Signing In with a Cloud Account

The cloud package of HiNC for Windows is licensed by a cloud account instead of a USB dongle: you create an account on the HiNC account website, enter the activation code you were given — without one, the account gets the free Trial — and sign in to the account when HiNC starts. While HiNC runs, it keeps its license in step with the license server over the internet. This page covers the account, signing in and out, what HiNC does while it runs, and what it sends over the network.

Installing HiNC, its data folder and its settings file are on Installing HiNC on Windows, the same for both packages. A HiNC licensed by a dongle has Updating Your License instead of this page.

What you need

The cloud package. Download its setup program, HiNC-2025-webservice-win-cloud-Setup.exe:

https://hinc-1.superhightech.com.tw/hinc-update/win-cloud/HiNC-2025-webservice-win-cloud-Setup.exe

If that address does not answer, take the same file from the other hosts that Installing HiNC on Windows lists, with win-cloud in place of win. A setup program without win-cloud in its name is the dongle package, which as shipped is licensed by its dongle and shows no sign-in page. The two setup programs install into the same program folder, so a Windows user has one of the two packages installed at a time; a portable copy of the other can be kept beside it. Running the other setup program replaces the installed package in place and keeps the settings and the projects; it asks first (a repair, when the two version numbers are the same) and ends a running HiNC without signing it out, so on the cloud package sign out before switching. A computer that keeps the dongle package can take a cloud account as well (see A cloud account on the dongle package). The cloud package needs no dongle and no Sentinel run-time.
An activation code, from whoever provides your HiNC license — your HiNC vendor, or, for a class, the teacher. Without one, the account gets the free Trial the first time it signs in to HiNC (see The free Trial).
An email address of your own, whose mail you read: the account website asks for it when you register.
An internet connection to the license server, while HiNC runs as well as when it signs in (see The network).

Creating an account

The account website is at https://auth.superhightech.com.tw/hinc-account/, and the link under HiNC's sign-in page, Register an account / enter an activation code / change the password (opens the website), opens it too. It comes in English and Traditional Chinese, switched with the two buttons in its header; the browser remembers the choice.

On its Register tab:

Sign-in name: 2 to 64 characters, each a letter a–z, a digit 0–9, ., _ or -; capitals A–Z are turned into lower case. An email address is not a sign-in name, and the name cannot be changed later. Your vendor finds your account by this name, so pick one you will remember and they will recognise.
Password and Password again: at least 8 characters. Spaces count, and so does letter case.
Email: an address of your own whose mail you read. The verification mail goes there, and so does a password-reset link if you forget the password.
Activation code (optional): the code you were given. Letter case does not matter, but type its hyphens.

Create account answers Account … created. and, once the code has taken effect, Activated: …, valid until …. HiNC can sign in with this account now. A code that cannot be used — unknown, expired, used up, or the license server not reachable — leaves the account created all the same, and the page says why; enter the code later on the Activation code tab. A code holding anything but letters, digits and hyphens — a full stop or a typographic dash copied along with it, say — stops the registration instead, with The input is not in the expected form: code is not an activation code: correct the code, or empty the field, and press Create account again. A name already taken, with another password, is refused: This sign-in name is taken; if it is yours, enter its password. A registration is refused, and nothing is created, when the internet address you register from or the email address you give is blocked on the license server: This address or email cannot be used here (blocked by the administrator). Ask your vendor or, for a class, the teacher, to have the block lifted.

Verifying the email address

After Create account, the answer ends with a line about the verification mail, which begins The verification mail goes to …: open its link within 24 hours to verify the address; the account works before that too. Check the address it names, and correct a wrong one on the Email tab (see Changing the email address).

The mail holds a link; open it within 24 hours. The page it opens asks Verify the email address of account …? Press Verify, and the page says The email address of account … is verified. If the page names an account you did not register, close it: nothing changes. The mail comes in the language the account website showed when it was asked for; its subject is HiNC cloud account: verify your email address, or HiNC 雲端帳號：請驗證電子郵件 in Traditional Chinese.

One address verifies one account, and the spellings of one mailbox count as one address: capital letters, the dots of a Gmail address and a + tag (name+class@…) make no difference. When another account verified this address earlier and still has it as its email address, Verify is refused, and nothing changes: This email address verifies account … already; one address verifies one account. If that account is yours too, give it another address on the Email tab, then open the link again within 24 hours of the mail; otherwise ask your vendor or, for a class, the teacher.

A link that has expired, was used already, or was sent to an address the account no longer has says This link was used already, has expired (it is valid for 24 hours), or the account's email address changed. Send a new verification mail on the Email page.

