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Thread: How to obtain license for SolidWorks Electrical?

  1. #11
    SOLIDWORKS Support Volunteer Jeffrey Meyer's Avatar
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    Nov 2011
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    Israel
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    Quote Originally Posted by hplevyak View Post
    Hi Katie,
    .... Imagine the safety improvement alone if we could develop a set of schematics that could be shared across our EAA membership! I sure hope Jeff can provide some news.
    Howard
    Howard, unfortunately I can't provide any news on this - I don't have any direct connection to DS or SW VAR's, nor influence upon the package provided in the EAA membership benefit. I can give my humble opinion on why I suspect you won't see the SW Electrical Schematics package included in the benefit any time soon (I sincerely hope I'm wrong):

    From the point of view of DS, the whole purpose of the student package is to get us used to using SW in our designs so that when the time comes for us to need CAD software professionally, we will choose SW instead of competing products. One of the conditions of the benefit is that the users need to be self-supporting i.e. no effort from SW or the VAR. And when such time comes, the vast majority of commercial licences will not include the costly SW Electrical option. So why give it away for free, when, as a commercial user who needs the functionality, you will buy it anyway?
    This is a perfectly legitimate way of doing business and promoting a product, and I certainly don't have any objection to it.

    Philosophy aside, I do have a sort of work-around - viz, precisely what you (Howard) have done - use a non-integrated external software package to support the majority of your electrical needs - there is no shortage of such software. A case in point is a cute open source freeware program called TinyCAD (https://sourceforge.net/projects/tinycad/).
    The software seems to be quite easy to learn, it's intuitive, it has quite a comprehensive library of symbols, and it can export wire lists, data for PCB layout, and even SPICE electronic simulation. You can add user defined meta-data to each symbol such as your favorite brand of shampoo or even a link to the location of an associated SolidWorks part/assembly file.
    I haven't used TinyCAD in any serious way so I can't comment on how useful it actually is, but I'm quite confidant it will meet a substantial part of our amateur needs.
    Jeffrey

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    159
    We are currently conducting a survey of those who requested download instructions for SOLIDWORKS, to build support for our continued SOLIDWORKS benefit strategy. Two particular efforts we would like to pursue are:
    a) building a network of training that combines volunteers who are willing to conduct training at EAA Chapters, free online training, and for-fee training from GSC; and
    b) expanding the functionality of SOLIDWORKS to add the electrical module, FEA, CFM and a parts database

    We cannot guarantee that DS SolidWorks will fulfill our requests on item B; however, they've been very supportive of growing this relationship to this point.

    I can say that based on my conversations with DS SolidWorks, the primary reason we were provided the Student Design Kit instead of the Student Engineering Kit (includes all items in B above) was that they did not have a delivery platform for the SEK at the time of launch. The SEK version was only available to engineering schools using a different distribution method.

    I should have the results of the survey compiled soon, and then I will reach out to DS SolidWorks to share the findings and plan next steps.

  3. #13
    Hi Cory, There maybe a more current update on this topic, but I have not found it yet. Can you please update me in regards to the engineering kit?

    Thanks, Steve C

  4. #14

    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    159
    Sorry for the delay. DS SolidWorks has said they are working on electrical and they said that they can't give us the Student Engineering Kit at this time. I am continuing to work on establishing a framework for getting the SEK version. It may be a limited distribution option for those who have completed training or certification.

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