Frequently Asked Questions
- Updating to the latest version
- Retrieving lost serial numbers
- Installing to a new or second computer
- Error messages on installation
- Upgrading from earlier versions
- Accessing program features
- Ways to purchase PhiMatrix
- International language options
- Tips on using PhiMatrix features that may seem
unavailable or difficult
- Learning more about Phi and the Golden Ratio
- Other questions
1. Am I using the most recent version of PhiMatrix
1.618 and how to I update to the latest version?
To check your version of PhiMatrix 1.618, click on Help-About PhiMatrix from
the menu. To the right of the serial number is a four digit build code.
Codes in the most recent version reflect the calendar date, such as 2010.09.04.
Older version have an alpha-numeric code such as JH30, which indicates the year,
month and date.
Owners of PhiMatrix 1.618 can upgrade for free to the latest release. (Future
releases may limit the free upgrade to the first year after purchase.) To do the upgrade, just go to the
download
page and click on the appropriate OS icon for your computer to reinstall the
software, following the prompts from "Run" to "Finish." Your software will be automatically updated,
with no need to uninstall and no additional
registration required. See item 5 below for upgrades from older versions
of PhiMatrix.
2. How do I access my serial number or order information if I've lost it,
changed computers or had a hard drive failure?
See the Contact/Support page for instructions on
getting immediate access to your information. See item 3 below for
instructions on reinstallation of your software. If you have any difficulties
with the online access send an email with your request.
3. I purchased a license to use PhiMatrix on two computers or need
to reinstall PhiMatrix.
How do I install the software on my second computer or move PhiMatrix to a
different computer? How do I reinstall PhiMatrix on a new computer or new
hard drive?
Please note that PhiMatrix registers its serial number automatically when you
complete the registration process for your first installation and no manual
entry of the serial number is required. If you need to install a second
license copy of PhiMatrix or reinstall it the simple instructions are as follows:
- 1)
Download and install PhiMatrix on the
new or second
computer,
- 2) Select "Act-Offline Registration-Enter Serial Number", and then
- 3)
Select "Act-Offline Registration-Activate Serial Number", clicking on the
prompts you will see along the way.
The Status Code window that says 0 (Success) indicates a successful
installation.
The registration server will track the number of activations for your
license. If you ever need to move PhiMatrix to another computer, click on
the Act-Offline Registration-Deactivate Serial Number menu option on the
old computer to
deactivate it to free up another activation on the new
computer, also using the steps below.
Detailed step-by-step instructions for each of the prompts in manual
installation as follows:
- Download and install the latest version of PhiMatrix to the second
computer from the
Download page.
Follow Step 1 as shown on the Download page by clicking on the icon for your
computer's operating system and following the prompts presented to complete
the installation of the software.
- With PhiMatrix launched and running, click on the Act-Offline
Registration-Enter Serial Number menu option.
- Click on the "Proceed to Manual Serial Number Entry" button.
(See screen shots.)
- Enter the serial number from the confirmation email you received
upon registration or purchase. You can also get your serial number from
the copy of PhiMatrix installed on your first computer by selecting the
Help-About PhiMatrix menu option.
- Click on the "Activate" button.
- When you see the Status Code window that says 0 (Success) click the
"OK" button.
- Click on the Act-Offline Registration-Activate Serial Number menu
option.
- Click on the "Proceed to Manual Serial Number Entry" button.
- Follow the prompts to get an Activation ID.
- Copy and paste the Activation ID in the Activation Key Window.
- Click the "Activate" Button.
- Click the "Save" button to save your activation information.
- Click the "Done" button to complete the activation.
- When you see the Status Code window that says 0 (Success) click the
"OK" button.
- PhiMatrix will then be in full licensed version mode. Click and drag
the grid or just close and re-launch PhiMatrix to display the full licensed
version.
4. PhiMatrix does not function after installation or I received an
error message on installation.
4a. I received an error message that says "PhiMatrix Status Code InstallEngine
returned: -2 (NO ENGINE)"
This indicates that a key file did not properly install during the
installation process. This is often caused when security permissions are
different on your system than the default settings used by the
installation program. To remedy this, please download and install the
appropriate Installation Updater file below. After running the
Installation Updater below then run PhiMatrix again.
| PhiMatrix
Installation Updater |

Windows 2000 / XP |

Windows Vista / 7 |

Mac OS X |
4b. The grid does not display when I register for the
free trial or purchase. What do I do?
