The Ultimate SOLIDWORKS CAD Admin Guide
A comprehensive guide to SOLIDWORKS CAD Setup For IT Professionals
We'll cover:
The Types of SOLIDWORKS Licenses
Must Have Resources for the CAD Admin
How to Upgrade your SOLIDWORKS
This Guide is for SOLIDWORKS CAD Admins and IT professionals to help consolidate the information that is important to you. We'll discuss licensing options, how to set up an efficient CAD environment, how to upgrade, and more. Refer to this guide to address common questions that arise for SOLIDWORKS based design teams.
How is SOLIDWORKS Licensed?
Choosing a SOLIDWORKS License Option
When you are ready to purchase, there are two different SOLIDWORKS licensing options that give you the ability to buy or rent SOLIDWORKS products. Those licensing types include term licenses and perpetual licenses.
What is a SOLIDWORKS Term License?
SOLIDWORKS term licenses offer a short-term commitment with the flexibility to match your workload and expenses. They are available to rent in increments of 3 months or 1 year. Term licenses offer a considerably lower upfront initial investment that is attractive to startups or freelancers as well as to people who want to buy SOLIDWORKS for personal use.
For a full list of products available for term licensing and answers to some commonly asked questions, click the button below.
What is a SOLIDWORKS Perpetual License?
There are two different types of perpetual licenses to choose from: Standalone and SNL (SolidNetWork Licenses).
A perpetual license is by far the most popular option for SOLIDWORKS customers. A perpetual license, as the name implies, never expires and will run indefinitely. Perpetual licensing with subscription also offers the lowest total cost of ownership over the long term. Customers get peace of mind knowing that the data and intellectual property that they create will always be accessible and available.
SOLIDWORKS has no plans to retire or stop selling perpetual licenses. They understand that perpetual and term serve different needs, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach for licensing. This is very different from other vendors in the CAD industry like Autodesk and PTC that are eliminating perpetual licenses and are instead only offering term licenses that are more expensive in the long term.
What is a SOLIDWORKS Perpetual Standalone License?
Standalone licenses, as the name implies, are intended for an individual user of SOLIDWORKS or any related product such as Simulation, Composer, or Electrical. It uses an Activate/Deactivate mechanism to entitle the software for use after installation or to move a license entitlement to another device or to a new user at the same company while ensuring that just one license is being used at any one time. Activation is a one-time process that requires that you have internet or email access to complete the process. Once activated, you do not need to be online to use your software.
What is a SOLIDWORKS Network License or SOLIDWORKS SNL License?
Network licenses (also called Floating Perpetual licenses, or SNL licenses) let you to stretch your investment across all your users. SNL relies on a utility that runs on a computer that is in the same network as the users. Any computer can be used – it just needs to be on all the time. Here's how it works: The SNL (license Manager) hosts the license(s), which contain the products purchased. When a user starts SOLIDWORKS or any related license or add-in, The Computer checks with the SNL to see if those products are available or in use. Once a user closes their software, the license is immediately released back to the server for another user to access.
SOLIDWORKS licenses come in three levels: Standard, Professional, and Premium. Learn More>
How do I set up my Team for Success with SOLIDWORKS?
These steps will help you as an administrator, plan and implement an environment that will help your design process be efficient, effective, and allow maximum data leverage across your organization.
Step 1: Design standardization
Design and data standards allow for consistent output throughout the organization. Standards can be implemented in many ways in SOLIDWORKS, from templates to custom properties and folder structures. Learn more.
Step 2: Have a mentoring Session and Cover Anything from Top Down Design, Surfacing, Simulation and more
Start strong in SOLIDWORKS by educating your team on Top-Down Design. This is methodology can simplify assembly instruction and the assembly process. This is a great first Mentoring session for teams to explore the unique capabilities of your software and talk through exisiting design constraints. Schedule an Application Mentoring Session on Top Down Design.
Step 3: Training And Certification
Organizations who embrace SOLIDWORKS training and certification maximize their software investment, by ensuring users have the skills to use their tools fully and efficiently. GoEngineer’s SOLIDWORKS Training courses are designed to help individuals at any level improve their design and productivity skills. Training is available in person, online, and self-paced to accomodate any schedule.
SOLIDWORKS offers 13 certifications ranging from the job specific like Sheet Metal, to the entry level SOLIDWORKS Associate. Earning a certification displays that a designer has a well rounded understanding of all the tools available in SOLIDWORKS. Certification exams are free for customers under active subscription.
Step 4: Version Standardization
For teams of 10 or more individual SOLIDWORKS users, it is recommended that an administrative image be used. With an administrative image, SOLIDWORKS is installed and administered by a single installation image, which can be located on a network or in a central file repository. Because the image includes installation files, serial number information, and can include customized settings, it allows for standardized installations across the organization.
Step 5: Keep Users Up to date with SoLIDWORKS Updates
Refer to GoEngineer's expert written content library to help users troubleshoot issues, learn new features, and ensure you never miss an important SOLIDWORKS update.
