Setting up the environment right is what often goes wrong. Running kick -licensecheck from inside Softimage is a quick way to check that you set up the environment variables correctly.

Here’s two lines of Python that will open a command prompt and run kick -licensecheck (on Windows).

#Python
from subprocess import Popen
Popen(["cmd", "/K", XSIUtils.BuildPath( Application.Plugins('Arnold Render').OriginPath, 'kick.exe' ), "-licensecheck"])

Here’s the same thing, but broken down a bit for legibility:

#Python
si = Application

p = si.Plugins('Arnold Render')
sKick = XSIUtils.BuildPath( p.OriginPath, 'kick.exe' )

from subprocess import Popen
Popen(["cmd", "/K", sKick, "-licensecheck"])