When no mail comes, look in the spam folder first, then have the Email tab send the mail again. One address gets at most three mails an hour and ten a day, verification and password-reset mail together; a request over that sends no mail, and the page does not always say so. After three tries, wait an hour.

Changing the email address

The Email tab takes the sign-in name, the password and an email address, and Send the verification mail mails that address. A new address replaces the account's old one at once, and links already mailed to the old one stop working; typing the account's current address sends its verification mail again. If your account has no email address yet — the address was optional at first — add one here.

The tab answers as Create account does, The verification mail goes to …, or, when the address is verified already and no mail is sent, … verifies this account already. It refuses, and changes nothing, with:

Unknown account or wrong password. — check both; for a forgotten password, see Changing or forgetting the password.
This account has asked for its verification mail as often as it may (3 an hour, 5 a day); try again later. The address was not changed either.
This address or email cannot be used here (blocked by the administrator). — the account's address or the new one is blocked on the license server: ask your vendor or, for a class, the teacher, to have the block lifted.

Entering an activation code later

The Activation code tab takes the sign-in name, the password and the code; Activate adds the license the code carries to the account. An account can use a code once, and a code can be used, until it expires, by as many accounts as it was made for. When the page refuses a code it says which of these stopped it — No such activation code; check for a typo., This activation code has expired., This activation code has been used as many times as it allows. or This account has already redeemed this code. — and whoever gave you the code can tell you what to do next. A blocked internet address or email address gets This address or email cannot be used here (blocked by the administrator). instead.

A second code adds a second license to the account; it does not lengthen the first. A sign-in takes the account's best license — the highest plan, and among equals the one that ends last. A computer signed in keeps the license it holds while that one lasts and the account has none of a higher plan: a license of a higher plan, added later, takes over at the next sync, within about ten minutes and without signing out; when the license held ends, the best one left takes over the same way, or the free Trial when none is left (see The free Trial). When a sync changes the plan, a warning on the Shell tab of the Session Messages panel says so during a session (see Messages and Logs), with the new plan's limits: CloudLease--TierChanged for a plan with a weekly quota, CloudLease--TierChangedPaid for one with a cap but no weekly quota, and CloudLease--TierChangedUncapped for one with neither the resolution cap nor the step cap; when the old plan's license has ended, CloudLease--PreviousLicenseEnded follows with the day it did.

The free Trial

When an account holds no valid license, the license server gives it the free Trial: at its first sign-in to HiNC, or at the next sync after its last license has ended. Help › Licence… shows it as Plan: Trial, with no end date. An account gets it once and keeps it when a code adds a license later; when that license ends, the Trial takes over again. Until the account's email address is verified, the Trial allows fewer machining steps a run (Help › Licence… shows the number under Step cap); once the address is verified (see Verifying the email address), the full step cap applies from the next sync. The Trial also counts the account's machining steps, on all its computers together, against a quota: until the address is verified, a one-time trial that does not refill; once it is, a weekly quota over the last 7 days. Help › Licence… shows it under Step quota (see The Licence dialog); a run that uses it up pauses (see When the license pauses a run).

An account whose license was withdrawn gets no free Trial. While it holds no other valid license, its sign-in is refused (see When the sign-in is refused): enter a new activation code, or ask your vendor.

Signing in to HiNC

When the cloud package starts with no account signed in, the browser opens on its Cloud account sign-in page, at HiNC's address (http://localhost:5000 as shipped), instead of the application. The page opens in Traditional Chinese; EN at its top right switches it to English while it stays open.

Type the sign-in name under Account and the password under Password.
Tick Remember this computer only on a computer of your own (see Remember this computer). On a computer other people use, leave it unticked, and do not let the browser save the password.
Press Sign In. The page shows Starting HiNC…, and the same browser tab turns into HiNC when it is ready, usually within seconds. Where HiNC's own sign-in is turned on as well (see Signing in), the tab then shows that sign-in, which takes an account from HiNC's settings, not the cloud account.

Once the license server publishes its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, Sign In first opens the consent window, Before you use the HiNC cloud edition, when this computer has not agreed to their current version — at the first sign-in, or after they change — and the window comes as well when the license server answers that the account has not agreed to them. It says what HiNC sends at every sync to run the service (this cannot be turned off), what the optional usage statistics are, and what is never sent (see The network). It holds the checkbox Share usage statistics to help improve HiNC, a line saying that the choice can be changed later under Usage Data and Privacy (see The Licence dialog), and links to the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy in the language the page shows. Left as it is, the checkbox changes nothing — the account's switch stays as it was; changed, it sets the switch to what it then shows. Agree and continue signs in with the agreement and that choice. Do not agree sends nothing and goes back to the form, which then says The cloud edition cannot run without that data. Use a Sentinel-licensed edition (dongle or software key), or sign in later.; Sign In opens the window again.