The software activation process requires a brief confirmation from our
registration server. Certain security software (virus protection, spyware
protection, firewalls, Little Snitch-Mac) may require that you register PhiMatrix as an accepted program to complete the activation. If PhiMatrix
does not activate and display the grid or if you get any kind of a network error
message, do one of the following:
- Temporarily disable the security/protection and then restart PhiMatrix and
select the Act-Begin Free Trial or Act-Purchase option again.
- Use the Act-Offline Registration-Manual Activation menu option to activate
the software and follow the prompts. Detail steps for manual activation
are also shown in Item 3 above.
5. If I own PhiMatrix 1.0 or 1.1 can I use my serial number with the
latest version of PhiMatrix 1.618?
No. You can use the old version on Windows XP/2000 or upgrade to the
new version at a discount. Changes by Microsoft resulted in PhiMatrix 1.0 and 1.1
not being fully compatible with Windows Vista. PhiMatrix 1.618 was completely rewritten in a new
development platform to provide compatibility with Windows Vista and 7, as well
as Mac OS X, and to provide
many new features and improvements. Accordingly, the serial numbers from
prior versions cannot be used with PhiMatrix 1.618. Owners of PhiMatrix
1.0 and 1.1 can still download a copy of PhiMatrix 1.1 below at no charge for
use on Windows XP or 2000 and use their original serial numbers
to activate it. Purchasers of previous versions also qualify for a
discount on the purchase of the new version. Upgrade details to owners of
previous versions were emailed to your original email address on file so if
you didn't receive your notification and upgrade details please contact us for
more information.
- Look up lost serial numbers / registration codes and other order information for PhiMatrix Version 1.0 or 1.1 by clicking
here:
Lookup
- For information on an upgrade discount please send a request via e-mail
to:
- Owners of PhiMatrix 1.0 and 1.1 can still download a copy of version 1.1
by clicking here:
Download
- Purchase a copy of the PhiMatrix 1.1 for Windows XP and 2000 only and have the serial number sent to
you automatically by clicking here:
Purchase
6. I can't find certain features, such as the Levin Dental Grid or
phi-based ovals. Where are they?
The View menu provides an easy way to automatically adjust the control window
options to display the most popular grid options. More detailed control is
available from the Control Window. The Control Window has three modes, Basic, Advanced and Expert, that can be
accessed by clicking on the Up/Down arrow in the upper left of the Control
Window. The Dental Grid and phi-based ovals, for instance, are in the
Expert Mode section of the Control Window. Click on the up/down mode arrows to
reveal the Expect Mode, which shows the Gridline Ratios section. On the dropdown
box that says "Line Ratio" select Levin Dental and you'll be ready to go.
There's more documentation on the
User Guide page
and on the Dental Grid at
http://www.phimatrix.com/dental/userguide.htm.
7. How can I purchase PhiMatrix?
Place your order through the embedded purchase option
(see "Act" menu in the PhiMatrix 1.618 software) or online at
eSellerate.net. In both cases you'll find
several payment options, including all major credit cards including VISA,
MasterCard, Discover, American Express, and JCB as well as active PayPal
accounts. We currently DO NOT accept payments using checks, purchase
orders, cash or money orders.
Select the one that works best for you and complete your order
of PhiMatrix.
If you have any difficulty activating the software using the steps above you can
also get an activation code by going to the
PhiMatrix Online Store. Once you have your serial number, select
Act-Offline Registration-Enter Serial Number from the menu to enter the serial
number and then select Act-Offline Registration-Activate Serial Number to
activate your software.
8a. How do I convert my PhiMatrix program from
English to another language?
- Download and install the most recent version of PhiMatrix from
www.phimatrix.com/update.htm. No additional registration is required.
- Go to the “Act” menu and select the language option you want to use.
- Then go to the “File” menu and select the “Save Setting as Default”
option so that it loads in your language every time you open the
program.
8b. How do I request another language to be added to
PhiMatrix?
