SW 2007 ...changes on security and licensing policies??

[MauricioM]

Good Morning, day, evening whatever you are!
I received an email for an "Administrators Summit" to talk about licensing policies and distribution methods for SW2007.
My question is, Does anyone know what this is all about?
because the current policy is ridiculous and I do not need more headaches.
We do not have a network license a this moment so you can imagine how much money we are paying per sit. plus subscription customer agreement....this is insane!

Thanks.

(Mechanical)
Solidworks 06/PDMworks 06
Windows XP Professional 2002
AMD Athlon(tm)64 Processor 3000+
NVIDIA Quadro FX 700

 

[ctopher]

I have not revieved this email. Ask your VAR.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-06)

 

[SBaugh]

No one is aware of what is going to change, but I know that each seat is going to locked to that seat. You can still take a seat home for your home PC, but its going to be locked to those seats. You will not be able to have multiple seats on one serial number anymore. This is all going to change and IMO this is going to make companies more honest then they are. It is going to be a headache for some customers that are not doing like they are suppose too and more of a headache for us Tech support people. But at the same time I am glad to see this happen. I personally don't like dishonest people as well as companies. Even though it going to be a headache for some, its worth it...

However there are other changes that no one is aware of yet, so in time this will be reveled.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Many other programs are locked to a CPUs ID. It does help to curb piracy and, like Scott, I think that is a good thing.

If all installs were legal & paid for, perhaps the cost of purchase would fall for all of us.



OK ... so I'm a cynical optimist.

 

[tbryant]

I hope they don't lock each serail number to a seat, this would cause a lot of extra work for us. We currently own individual licenses of SolidWorks and only use the number that we own. But the image we have created for engineering workstations has Solidworks pre-installed with the serial number, which means all of our seats are using the same serial number. This has always been fine as long as you only use what you own.
Changing this would make creating an image much harder.
I know we could switch to a network license but this would cost more per seat. To me this change if it happened would just be another way for SW to get more money out of each customer by forcing you into more expensive network licenseing.

Todd

 

[MauricioM]

Thank you for your comments. I do agree about piracy and dishonest customers but, until we decide to go and get a network license this will remain to be a nightmare for us!!

(Mechanical)
Solidworks 06/PDMworks 06
Windows XP Professional 2002
AMD Athlon(tm)64 Processor 3000+
NVIDIA Quadro FX 700

 

[ctopher]

I started off with a network license. Sure, cost a little more, but worth it when adding more seats.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-06)

 

[MauricioM]

....oh! ok, tbryant I was not aware of that.
I guess a network license does not help much...this is even worst!

(Mechanical)
Solidworks 06/PDMworks 06
Windows XP Professional 2002
AMD Athlon(tm)64 Processor 3000+
NVIDIA Quadro FX 700

 

[MauricioM]

...so, when it is recommended to switch to a network license??

(Mechanical)
Solidworks 06/PDMworks 06
Windows XP Professional 2002
AMD Athlon(tm)64 Processor 3000+
NVIDIA Quadro FX 700

 

[SBaugh]

YOu can setup an Admin image on a server and when each user install SW you use a different serial number... I don't see how hard or complicated that is going to make it.

But whether you like it or not its coming with SW07 and its going to lock each serial number to a seat. YOu can complain all you want, but its not going to change. SO I suggest that everyone prepare for it because if you are going ot use future versions of SW its going to be locked per serial per seat.

Look at using Admin images for your users this will help to aleivate a lot of hassle for both the IT guy and the Engineer. Doesn't matter if its standalone or SNL and ADmin image is worth it installing.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[J-C]

Scott, I think he means he's using a batch script to automatically install Solidworks from an image. In that case you specify the serial number in the batch script along with what products to install and what settings. Its totally hands-off. We do this but we have a network license so the one number covers all.

My question is home use. When we originally bought Solidworks we bought one standalone copy for an early start on a project. Then we bought 25 network licenses. During the purchase, the question came up about home use so users could play around with it, train, work at home, etc. Their first comment was have home users connect to the network to get a license but we said this wasn't possible to do at the time (1998). Instead they gave us a home use agreement that users had to sign and said that we could install the standalone version serial we had. They were reluctant at first since we could not gaurantee that only 25 licenses would be in use at once but we just said its unlikely and they agreed. Question is how will this affect us now?

I also seem to recall that years ago, maybe around '99 that Solidworks release a version or service pack that tied a serial number to the cpu. The user uproar was so bad they removed the restriction.

I don't condone software piracy especially for commercial use, but from a software company's standpoint, I'm not sure its all bad. I heard thats how Autocad came to dominate the world, it was pirated heavily, probably swiped from schools.


