Signing AAX plugin, do I need the iLok USB?

Hi everyone,

I am quite new to AAX. I managed to successfully built my AAX plugin and I want to test it with Pro Tools Ultimate. I get this error: "Plug-Ins failed to load because they are not valid 64 bitAAX plugins"
It seems it is because my AAX is not signed using the iLok USB key.
Do I HAVE TO sign my plugin with this iLok USB key in order to test my plugin? Is there any other way for me to see if I can just test my AAX plugin with Pro Tools?
Do I have to order the iLok key? Any idea?
I would really appreciate it.

Regards,

You should be able to use an iLok Cloud session with Eden signing tools authorized to the cloud credentials instead

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Thanks @kcoul
I opened my iLok License Manager and Logged into my iLok Account, went to File and opened Cloud Session.
Now in my cloud session I can see that I have Eden Tools. But how can I use it? How can I sign my AAX?
In my available Licenses, I can see I still have PACE Central Access and when I try to drap it from right to left, it tells me that the valid location is iLok 2nd and later Generation, etc.
All I need is to sign my AAX plugin and see if that works so I can move on without having to pay the iLok USB key.

Thanks a lot. Any help is really appreciated.
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Have a look in your AAX SDK, there are some pdf documents describing the signing process.
I don’t know if that can be shared in public because of the NDA.

Also a good place to look at is in the iLok LicenseManager the Pace Central button.

Hi @daniel
Thanks for the reply.
I just checked the documentation in the AAX SDK. It seems I DO need to have the iLok USB key.
For iLok LecenseManager, What can I do with the Pace Central? I cannot see any button.
I would really really appreciate it if you could guide me through this.

My bad, this is one of the few cases where a physical iLok is required, probably for legacy-related reasons.

You will need to activate the Eden Tools license onto your connected iLok key. I can’t recall the exact sequence of actions in the LicenseManager app but it shouldn’t be too hard to move it to a physical iLok if you have one handy.

@kcoul I see, that’s the whole issue for me. I am still trying to see if there is any other way than buying the physical iLok USB key. It seems I can download Development build of Pro Tools but I cannot find it in avid website. It seems that specific build does not need any signed plugin so that would be perfect for me to test it.

So once you have the development version, how do you plan to distribute your plugin to anyone who doesn’t have access to the developer version of Pro Tools? You need the physical iLok key to sign your plugin for distribution. No way around that.

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Hi @reFX
I understand that eventually I do need to sign it for release.
But I want to test my plugin first and then prepare my release in the future. And how can I get the development version? Do you know what it is exactly called?

You will need to speak with Avid to get access to the developer area of the site, same place you get the AAX SDK. There are dev versions of Pro Tools but those too also require a license. Those however should work with a cloud instance of a license rather than a physical iLok.

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Thank you everyone.
Yes I managed to sign my AAX plugin at last. Thanks everyone

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Hi! I am someone new to release my plugin for pro tools, could you please explain me how did you do to compile and sign your plugin? thanks