If the tab still shows Starting HiNC… after two minutes, the page adds HiNC did not start within two minutes; see its console window. and stops waiting. If the console window has closed, HiNC ended while starting: start it again. If the window is still open and HiNC comes up later, reload the tab. To get the page back after closing its tab, open the address the console window prints after Open in a browser:.

The page says why, in red:

The page says	Why	What to do
Incorrect account or password.	The sign-in name does not exist, or the password is not its own.	Check both: letter case counts in the password, not in the sign-in name. For a forgotten password, see Changing or forgetting the password.
This account has no usable licence now: verify its email address to start the free trial; an account whose licence was revoked registers anew.	The account holds no valid license and gets no free Trial: a license of it was withdrawn, or the Trial is closed for the time being to accounts whose email address is not verified.	Verify the email address (see Verifying the email address), enter a code on the account website's Activation code tab, or ask your vendor.
This address or account is blocked.	The internet address this computer signs in from, or the account's email address, is blocked on the license server.	Ask your vendor or, for a class, the teacher, to have the block lifted.
The licence server could not be reached.	No license server gave a usable answer: the network, a proxy or a firewall is in the way, or the server is down or overloaded. The same line appears when HiNC itself has been closed and the page is left without it.	If HiNC's console window is gone, start HiNC again. Otherwise see The network, and try again later.
Too many attempts; try again later.	Too many sign-ins from one internet address within a minute, or too many wrong passwords for one account.	Wait a minute and try again; after wrong passwords, wait some minutes more.
Enter the account and the password.	A field is empty, or what was typed under Account cannot be a sign-in name — an email address, for one.	Type the sign-in name and the password.
The lease received could not be installed.	This HiNC cannot use the license the server sent.	If the page also shows the orange line described below, update HiNC; otherwise ask your vendor.
The device key of this computer could not be created or opened.	HiNC could not open or make its computer key in this Windows user's key store, or a file under `%LocalAppData%\HiNC\cloud` is locked; the line under the message is the key store's answer.	Close every HiNC window and start HiNC once more. If the page comes back, run the reset command as the Windows user who uses HiNC (see What HiNC keeps on the computer) and start HiNC again; if it comes back after the reset, give the line under it to your vendor or teacher.

An orange line, The licence key of this HiNC version has expired; update HiNC, sometimes shown as soon as the page opens, means this HiNC is too old for the license server. The key it names is built into HiNC — it is neither a dongle nor your activation code — so only a newer HiNC helps: see Updating HiNC.

Another computer is using the account

An account is used on one computer at a time. When it is in use on another computer, the sign-in asks This account is in use on another computer (last sync …). Use it on this computer instead? A simulation running there pauses within 10 minutes. Confirm moves the account to this computer; Cancel leaves it where it is.

The other computer finds out at its next sync with the license server, about every ten minutes while it is online: its run pauses there, and its HiNC asks for the account again at its next start (see When the license pauses a run). A computer that is offline goes on until the license it holds runs out, at most an hour after its last successful sync, and learns of the take-over when it is back online.

The question comes only while the other computer still holds the account. Once it has signed out, or its HiNC has stopped in a way that tells the license server (see Remember this computer), or an hour has passed since its last successful sync, a sign-in elsewhere takes the account without asking.

The Licence dialog

Help › Licence… says what licenses this HiNC. Under a cloud license it lists the account, the license's plan (Plan: Trial, Education, Standard or Professional), whether the account's email address is verified (Verification: Verified, Not verified, or Not known yet until a sync has said), what the license allows (Resolution cap, Step cap), when the license ends (Licence expires), the last sync, the time to the next (Next sync) and, after a failed one, the Offline grace left, and whether this computer is remembered (This computer). Once the license server has asked for a new sign-in, the Account and This computer rows are gone: closing HiNC then signs nothing out, and HiNC starts on its sign-in page. A banner above the rows says when the license has run out or ended, or, with Software Update…, that this HiNC is too old for the license server. An orange one, The Terms of Service or the Privacy Policy have been updated; HiNC asks you to agree again at its next start., means the license server has published new terms since the account agreed to them; they are agreed to in the consent window (see Signing in to HiNC).

