Info about Matlab

Matlab is available free for all members of BCS, and all CVS members who have appointments in AS&E.

Installing a new copy of Matlab

1) To download a Matlab installer, visit the Mathworks website (https://www.mathworks.com) and create an account there using your UR e-mail address. Doing so will automatically associate your account with the UR site license and allow you to download whatever version of Matlab you need.

2) For the 2015b and later versions, you need to be connected to the Internet. Run the executable that you downloaded. It will ask for your Mathworks credentials. If you don't currently have a Mathworks account, the installer gives you an option to create one. You need to use a UR e-mail address for this account. Enter your credentials, then the program will begin the installation process.

3) The installer will automatically identify you has a UR user, and load in the site license information automatically. No need to manually enter an activation code. Accept all default setting in the subsequent windows, and installation will begin. Since this installer is downloading all of the necessary files over the Internet, it may take an hour or more for Matlab to finish installing.

4) Once the install is complete, Matlab should automatically activate itself. Once it does, the program is ready to use.

5) If you download a version of Matlab older than R2015b, an activation code is required. Please contact Chris Freemesser for that code.

License issues

The University's Matlab site license goes through an annual renewal process, and this can result in your copy of Matlab showing warnings about the license expiring. To remove the warning, click on "Help-> Licensing -> Update Current License". Matlab should then retrieve the new license from Mathworks and you'll be good for another year.

If this does not fix the problem, then you will need to deactivate and reactivate your copy of Matlab. You need an account with Mathworks that uses a UR e-mail address to do this.

1) On a Windows computer, first quit Matlab. Then on the desktop click on 'Start->All Programs' and select the Matlab *folder*. Inside, you should see three files..Activate Matlab, Deactivate Matlab, and Matlab itself. On a Mac, right-click (or Control-click, or two-finger click on MacBook Pro trackpad) on the Matlab application itself and select "Show Package Contents" from the resulting window. Inside this, you'll find separate activation and deactivation programs for Matlab.

2) Run the deactivate program to deactivate your copy of Matlab.

3) Run the activate program, login with your Mathworks account, and reactivate Matlab. If you're running an older version of Matlab (earlier than the 2014 versions if I remember correctly), you will need the University's Matlab activation code to do this. The UR code is: 28093-41703-14274-60467-52214.

I get an error on a Mac saying that the license file cannot be written to disk

Common problem with the Mac version...it's a file permissions issue.

Fix the file permissions for the Matlab directory:

Open the /Applications/Utilities/Terminal app and in the resulting window, type the following CASE-SENSITIVE commands at the command prompt ("<space>" means a single press of the space bar). I'm assuming you have Matlab R2013a...if not, adjust the second command accordingly:

sudo<space> -s (hit return, then enter your OSX password to make yourself the superuser)

cd<space>/Applications/MATLAB_R2013a (then hit return to switch to the Matlab directory)

chmod<space>-R<space>777<space>* (then hit return to make all files in the Matlab folder read/writable by you)

exit (then hit return to quit being superuser)

exit (then hit return to exit the terminal session)

Once you enter all of these commands, you should now be able to activate the software.