Send your request for translation by clicking
. Translations will be based upon Google translation services, as
shown on the
PhiMatrix Dictionary page, where you can change the language option to your
own language to see what the translated language will contain. Google
translation services are not always 100% accurate so you can submit changes by
saving the Dictionary page to your computer, making corrections in an HTML, Word
or Excel document and sending it to the
.
9.
How do I resolve difficulties with various program functions?
9a. Problems with moving or resizing the grid. Clicking the mouse on the grid
results in conflicts with the underlying application.
- PhiMatrix was designed to be moved by clicking and dragging the large part
of the top border. It was designed to be resized by clicking and
dragging the four perimeter borders. You can resize two borders at once
by clicking and dragging on the four corners of the grid. While it's
possible to move the grid by clicking on an interior grid line this is not
recommended because it requires very precise mouse movement to click on a grid
line that is only 1 pixel in width. If you have difficulty knowing where
to click and drag, open up the Advanced mode of the Control Window and select
the Border Type option of "Line/Dark" or "Dark." Another option is to
increase the Line Width in the Advanced mode to make the grid easier to click
and drag and then use the Transparency slider to minimize its obstruction of
the underlying application.
- When using a Border Size of greater than 0 pixels resize the Grid by
clicking and dragging on the outside Border and not on the Grid itself.
-
 If
you have difficulties in using the mouse functions of an underlying program
with the PhiMatrix grid overlay, turn off the PhiMatrix grid mouse functions
by clicking on the lock/unlock icon next to the H Width and V Height controls
or select the Lock/Unlock Grid option (Ctrl-L) from the View menu.
9b. Problems with resizing the grid or expanding the grid to sizes larger
than the desktop.
-
The grid can be enlarged to sizes larger than the desktop by expanding the
dimensions, dragging and moving the grid corner back on the screen and then
expanding again. It can also be set directly to any size by keying in the
desired dimension size in the H Width and V Height controls of the Control
Window, or by using the arrow controls as well.
-
When the top border is off the screen you can move the grid by clicking and
dragging on one of the interior grid lines or by selecting the Keys tab of the
Control Window and then using Shift with a Cursor Arrow key to move the grid.
-
Note per the instructions on the Keys tab that you can also use the keyboard
to make the grid larger or smaller in any direction or change the number of
grid lines.
9c. The grid seems stretched or distorted and doesn't have proper
proportions on my screen.
-
The PhiMatrix grid dimensions are exact and based on pixel counts of your
monitor. If the proportions of the grid seem elongated or distorted it
is because your monitor has a different number of horizontal pixels per inch
(or centimeter) than vertical pixels per inch.
-
On LCD monitors this occurs when you choose a resolution other than the native
resolution of the monitor. In other words, a monitor with a native
resolution of 1680x1050 pixels can be set to display 1280x960 pixels, but the
1680x1050 resolution has a aspect ratio of width to height of 1.6 while the
1280x960 resolution has an aspect ratio of 1.333. In order for PhiMatrix
to be perfectly proportioned you must use the monitor in its native resolution
or at least use a resolution with an identical aspect ratio as the native
resolution, which in this case would be 1280x800.
-
On older CRT monitors, the same issues as above can apply but in addition the
monitor may require that the vertical and horizontal display controls be
adjusted to result in an identical number of pixels per inch vertically and
horizontally.
9d. I need to use more than one grid at a time.
9e. I need to be able to see the grid size without going to the
Control Window.
-
Open the Data Window (XY icon) and set the Border Size to 20 pixels or
greater. PhiMatrix will then display the grid size and positions of the grid
lines. You will need to move and resize from outer border but can change the
Border Type to Light Only, Line/Light or other settings to suit your needs.
9f. How do I keep PhiMatrix 'always on top' regardless of what
application I am using? Is there a way to do this?
This is now a user selectable option in the Windows version
of PhiMatrix from the File menu. For Mac users, here are free utilities to
keep any program always on top are as follows:
10. Where can I learn more about phi, the golden
ratio?
See an overview
HERE or visit the site
of the developer of PhiMatrix at
http://www.goldennumber.net.
11. What if I have other questions?
Answers to a variety of other questions on licenses and
registration can be found at
eSellerate. eSellerate does not provide support on the PhiMatrix
application itself but is the third party ecommerce provider used to provide
payment, serial number and product activation services. Other questions
can be sent to:
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