Two more rows count machining steps, each with a bar, and follow a run every two seconds while it plays or is paused:

Steps this play — the steps the run has taken since the last reset, against the Step cap: … / … steps. It shows only under a license with a step cap.
Step quota — on the Trial, what the account may still run, on all its computers together. A verified account has a weekly quota: Counted … / … · … left · … steps come back at … gives the steps counted over the last 7 days, the quota, what is left, and how many steps come back at the next midnight UTC, which it shows in this computer's own time; the bar fills as steps are counted. An account whose email address is not verified has a one-time trial that does not refill: … / … trial steps left · no refill; a verified account gets … steps every 7 days and … per play, and the bar empties as the steps are used. Under Education, Standard and Professional the row says Unlimited steps, without a bar.

The dialog has three buttons:

Usage Data and Privacy opens a window that says why HiNC connects to the license server, what it sends to run the service, what the optional usage statistics are and what is never sent (see The network). It holds the switch Share usage statistics to help improve HiNC, the last usage report as it was sent, what is being counted for the next one and, once the license server publishes them, links to the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy. The switch belongs to the account and is off unless turned on. A change applies to this computer at once and reaches the license server with the next sync — until then the window says Takes effect with the next sync. — and turning the switch off drops the reports not sent yet.
Use on Another Computer, confirmed with Use on Another Computer, gives the account back to the license server and closes HiNC without restarting it, so the account can be signed in on another computer at once. The dialog stays open, saying HiNC has closed. To use it on this computer again, start HiNC again., and, when the license server could not be reached to take the account back, The licence server could not be reached: the account may still count as in use on this computer. When you sign in on another computer, confirm the take-over there. The next start here goes as after closing HiNC (see Remember this computer): a remembered computer goes straight into HiNC when the account is free by then, any other shows the sign-in page. While a run is in progress or paused, it asks first, Using the account on another computer now closes HiNC and stops the run. Continue anyway?, and Continue Anyway goes ahead. While other HiNC windows run from the same installation it refuses, with Other HiNC windows run from this installation (…): close them first, or they take the account back within seconds.: close them, then press it again. It works only in the station that syncs the license — the one started first, when several run; in another it says This HiNC is not the one that syncs the licence on this computer; use the HiNC window that syncs.
Sign Out signs this computer out of the account and restarts HiNC on its sign-in page, where the account needs its password again (see Signing out).

Under a cloud license a badge near the right end of the menu bar shows the license's state on every page, and a click on it opens Help › Licence…. It reads the license every half minute:

Grey and outlined, the plan and synced — Trial · synced, say, or Trial (unverified) · synced when the account's email address is not verified: the last sync succeeded, and the tooltip says when.
Orange, Offline · … min left: the last sync failed, and the badge counts down the offline grace, its last minute in seconds. HiNC carries on meanwhile (see While HiNC runs).
Red, Paused · waiting for the server: the offline grace has run out, and machining waits for a sync.
Red, Licence expired, In use on another computer, Consent required or Not signed in: the license server has ended this computer's license, for the reason the banner in Help › Licence… gives (see When the license pauses a run).
Grey and outlined, HiNC closed: after Use on Another Computer.

A HiNC licensed by a Sentinel key shows no such badge, and its dialog lists the key instead, each row only as far as the key tells: its number and kind (Key), when the license ends (Licence expires), the Seats, when AdvancedPhysics ends, and the computer holding the key (Key location). When the key gives no license, a red banner says why, and that HiNC checks every ten minutes and closes at the first check that still finds none, so save the project first; Check Again asks the key again. On the dongle package, Update Licence (opens the website) opens the page of Updating Your License.

Remember this computer

The choice is made at each sign-in, and Help › Licence… shows it under This computer:

Unticked — Shared: closing HiNC signs out. Closing HiNC ends this computer's sign-in: the next start, whoever makes it, shows the sign-in page.
Ticked — Remembered: the next start resumes without a password. Closing HiNC keeps this computer signed in: the next start goes straight into HiNC. The sign-in page comes back, saying why, when the account is in use on another computer by then, its password has been changed, its license has ended, or this computer has not reached the license server for 60 days. When the license server holds the start to terms the account has not agreed to, the sign-in page says Agree to the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy first. and opens the consent window at once (see Signing in to HiNC): Agree and continue goes into HiNC without the password, and after Do not agree, Review the terms and agree under that line opens the window again.

HiNC itself never stores the password; on a shared computer, also decline when the browser offers to save it. A remembered computer can take the account back without a password whenever no other computer is using it: for one that is lost, or handed on without signing out, change the password, which ends its sign-in.

