PlantCatalog content.
 
You may however use the PlantCatalog content as a mean of training yourself and learning on how to create your own vegetation species from scratch using PlantFactory 😉.
There’s no one size fits all answer to this question 😊
 
It depends on the vegetation itself (weeds won’t have the same polygon footprint as the giant Sequoia 😉), at what stage it is in its maturity, what’s the chosen mesh resolution etc. Since it’s procedural based as well, every instance will have its own polygon count. It also depends on whether you want quads or triangles. There’s an ID card for each species in the species galleries, that gives more details with regards to polygon count for any given species. All plants are provided at default mesh resolution of 0.4 but you can play and ramp this up at will. In PlantCatalog Exporter, the info menu option gives precise info about all this so that you can set the plant exactly to your own requirements before exporting (same information is displayed in the 3rd party importer plugins too). We tried to be as flexible as possible here and let you set the species quality you really need.
 
Texture maps are custom tailored to each species as well. When there’s no need for an 8k map (for instance flower pistils…), we did not include 8k maps. Overall most of the maps range between 8k and 128p depending on what the map caters for, and the given quality (HD/LD/RT). We’ve tried to pre-optimize all species so that you have fewer editing steps afterwards.
First of all (as of February 2020), RT quality content is a brand-new addition to the catalog (as opposed to HD/LD content being already available for Enterprise Solution users since the initial release in December 2018). Therefore, you can expect more RT quality species to come (for the existing species) progressively.
 
Additionally, when there’s no need for an LD version, we won’t develop it as the benefit of LDs isn’t worth multiplying the references (hence fewer LDs than HDs). There’s currently only one species that has no HD version, which is the Giant sequoia. That’s on purpose as it would be practically unusable ‘as is’ in any DCC tools – using the vegetation in its full grandness. Given the physical size of that particular species, HD quality would only be useful for closeups on branches or the trunk (and even in LD, the branches and trunk details are already pretty decent 😉), and therefore overloading the destination software with the full plant geometry when you only need a few branches in your shot would be an overkill.

 

Legacy Product Support

(VUE/PlantFactory/Carbon Scatter/Ozone/LumenRT versions 2016 and below)
These plugins were discontinued back in September 2017, and technical support for such has ended a year after that. We can still assist you with re-activation if necessary. Fill in our support form and we’ll get back to you. 
LumenRT is now fully supported by our mother company Bentley Systems. Feel free to contact Bentley’s support team for any LumenRT assistance. 
This message appears when you are trying to load items directly from the software content collections and such items are only optional and are displayed for purchase at Cornucopia3D (the item thumbnail displays the Cornucopia3D logo icon overlaid).
 
As the Cornucopia3D marketplace is currently unavailable, you receive this error message. We are sorry for the inconvenience. You can switch off the display of optional items in the preferences (the little gear in the upper right-hand corner) of each content browser. Then you will only see what you already own or have access to. 
You will find the latest builds for the previous generations of VUE and PlantFactory full installer download links directly on your user account page, under the Software Center Tab. 
The most recent builds for VUE 11+, the extra content files, and all versions of PlantFactory are directly downloadable from your user account page, under the Software Center tab.
For Windows: unzip the extra content zip file to this location: 
C:\ProgramData\e-onsoftware\Vue [Infinite|xStream|] 201X\ 
 
For Mac: unzip it and move the content to the related folders if they exist (otherwise move the folder over) to this location: 
…/users/shared/ Vue [Infinite|xStream|] 201X
The short answer is unfortunately no. VUE versions prior to VUE 11 used a proprietary technology that automatically personalized the installers to a specific account. Unfortunately, this technology is no longer available, and we do not anticipate reviving it in the future.
 
Please try to find the old installers you had either as a CD/DVD medium or from an old backup you might have and install from there. 
Automated online activation for legacy products are no longer available. Therefore, the software activation process redirects you to our support form to follow the manual activation procedure.
 
Please fill out the support form, here.  You will need to provide us with your software Installation Code (starting with INST-). Such code can be retrieved from the software’s interface Help menu. If you can’t locate this code, please copy and paste the URL the software redirects you to (from your web browser), and copy that within the form field.
 
This information is mandatory for us to be able to generate an activation key on your behalf. We will then send an activation key to you by e-mail. 
There is no association process required with PlantFactory included in the new Creator, Professional or Enterprise Solutions. 
 
You may require an association between older versions of PlantFactory though (2016 and below). To do this, we need the actual installation codes from both PlantFactory and the second software (VUE, Carbon Scatter or LumenRT). We will then create a new activation key for PlantFactory where the association is embedded and send this to you by e-mail. Please fill out this support form.
Unfortunately, no. These modules are no longer available. We recommend you consider subscribing to our Creator Solution which will give you access to all the former modules, plus a lot more, at a far better price tag. 
If you are re-installing your old license on some new hardware, you will have to activate it for that new install. You can’t use a previous activation key file for a new install on different hardware. You can request a new activation key file from our support form,  here. 
 
Make sure that you copy/paste the new installation code that starts with INST-[…] (the one for this new hardware). 
Indeed, old versions of our products have a maximum OS version compatibility check. We can provide you with a patch to allow them to run again – at your own risk. Please contact our support team so that we can help you out. 

 

Cornucopia3D Support

You can find all the information needed on our official Cornucopia3D announcement, here. 
You may have had some unspent funds on your Cornucopia3D account (outside of any free vouchers you may have received). Due to our original terms of service agreement, we are unable to process any refunds. Instead you can request this to be transferred to your account on the new e-commerce platform.
 
To begin your request, please fill in the form here, and make sure to provide your full information so that we can find your account as fast as possible (i.e. the e-mail address your C3D account was linked to).

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