---
title: User Accounts
description: "SmoothTool X keeps its own user accounts, separate from the robot's PolyScope admin password. Everyone who uses the tool signs in with a **username** and a **PIN of 4–6 digits**, and what they are allowed to do depends on the…"
url: "https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/docs/getting-started-user-accounts/"
updated: "2026-09-23"
category: Getting Started
---

# User Accounts

SmoothTool X keeps its own user accounts, separate from the robot's PolyScope admin password. Everyone who uses the tool signs in with a **username** and a **PIN of 4–6 digits**, and what they are allowed to do depends on the **role** their account carries.

Creating the first administrator is a **required onboarding step**: until one account exists, the SmoothTool X pages stay locked.

## Roles

| Role | What it allows |
| --- | --- |
| **Operator** | Sign in, load and run programs, and change their own preferences. Editing is blocked — adding templates, creating programs, changing weld parameters, adding power sources and updating the license all refuse with *You must be a technician or administrator to edit.* |
| **Technician** | Everything an operator can do, plus editing programs and device settings, and running the onboarding wizard. |
| **Administrator** | Everything a technician can do, plus the **Users** and **Backup & Restore** pages: adding and removing accounts, changing roles, unlocking accounts, automatic sign-out, and turning user accounts on or off. |

Preferences (language, units, display options) are personal: each account keeps its own, and changing yours leaves everyone else's alone.

## Create the administrator account

On a device with no accounts, open the onboarding wizard and go to the **Users** step. It opens by itself on an unconfigured device.

 ![Onboarding wizard — Users step with no accounts yet](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-wizard-users-step-empty.webp)

1. Tap **Add user**.
2. Enter a username and a PIN of 4–6 digits, then repeat the PIN under **Confirm PIN**.
3. Tap **Create administrator account**. You are signed in as that account straight away.

 ![Create the administrator account dialog](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-first-run-setup-dialog.webp)

Note

Keep these credentials safe. The device ships with no accounts and no default PIN, and the backend refuses to delete or demote the last administrator — but an administrator who cannot sign in cannot be replaced from the tool either.

Until that account exists, the other SmoothTool X pages show a **Setup Required** lock instead of their content.

 ![Setup Required lockdown on the SmoothTool X Settings page](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-setup-lockdown.webp)

## Add a user

Accounts are managed from **Application → SmoothTool X Settings → Users**. The page lists every account with its role and status.

 ![Users page listing the accounts on the device](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-users-page.webp)

1. Tap **Add user**.

 ![Users page — Add user button](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-add-user-button.webp)

1. Enter the username and a **temporary PIN** of 4–6 digits, and pick the role.
2. Tap **Add user**.

 ![Add user dialog — username, temporary PIN and role](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-add-user-dialog.webp)

Usernames are case- and accent-folded, so `Jens` and `jens` are the same account and a second one cannot be added.

The wizard's **Users** step is the same page, so accounts can also be added while running through onboarding.

 ![Onboarding wizard — Users step listing the accounts](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-wizard-users-step.webp)

## First sign-in: setting a PIN

The PIN an administrator types when creating an account is temporary. The first time that account signs in, the screen is held behind a **PIN Change Required** lock.

 ![PIN Change Required lockdown on the operator screen](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-forced-pin-change-lockdown.webp)

Tap **Set PIN**, enter a new PIN of 4–6 digits twice, and tap **Set PIN**. The temporary PIN stops working immediately.

 ![Set a new PIN dialog](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-forced-pin-change-dialog.webp)

## Sign in and out

When nobody is signed in, the operator screen is covered by a **Login Required** lock.

 ![Login Required lockdown on the operator screen](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-login-lockdown.webp)

Tap **Log In**, enter your username and PIN, and tap **Sign in**.

 ![Sign In dialog](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-login-dialog.webp)

Once signed in, your username appears in the top-right of the operator screen. Tapping it opens the account menu, with **Preferences**, **Change PIN** and **Log out**.

 ![Account menu on the operator screen](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-account-menu.webp)

To change your own PIN, tap **Change PIN**, enter your current PIN and the new one twice, and tap **Save**.

 ![Change PIN dialog](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-change-pin-dialog.webp)

## Manage existing accounts

All of this is on the **Users** page, and all of it is administrator-only.

- **Change a role** — pick another role from the dropdown in the account's row. An account that is signed in at the time keeps its old permissions until it signs in again.

 ![Changing an account's role from the Users page](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-user-role-select.webp)

- **Disable an account** — tap **Disable**. The account stays on the device with the status **Inactive**, cannot sign in, and any session it has open is ended. **Enable** puts it back.
- **Delete an account** — tap the bin icon and confirm with **Delete user**. This cannot be undone.

 ![Delete user confirmation dialog](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-delete-user-dialog.webp)

Note

You cannot change the role of, disable, or delete the account you are signed in as, and the device always keeps at least one administrator who can sign in — demoting, disabling or deleting the last one is refused.

## Locked accounts

A 4–6 digit PIN is short, so repeated wrong entries lock the account for a while. The first two mistakes cost nothing; from the third the wait grows with each further attempt:

| Failed attempts in a row | Result |
| --- | --- |
| 1–2 | Nothing — try again |
| 3 | Locked for 30 seconds |
| 4 | Locked for 2 minutes |
| 5 | Locked for 5 minutes |
| 6 | Locked for 15 minutes |
| 7 | Locked for 30 minutes |
| 8 | Locked for 1 hour |
| 9 | Locked for 2 hours |
| 10 | Locked until an administrator unlocks it |

While an account is locked, the sign-in dialog answers *Account temporarily locked. Try again later.* — and at the last rung, *Account locked. Ask an administrator to unlock it.* A successful sign-in clears the counter.

On the Users page a locked account shows as **Locked** (or **Locked (needs unlock)**), with an **Unlock** button next to it. Unlocking clears the wait and the counter without needing the account's PIN; the account keeps its own PIN.

 ![Users page — a locked account and the Unlock button](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-locked-user.webp)

Note

Sign-in attempts are also rate-limited to 10 a minute. Past that, the dialog answers *Too many sign-in attempts. Wait a minute and try again.* — wait a minute rather than keep trying.

## Automatic sign-out

Sessions end by themselves after a period of inactivity, so an unattended pendant does not stay signed in. Open the ⚙ button at the top of the **Users** page to change it.

 ![Users page settings — Enable user accounts and Auto sign-out after inactivity](https://hub.smooth-robotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/manual-getting-started-user-accounts-user-settings-panel.webp)

- **Auto sign-out after inactivity** is in minutes, up to 1440 (24 hours). It defaults to 720 (12 hours).
- **0** disables it: sessions are then no longer cut short for inactivity.
- The setting is device-wide, not per account, and takes effect on open sessions immediately.

Regardless of this setting, no session lives longer than 24 hours from the moment it was created.

## Turning user accounts off

The same panel carries the **Enable user accounts** toggle. With it off:

- Nobody signs in, and no page asks for credentials.
- Everything is editable — the role lock is what enforces it, and there is no role.
- Preferences become device-wide rather than personal.
- The Status column shows **—**: the accounts and their roles are kept, they are simply not in force.

Turning it back on requires an administrator to sign in, so a device cannot be handed back to a user system nobody holds the keys to. Turning it off ends every open session.