Stopping HiNC — Ctrl+C in its console window, or the window's close button — gives the account back to the license server at once, for other computers to use, as signing out does. Shutting Windows down, or signing out of Windows, with HiNC still open: HiNC gives the account back before Windows ends it — it allows itself two seconds — when it can. When it could not, or HiNC stopped without a connection, the account stays marked as in use here for up to an hour after the last successful sync, and a sign-in elsewhere meanwhile asks to take it over.

To change the choice, sign out (see Signing out) and sign in again.

While HiNC runs

Sync. HiNC syncs with the license server about every ten minutes, and at once when the computer wakes from sleep. Help › Licence… shows the last one under Last sync.
Without a connection. HiNC carries on, and keeps trying to sync. The license it holds — the lease in its messages — runs for at most an hour after the last successful sync: less when your vendor set a shorter time for the license, or when the license itself ends sooner. While syncs fail, Help › Licence… counts down the rest under Offline grace left. When it has run out, a run pauses on its next machining step, and the moment a sync succeeds again it continues by itself, without a gap and with nothing to press. HiNC itself keeps running meanwhile; only machining waits. Letting the computer sleep or restarting HiNC does not start the hour afresh. On a computer that is not remembered, keep HiNC open until the connection is back: closed, it signs out, and signing in again needs the license server.
What the license allows. A cloud license may limit how fine the mesh can be, relative to the workpiece's longest side, and how many machining steps a run may take since the last reset. Help › Licence… shows both, under Resolution cap and Step cap; what each does to a run is on Mesh Resolution and Starting and Stepping. A dongle carries neither limit.
Cutting shapes of APT tools. Under a cloud license, HiNC fetches the cutting shapes of the APT cutters of the open project — the tool in the spindle and the tools of the tool house — from the license server when the project opens and at every sync, whatever the Machining Motion Resolution, and keeps a copy on the computer for later runs, so a run that starts without a connection finds them. It fetches up to twenty shapes it is still missing at a time and carries on at the next sync. A tool made during a run (a CL file's tool data, a script) or edited just before it is fetched at its tool change. If the server cannot be reached then, HiNC waits for it for up to half a minute at that tool change, and the message Cutter-StickConvex--Unavailable says so; the run goes on without pausing. Under Feed Per Cycle, the default, and Feed Per Tooth, that tool removes no material until its shape arrives: once the connection is back, reset and play the run again for a complete result. Under Fixed the tool cuts with its own shape, so there the message changes nothing.

When the license pauses a run

Besides the step limit, the license pauses a run with one of two messages on the paused step:

MachiningStep--LeaseExpired — The cloud licence lease ran out: the licence server could not be reached before the lease's grace ended, so the player pauses here. It resumes by itself once a sync succeeds. Restore the connection; the run continues by itself. The same message comes when the license reaches its end date during a run, with the connection fine: within about ten minutes the next sync gives the computer the account's best license left, or the free Trial, and the run continues by itself, now under that license's limits, which the Shell tab names when the plan changes (see Entering an activation code later and The free Trial). Only when the account has neither does the pause stay: Help › Licence… then shows The licence has expired.; go on as for license-expired below. Whenever the connection works and the run has not continued after ten minutes, a red banner in Help › Licence… says what holds it — in the station started first, when several stations of one installation run: the others keep the orange line, so look there.
MachiningStep--LeaseEnded — The cloud licence lease ended (…), so the player pauses here. Sign out through Help ▸ Licence, sign in again and play the run again. The license server has ended this computer's license, and the word in the brackets says why: sign-in-required when another computer took the account over, its password was changed or reset, your vendor released this computer, or a copy of this computer's HiNC files used the account; in-use-elsewhere when this computer's license ran out while it was offline or asleep and another computer has signed in since; license-expired when the license ended or was withdrawn and the account has no other valid license and no free Trial; consent-required when the license server asks for its new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to be agreed to first. The paused run cannot continue: sign out (see Signing out), sign in again — after entering a new activation code, if the license ended — then open the project and play the run again. After consent-required, close HiNC and start it again instead, as Help › Licence… then says: its sign-in page shows the consent window, and HiNC starts once you agree; then open the project and play the run again.

