Floating License

Guys and Gals,
Does anyone know if a floating solidworks license can be used
legally by a remote designer if he is not directly networked to the
companys network, or does he need a stand alone license. The reason I
am asking is that I have a company that wants to give me some part
time design work but they only carry floating licenses and I would
like to do the work from home. What options do I have?

Thanks,

 

My guess on the legality of it is that if a floater is available, then who
cares who uses it. If the company will allow you to use one of their
licenses in a manner that doesn't appear to violate the agreement, then go
for it. Then it becomes a technological issue. Can you connect to their
server via VPN and start SW, pointing it to that server to find the license?

WT

 

Just a thought after lots of decades in design.

Get the software & hardware tools and training you need so you can
work anywhere anytime.

That makes you a far more valuable person and able to respond at a
moment's notice to OPPORTUNITY.

Buy your own seat of SolidWorks & run with it. That will give you the
incentive to push hard for business.

I just went to a So. Cal. area company that does fast turnaround
aluminum MUD base inserts for quick plastic parts yesterday <http://
www.epsilonindustries.com/>. In talking with them, One tool designer
they use is on the East Coast, and they do all their work via the
Internet.

That designer on the East Coast has done his homework and pushed the
limits of where he gets business successfully.

No reason any designer can't reach a larger audience of customers like
that today.

Bo

 

One option would be a remote login, like logmein. With a reasonably
fast connection you can work from home on the companies' computers.
It's a not bad - not great solution. I use it for working at home to
access our company network and operating software. I run a licensed
copy of SW06 and SW07 on the home computers; then update the files to
whatever version I need at work.

Logmein has a free version at https://secure.logmein.com/home.asp.

regards, Diego

 

How much will a seat of SW cost???

 

Wayne,
I think that the problem is they dont want me to have full access to
the network for security reasons. What is VPN? YOu know they get a
disc from the VAR with Solidworks and it can be loaded on any machine
but without a network connection nothing is keeping track of how many
licenses are being used, I think they are worried about getting in
trouble for more licenses getting used than what they are paying
for.

 

thestew,

I think it is pretty simple. If that company has a network license you
just borrow it (it is the term sw corp. uses and I think it can be
done up to 30 days so you can work remotely without having internet
access). If they have stand alone licenses then they return one to
the SW server and you activate yours via the net. This requires you to
install the software with a matching serial number. After this you
don't need internet or LAN access.
Otherwise my understanding is that you can install the software on
multiple computers as long as you using as many of them as the company
paid for.

Regards
Attila

 

VPN is Virtual Private Network. Basically a tunnel into their network. It
allows you to connect from a remote site and interact with the network as if
you were there. But if they don't want to give you full access, you may be
hosed.

WT

 

Retail is about $4000 last I heard, for the basic package

Bo

 

VPN = Virtual Private Network, which means basically end to end high
DES encrypted security.

I've found you pay a bit of a penalty in speed loss for VPN, though.

Bo