I was asked to do design a part for a start up company who hasn't earn anything money yet (not even a single part is manufactured neither). But the design doesn't take too long to finish, so I wouldn't get paid enough to cover a commercial seat of SolidWorks. Is there any ways that I can get a legal version of SolidWorks somehow with a cheap price tag on it. (I'm fine with reduced function or something like that), anyone can chip in with a thought?
Hi Kevin, I'm pretty sure you can run SW for 30 days as a guest before you need to officially register it. As long as you haven't run a previous 30 day trial on your computer previously, this should work. I'm also pretty sure it also has full functionality for this period. This would probably work for you providing that you can complete your task within 1 month! I haven't heard about the short-term licensing you request, but it would be interesting to know if that's possible. You could try asking a retailer if they can do anything. Let us know how you proceed.
Look at using a different software such as Alibre I own a seat and love it. I use SolidWorks at work but Alibre at home to play with it will have enough to functionality to do what you want even at the lowest level.
I would recommend if you are familiar with it Inventor LT price is very cheap and has most all of the modeling functionality still in it they just striped out the simulation and some of the advanced stuff but I doubt you need it.
If you are taking any college classes you can claim student and get a student version of solidworks for pretty cheap ($100 for a year) and it has all the major functionality.
I tried to ask for a special pricing of some sort, but it doesn't seems like they have any. I guess Now I'll just try other CAD software for now. Alibre is probably what I'll be going for.
