Licensing
Licensing policy
PDComm is licensed per developer and per module. OPC UA, Modbus and MQTT applications ship royalty-free; SECS/GEM equipment also needs a runtime license per machine.
This page summarizes the policy. The license agreement you receive when you buy sets out the terms in full.
At a glance
| Modules | Developer license | Distribution | Runtime license |
|---|---|---|---|
| OPC UA, Modbus, Modbus/TCP Security, MQTT | Per named developer | Royalty-free | Not needed |
| SECS/GEM, GEM300 capability catalog | Per named developer | With a runtime license per machine | Per equipment |
30-day evaluation
Create an account, verify your email address and complete your profile. Your first download issues an evaluation license for the modules you chose.
Each account has one evaluation period. If you add modules later, the license is issued again with the same end date. Evaluation licenses are for evaluation, not for production use.
Developer licenses
Each named developer who builds software with PDComm needs a developer license for the modules they use. Licenses are assigned to people, not to machines.
Royalty-free distribution
Applications you build with the OPC UA, Modbus, Modbus/TCP Security and MQTT modules can be distributed to your customers without per-copy fees. Keep the license and notice files that ship with the libraries.
SECS/GEM runtime licenses
Each piece of equipment that runs SECS/GEM or GEM300 code needs a runtime license bound to the host id of its controller, in addition to the developer licenses.
Run pdcomm-license host-id on the machine. It prints an id such as PDH1-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. Send us the ids and we issue a license file for those hosts.
$ pdcomm-license host-id
PDH1-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXMaintenance and updates
The first year of maintenance is included. A license works with SDK builds released before its maintenance end date; renew annually to use newer releases and keep support.
Source edition and OEM
Source code access and OEM agreements are available on request. Tell us about your product and distribution model.
Restrictions
You may not use PDComm to build, offer or sell a communication SDK or library that competes with PDComm. Evaluation licenses may not be used in production.
Installing a license file
A license is a text file named pdcomm.license. The SDK reads every license it finds in these places and uses the best one for each module:
- Text installed through the API at run time
- The PDCOMM_LICENSE environment variable (license text)
- The PDCOMM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable (a path)
- pdcomm.license next to your executable or the SDK library
- Your user configuration folder, then the system configuration folder
Prices
We quote per project, based on the modules, the number of developers and SECS/GEM machines, and the maintenance term.