GIS & Geospatial Data Services

If you think you might find yourself in any situation where you are unable to connect to the campus network via VPN to reach the university ArcGIS license server, the easiest option is to borrow a license for ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Pro for a period of 90 days while you are still able to connect to the campus network.

ArcGIS Pro

In order to check out a borrow a license to ArcGIS Pro you will just need to have an internet connection that allows you to connect to ArcGIS Online. In order to borrow the license follow the steps below:

1. Make sure you have a working internet connection and open ArcGIS Pro
2. On the upper left slide of the splash screen that displays when ArcGIS Pro is opened, click on the Settings button next to the gear icon
3. Next, click on the Licensing button in the blue menu that appears on the left hand side of the application.
4. On the Licensing page, click the check box next to the option to Authorize ArcGIS Pro to work offline. You should then see a confirmation that your user account is authorized to use ArcGIS Pro offline. Once you no longer need to borrow a license for offline work (e.g., you return from working in the field) you should uncheck this box to return ArcGIS Pro to its standard licensing configuration.

ArcGIS Desktop

The license borrowing process for ArcGIS Desktop requires that you open the ArcGIS Administrator application, then click "Borrow/Return"and then click the check boxes for each license you would like to check out – feel free to just select them all to make sure you have access to everything you need.

If you think that you will unable to connect to the campus network for longer than 90 days and will thus be unable to renew your borrowed license before it expires, you can contact laits-license-help@utexas.edu and request a stand alone license that you can activate on your laptop. I would recommend trying the license borrowing process out before heading out into the field to make sure you are comfortable with the process so that you don’t run into any expected issues once you are in a position where you are no longer able to connect to the network.