Jason

UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2

 

[MauricioM]

....it sounds very serious and greedy but anything just to get my job done!

Scott, thank you for the tip on the Admin Image.

MM

(Mechanical)
Solidworks 06/PDMworks 06
Windows XP Professional 2002
AMD Athlon(tm)64 Processor 3000+
NVIDIA Quadro FX 700

 

[handleman]

Scott/Jason,
What I belive Todd is referring to is a full hard disk image. We did this as well when everyone in our department got new machines. I set up one workstation with all the software, catalogs, etc that we use and then IT put the image of that HD onto all the new workstations. Looks like someone's going to have the task of working with our VAR to make sure we get our ducks in a row. Not that I'm short on stuff to do, but I sure hope it's me so I can make sure it's done right.

 

[smcadman]

I do not have SW07, just PreRelease 1, so I do not know the licence agreement. But SW06 states that if we use it 80% of the time, then we can install it at home. Hopefully we will still be able to do this in SW07.
Help > About SW > Licence Agreement:

SolidWorks Corporation License and Subscription Service Agreement
1A
If the Software is permanently installed on the hard disk or other storage device of a computer (other than a network server) and one person uses that computer more than 80% of the time it is in use, then that person may also use the Software on a portable or home computer while the original copy is not in use [not applicable to COSMOS products].

Flores
SW06 SP4.1

 

[Heckler]

I use to work for a small company that had one seat of SWx and one engineer (Me). They hired two other MEs but didn't have the $$$$$ for additionaly SWx seats. The owners wanted to load the current revision onto two other computers. I told them that SWx wouldn't run with PDMworks with same serial number loads. So they ended up installing an old revision.

I dislike companies that make money on stolen software. I did a vender visit last year and found out they were using a bootlegged copy of SWx.....I reported them. Because in the long run we, as a user community, suffer because of this piracy.

I'm glad SWx is node locking their software. Pro/E has been that way for awhile, along with MasterCAM.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

Never argue with an idiot. They'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience every time.

 

[SBaugh]

The restrictions are not out yet and will come out sometime during a SP. When we don't know... what all is it going to entail... we dont know that either. so its all going to be a surprise for all of us, but from what I understand from SW is going to much different but better.. We will see when it comes out.

Jason,

I don't rememeber them locking a serial number on a seat, but that was many years ago and I have gotten older since then. I don't think this is going to go away, pirating has gotten pretty bad so I think this is going to help keep that from happening later down the road.

Ghosting is probably not going to happen like it has in the past. The Admin image is probably going to be the recommended way of installing.

Thanks for the clarifiaction guys!

Best Regards... and good luck, we might all need it in the end!

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[Beggar]

I hope it's a robust scheme. The locking scheme for the Siemens PLC software that I run gets corrupted if you change time zones while the license key is installed. The good thing is that there's a 24-hour hotline you can in order to restore your license if it gets corrupted.

I think the Siemens approach is a nice one, though. The key is a software key that can be moved from machine to machine through a USB drive or over the network. I guess it's similar to the network license but it doesn't require you to have a network server. You can just move the license by the USB drive

--------------------
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http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

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[tbryant]

Scott,

We do use the Admin image for all service pack upgrades but unless I am wrong this won't install SolidWorks on everyones machine for the intitial install.
We have u full hard disk image that we use to for any new computers or we can use to reformat if something is wrong with an existing machine. I will wait until it is actually released and see how it works before worrying to much about it, but I don't like the prospect of paying additional money to get the same functionality that I have now.

Todd

 

[fcsuper]

Preventing piracy thru licencing schemes doesn't reduce the cost. It only punishes the faith users all that much more. AutoCAD didn't become the standard because it was easier to use. It became the standard because of piracy. Even with hundreds of thousands of sites, AutoCAD never reduced their price when they implemented stronger licencing schemes. They only lost share in the market.

If they are going to do this, then they need to come out with a vendors version of the software that allows a machine shop, sheetmetal shop or other fab (who isn't in the business of solid modelling) to still be able to work with engineers without being limited to PDF prints or paper. Some functionality is needed if I send a model to a vendor. I don't want that vendor shelling out thousands of dollars a year to S/W when I already am, cuz that means I'm paying S/W twice for one use cuz you know the vendor has to pass the cost on to me.

 

[AnnaWood]

SolidWorks partners do offer a lower cost version of SolidWorks called Parts and Assemblies. We have this for our CamWorks install, so we do not have to pay for a full seat of SolidWorks for the CNC department to use.

Regards,


Anna Wood
SW06 SP4.1 x64, WinXP x64
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450

http://www.auerprecision.com