On the Trial, four more messages concern the machining steps:

MachiningStep--LeaseStepsExhausted — The steps this cloud licence lease reserved are used up, so the player pauses here. It resumes by itself once the next sync brings steps. Each sync reserves part of the account's steps for this computer, and the run has used them before the next sync. HiNC syncs early when they run low, so the next sync comes within about a minute; once it brings steps, the run continues by itself, without a gap.
MachiningStep--WeeklyQuotaExhausted — The account used its … steps of the last 7 days, so the player pauses here. … steps come back at … UTC; the run resumes by itself once a sync brings steps. The weekly quota of a verified account is used up, on all its computers together. At every midnight UTC the steps counted on the day that drops out of the 7 days come back; the first sync after it, within about ten minutes, brings this computer steps, and the run continues by itself.
MachiningStep--TrialGrantExhausted — The unverified account's one-time trial of … steps is used up and does not refill, so the player pauses here. Verify the account's email address: a verified account gets … steps every 7 days. An account whose email address is not verified has used up its one-time trial. Verify the address (see Verifying the email address): from the next sync the account has a verified account's weekly quota, and the run continues by itself once that sync brings steps.
MachiningStep--LicenseCapReachedUnverified — An unverified account's step cap of … steps per play is reached, so the player pauses here. Verify the account's email address: a verified account may take … steps per play. Reset the runtime to count from zero, or run a shorter program. The step limit of an account whose email address is not verified, said in place of MachiningStep--LicenseCapReached. Reset, as at the step limit (see Starting and Stepping), or verify the address: from the next sync the step cap is a verified account's, and Resume continues the run.

Signing out

Help › Licence… › Sign Out, confirmed with Sign Out, signs this computer out of the account and restarts HiNC on its sign-in page, where another person can sign in with their own account. Use it before handing the computer over or reinstalling it, before using the account on another computer, to change the Remember this computer choice, or after the license ended a run.

Save the project first: the restart closes it. Open it again after signing in.
When a run is in progress or paused, HiNC asks first: Signing out now stops the run. Sign out anyway?
Close the other stations of the same installation first (see Single-Machine Multi-Station). They share this computer's sign-in: while they run, signing out leaves them to pause within the hour, and this station may come back on the line Another HiNC on this computer is signing in or running… instead of the sign-in form until they are closed.
Without a connection to the license server, HiNC signs out here all the same, but the account stays marked as in use here for up to an hour.

Changing or forgetting the password

Change the password on the account website's Change password tab: the sign-in name, the current password, and the new one twice. Every HiNC signed in with the account then has to sign in again with the new one: each finds out at its next sync, and its run pauses there.

HiNC's sign-in page has a Forgot the password? link, and shows it again under Incorrect account or password.; it opens the account website on its Forgot password tab, in the language the sign-in page shows. Type the sign-in name, or the email address as the account has it (capital letters do not matter), under Sign-in name or email, check it, and press Send the reset link. The answer is the same whether or not what you typed is registered: If this sign-in name or address has an email address, a reset link arrives within minutes (valid for 24 hours; look in the spam folder too). If none arrives, or the account was registered without an email address, ask your teacher or HiNC vendor to reset the password. Whichever you type, the link goes only to the address the account has.

The mail, HiNC cloud account: reset your password (HiNC 雲端帳號：重設密碼 when the website showed Traditional Chinese), holds the link. It opens the website's Set a new password page, which names the account: type the new password under New password and New password again, and press Set the new password. The page then says the password is reset, and, if the address was not verified yet, that it is verified now. As after a change, every HiNC signed in with the account has to sign in again with the new password. The link works once, within 24 hours, and stops working once the password or the account's email address has changed since the mail was sent — through another reset link, say. Its page then says This link was used already, has expired (it is valid for 24 hours), or the password changed after the mail was sent. Ask for a new one on the Forgot password page.

For an account without an email address, or when no link arrives, give your vendor — through the teacher, for a class — your sign-in name. A reset gives the account a new password and, like a change, signs every computer out. Enter the new password as the current one on the Change password tab and choose your own, and add or correct the account's address on the Email tab (see Changing the email address). Then sign in to HiNC with your own password, since a password changed after HiNC signed in would sign it out again.

Updating HiNC

The cloud package updates like the dongle package — through the update badge and Help › Check for Updates…, as Updating HiNC on Windows describes — from its own win-cloud folder on the update servers, so an update never turns one package into the other. An update keeps this computer signed in, remembered or not: HiNC comes back from it on the same account, and the page reloads by itself. An update from 3.2.51 or earlier is the exception for a computer that is not remembered: HiNC comes back on its sign-in page, with a new computer key (see Computer labs and shared computers); reload the tab if it still says HiNC is restarting. A sign-in there within the hour may ask to take the account over from another computer — this one before the update: Confirm.