Step 5: Complete the SOLIDWORKS CAD Administration Training Course
Whether you are an individual user, a small group of designers, or a large organization with a collaborative engineering environment, the SOLIDWORKS CAD Administration Course will provide information that you need to understand how to run SOLIDWORKS effectively and efficiently. Lessons include: Installation, Toolbox, Admin Portal, Troubleshooting tools, the CAD Admin Dashboard, and more.
Helpful Blogs for SOLIDWORKS Admins
SOLIDWORKS CAD Aug 04, 2022
Using the SOLIDWORKS Admin Portal, you can track which computer is active on any serial number tied to your account. If your SOLIDWORKS login does not have admin user rights, please ask your current admin for the name of the active computer, or request that your current admin changes your user rights.
SOLIDWORKS CAD May 13, 2016
If it's necessary to have multiple versions of SOLIDWORKS installed on your computer, it can be an inconvenience if every time we double click on a SOLIDWORKS file, it is opened in the wrong version. In this article, you will learn how to change which version of SOLIDWORKS opens your files when double-clicking on them in File Explorer.
SOLIDWORKS Tips & Tricks Apr 20, 2014
If you need to borrow a SOLIDWORKS license , navigate to the SolidNetWork License Manager on the Client from your Windows Start icon, select All Programs, then go to your version of SOLIDWORKS' folder, then SOLIDWORKS Tools.
SOLIDWORKS Tips & Tricks Jun 21, 2015
The SOLIDWORKS serial number is a crucial piece for licensing certain add-ins (Toolbox, CircuitWorks, Costing, etc.) or controlling how the license behaves (standalone versus floating network licensing). At some point or another they may need to be switched around. This process explains how this is to be done to prevent trapping standalone licenses with machines no longer using those licenses.
Must Have SOLIDWORKS Admin Resources
Refer to these pages regularly to ensure you never miss a beat.
Join the GoEngineer Community
The GoEngineer Community is a interactive forum for SOLIDWORKS users of all levels. The CAD Admin Group and PDM Admin Group are focused solely on tips and questions that pertain to IT professionals.
GoEngineer Customer Portal
The Portal puts important account information at your finger tips. Access your licenses, manage your renewal billing, and request quotes for additional tools. You can even control which of your users have access to serial numbers, tech support, and other information.
SOLIDWORKS Download Links
These download links are made available for a full installation data sets that can be used for any installation of SOLIDWORKS (client-side or server-side) you may need at these versions.
Join the GoEngineer Community
The GoEngineer Community is a interactive forum for SOLIDWORKS users of all levels. The CAD Admin Group and PDM Admin Group are focused solely on tips and questions that pertain to IT professionals.
GoEngineer Customer Portal
The Portal puts important account information at your finger tips. Access your licenses, manage your renewal billing, and request quotes for additional tools. You can even control which of your users have access to serial numbers, tech support, and other information.
SOLIDWORKS Download Links
These download links are made available for a full installation data sets that can be used for any installation of SOLIDWORKS (client-side or server-side) you may need at these versions.
CAD Admin Training Course
The CAD Administration Self-Paced Course offers comprehensive knowledge on licensing, installation, troubleshooting techniques, hardware, and more.
we Want the newest SOLIDWORKS, How do we Upgrade?
It’s easy to get confused when it comes to upgrading to a newer version of SOLIDWORKS. Follow the tutorials below for step by step instructions on how to upgrade your team's SOLIDWORKS licenses.
how to Guides for upgrading SOLIDWORKS:
With the latest buzz about new versions of SOLIDWORKS , it’s easy to get confused about some of the basics when it comes to upgrading to a newer version. For instance, technically upgrading SOLIDWORKS refers to moving major versions like 2017 to 2018, while updating refers to service pack changes. We will use this convention throughout this article.
SOLIDWORKS User Support
With over 125 certified SOLIDWORKS technicians, GoEngineer support is your go-to support network for fixing errors given by the software, and investigating potential bugs in the software.
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Activating and Deactivating your SOLIDWORKS licenses
Follow these best practices for managing your licenses.
Learn activation and deactivation methods to allow users to work on multiple devices. Methods include Automatic (online) or manual (via email).
Frequently asked questions
- Taking the license home to do work
- Bringing the license from home back to the office to do work
- Uninstalling SOLIDWORKS
- Moving from an older workstation to a new, replacement workstation
- Upgrading operating systems on a workstation
- Changing hardware on the workstation (Hard Drives, Motherboards, Video Cards, etc.)
- Changing serial numbers on a workstation
- Repurposing a computer for non-SolidWorks use
- Do I need to Track Licenses and Users
Admins need to modify their Network to read the new license added to the network.
Modify Installation Instructions
To update the license count on your SOLIDWORKS License Server have a person on your IT do this on the server:
1. In Windows, click ‘Start,’ ‘All Programs,’ ‘SOLIDWORKS 20XX,’ ‘SolidWorks SolidNetWork License Manager,’ ‘SolidNetWork License Administrator.’
2. Select ‘Modify’ located on the ‘Server Administration’ tab.
3. In the SolidNetWork License Activation Wizard dialog box select ‘Activate/Reactivate’.
4. Go ahead and active the server through the internet.
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