Activation process per application type

Last update: Thu Feb 26 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

The activation process depends on where you purchased or have access to Designer:

Edition

Activation process

Creative Cloud Desktop

See the dedicated page in the HelpX documentation. In case there are any issues the Creative Cloud documentation may provide additional answers.

Steam

Launch the product directly from your Steam library.

Substance (standalone)

See the activation process described below.

Activation steps (Substance edition)

USING THE ACTIVATION WIZARD

Three choices are available:

Evaluate this product: Legacy trials are no longer available. Instead, you can start a 30 day trial for each Substance 3D application here or with Creative Cloud Desktop. Each trial is independent of the other Substance 3D applications, so you can try them one at a time or all at once.
Activate using a license file: activate the product with a license file (*.key) downloaded from your account page on the Substance 3D website before 30 Sep 2022.
Activate using your account: Legacy substance accounts can no longer be used for activation. More information about Substance accounts is available here.

IMPORTANT

To install the license file with the Activation Wizard, make sure you run Designer as an administrator and temporarily disable your anti-virus.

Activation wizard

Manual activation

You can manually activate Designer by putting the license.key file in the following folder:

Platform

Version

Path

Windows

11.2 or higher

AppData > Local

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Adobe\Adobe Substance 3D Designer

AppData > Roaming

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Substance 3D Designer

11.1 or lower

AppData > Local

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Allegorithmic\Substance Designer

AppData > Roaming

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Allegorithmic\Substance Designer

Mac

11.2 or higher

/Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Substance 3D Designer

11.1 or lower

/Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Allegorithmic/Substance Designer

Linux

11.2 or higher

/home/[username]/.local/share/Adobe/Adobe Substance 3D Designer

11.1 or lower

/home/[username]/.local/share/Allegorithmic/Substance Designer

NOTE

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.

IMPORTANT

Make sure that the file is called license.key otherwise the application will not be able to find it.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE

You can override the location that Designer checks for the license.key file with an environment variable.

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