Each HiNC version checks the licenses the server issues against keys built into it, and a version too old for the server's current key cannot use them. HiNC then says The licence key of this HiNC version has expired; update HiNC:

On the sign-in page, HiNC cannot start, so it cannot update itself. Close HiNC's console window, download the newest cloud setup program (see What you need) and run it. It replaces the program and keeps the settings and the projects.
While HiNC runs, Help › Licence… shows the same line with Software Update…, which opens the update dialog. Update before Offline grace left runs out, within the hour: after that, machining pauses as if the license server could not be reached, until HiNC is updated.

The network

HiNC asks for its license over HTTPS, port 443, at the addresses the Cloud section of its settings lists, in order — as shipped, auth.superhightech.com.tw, then auth-2.superhightech.com.tw, then superhightech.com.tw — and takes the first usable answer. The account website is at auth.superhightech.com.tw too. Let the three names through a firewall that limits where computers may connect.
HiNC goes through the proxy set in Windows, when there is one. It has no proxy setting of its own and does not sign in to a proxy: a proxy that asks for a sign-in has to let the three names through without one. At its first request HiNC's console window says which way it went — licence server requests go direct (no proxy), or … through the proxy … — and the grey line under The licence server could not be reached. names each server and what failed. A station started while another station of the same installation runs writes that first line to the service log instead of the console.
It contacts the license server when it signs in, at every sync, when it signs out or stops cleanly, and when it fetches the cutting shapes of APT tools — after a sync, when a project opens, at a tool change for a tool it has not fetched, and once more a minute later when the server asked it to wait.
What it sends: the sign-in name and the password when signing in, and whether you confirmed taking the account over; the public half of a key HiNC creates on the computer, or a fingerprint of it, which tells this computer apart from others; its version; random numbers that tell one request from the next; at every sign-in, sync and sign-out, and when HiNC stops, the total of the machining steps this computer has run, whatever the usage statistics switch says, and the switch itself after you change it; with the switch on (see The Licence dialog), statistics of each period of use, an hour at most — how often and how long each function was used, the steps of each run, the size of the workpiece's bounding box, the resolutions chosen, and whether collision detection and physics were on; and, for a cutting shape, the seven dimensions of that APT cutter along with the license the server issued to this computer. Usage Data and Privacy in Help › Licence… shows the last usage report as it was sent. Nothing else of a project — no NC program, no model, no material data, no file name, no result — is sent, and neither is the computer's name. Like any web server, the license server also sees the internet address the requests come from.

Updates come from the update servers, over the internet or from a classroom mirror; see Updating HiNC on Windows.

Computer labs and shared computers

HiNC is installed for each Windows user, and to the license server each Windows user of a computer is a computer of its own: one account signed in as two Windows users counts as two computers.
Leave Remember this computer unticked, do not let the browser save passwords, and end each session by closing HiNC — its console window's close button or Ctrl+C in it, both of which give the account back at once — or by signing out (Help › Licence… › Sign Out): the next person then meets the sign-in page and cannot continue on the previous account. While HiNC stays open, whoever opens its address in the browser works on the account signed in.
A student moving to another computer within the hour may be asked to take the account over: Confirm is the answer.
A class signing in at once through one internet connection can meet Too many attempts; try again later., or in a large class The licence server could not be reached.: wait a minute, or let the class sign in a few at a time. The account website is limited the same way, so let students register before the lesson, a few at a time.
Have each student register with an email address of their own, whose mail they read: a student who forgets the password can then reset it without the teacher (see Changing or forgetting the password). One address gets at most three mails an hour, so in a class registered under one address most students never get their mail. A student whose account has no address yet adds one on the Email tab. The Email and Forgot password tabs take fewer requests from one internet connection than registration does: in class, a few at a time.
HiNC creates its computer key in the Windows user's profile the first time it starts, and the setup program starts it at once. From 3.2.53 on, a computer cloned from a disk image HiNC was installed on notices at its first start that it is another computer — the image records the hardware id of the computer it was made on — and makes a key of its own, so HiNC may be installed on the image before cloning. Where a computer goes back to a saved state at every start (a restore card), start HiNC once on each cloned computer with the protection off, up to the sign-in page, and close it before saving that state: the key made then stays, with no account remembered. Without that step the lab works too, but every start is a new computer to the license server: a student who did not sign out may be asked to take the account over on the next computer within the hour, and the server records a new computer at every start. Under a restore card the cutting shapes are fetched again after every restart either way: they live in %LocalAppData%\HiNC\cloud, which the card restores. Computers cloned from an image made with 3.2.51 or earlier share one key and sign each other out. After an update from 3.2.51 or earlier, the first start of the new version — the update's own restart, when HiNC updates itself — gives each computer without a remembered sign-in, cloned or not, a new key once. Under a restore card, update with the protection off, and close HiNC on the sign-in page that start shows (reload the tab if it still says HiNC is restarting) before saving that state; otherwise the next restart brings the old key back. Clones with a remembered sign-in keep the shared key: reset the cloud identity on each of them (see What HiNC keeps on the computer), or update the master computer and clone again. On boards whose firmware reports a placeholder id, cloning again does not help: reset the cloud identity on each clone. Students who use HiNC at the same time need Windows profiles of their own: one roaming profile signed in on several computers at once shares one key and signs itself out. A replaced motherboard makes a computer new to the license server: sign in once more.

Settings

The cloud settings sit beside the others; change them in appsettings.local.json in the data folder (see Changing a setting) and restart HiNC.

Setting	Shipped value	What it does
`Cloud:Servers`	in the cloud package's `HiNC-2025.settings.json`: `auth.superhightech.com.tw` (Priority 1), `auth-2.superhightech.com.tw` (Priority 2) and `superhightech.com.tw` (Priority 3)	The addresses HiNC asks for its license, each under a name with a `Url` and a `Priority`; lower is asked first. An empty `Url` switches a shipped entry off.
`Cloud:PortalUrl`	none	The account website the sign-in page links to. Unset, it is the scheme and host of the first server's `Url` followed by `/hinc-account/`: `https://auth.superhightech.com.tw/hinc-account/` as shipped.
`HiNC:LicenseSource`	`SentinelFirst`	Which license HiNC starts on. `SentinelFirst`: the dongle package takes its Sentinel key, and the cloud account only when a `Cloud` section lists servers and the key's license is refused; the cloud package takes the cloud account. `Cloud`: the cloud account only. `Sentinel`: the Sentinel key only, for the dongle package — in the cloud package, APT cutters then remove no material under Feed Per Cycle or Feed Per Tooth.

A cloud account on the dongle package

A computer with the dongle package can use a cloud account too, from the version whose Help menu has Licence…; an older version ignores these settings. The dongle package ships no Cloud section, so appsettings.local.json needs both the license source and the servers:

{
  "HiNC": { "LicenseSource": "Cloud" },
  "Cloud": {
    "Servers": {
      "auth.superhightech.com.tw": { "Url": "https://auth.superhightech.com.tw/hinc-auth", "Priority": 1 },
      "auth-2.superhightech.com.tw": { "Url": "https://auth-2.superhightech.com.tw/hinc-auth", "Priority": 2 },
      "superhightech.com.tw": { "Url": "https://superhightech.com.tw/hinc-auth", "Priority": 3 }
    }
  }
}

After a restart HiNC shows the cloud sign-in page. With the Cloud section alone, without the HiNC line, HiNC tries the dongle first, and shows the sign-in page, with a line saying why, only when the dongle's license is refused.

What HiNC keeps on the computer

%LocalAppData%\HiNC\cloud holds this computer's sign-in — the account it is signed in to, not the password, and the license it holds — together with the cutting shapes fetched from the license server, and the hardware id of this computer (its firmware's system UUID, the value Get-CimInstance Win32_ComputerSystemProduct shows under UUID), kept only to tell a cloned disk image from the computer it was made on and never sent. Two more of its files belong to the usage reports and the terms: usage-queue.json holds the usage reports not sent yet, the last one sent (which Usage Data and Privacy shows) and the total of machining steps a sign-in that ended leaves for the next sign-in to report; consent.json holds the version of the terms agreed to and the choice made for the usage statistics switch. The computer key lives in the Windows user's profile. A portable copy uses the same folder. Updates and uninstalling leave both the folder and the key; signing out clears the sign-in and keeps the key, the shapes and those two files: the terms agreed to and the switch's choice go only with the reset below.

To make this computer new to the license server — one cloned from an image made with HiNC 3.2.51 or earlier, a board whose firmware reports a placeholder id, or on your vendor's advice — close every HiNC window, open a command prompt as the Windows user who uses HiNC (not another account run as administrator), and run

"%LocalAppData%\HiNC-2025-webservice\current\HiNC-2025.exe" --cloud-reset

(a portable copy: current\HiNC-2025.exe in its folder). It deletes the key and the folder and says so; the next start shows the sign-in page as a new computer. It refuses while a HiNC of this user holds the license (a station still waiting on the sign-in page behind another holds nothing, so close it too, as the command asks), and tells a computer that is still signed in that its account is freed within the hour — sign out first to free it at once.

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