This was posted 5 years 3 months 22 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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Free - 12 Months Maker License @ Solidworks

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Free - 12 Months Maker License @ Solidworks
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Taegukgi on 05/01/2019 - 10:09 solidworks.com (2172 clicks)
Last edited 05/01/2019 - 10:49
918MAKER

I'm not a CAD user so I'll have to admit that I don't know what this software does. Works on Windows only.

SOLIDWORKS for Maker Spaces
Using SOLIDWORKS for Makers, Maker Spaces and their participant users can get access to the tools required for modeling to develop their ideas in 3D, which can later be used to fabricate physical products or objects.

Steps
1) at the question, "I already have a Serial Number that starts with 9020", select no
2) enter code 918MAKER
3) version - select 2018-2019
4) at "Please Select one of the following", select "maker". I believe maker and hobbyist are the same version.

Direct Download link 2018-19

CAD: 9020 0085 4501 9225 RTC2 22H7
CAM: 9020 0085 4511 3590 QJHQ V5HD

Direct Download link 2017-18

CAD: 9020 0068 9458 4269 T76X CR89

Direct Download link 2016-17

CAD: 9020 0051 9414 8799 RMK5 TBKC

many thanks bdjchwr

Education Software

Related Stores

solidworks.com
solidworks.com

closed Comments

  • Zwarzy on 05/01/2019 - 10:13

    Oh thanks op. I have been wanting solidworks.

  • Elijha on 05/01/2019 - 10:28
    -2

    Gave up trying to find the 'normal' price. Anyone else able to figure it out?

    • Autonomic on 05/01/2019 - 10:33
      +4

      I think like $8k (or maybe 6) then $2k per year afterwards

  • Autonomic on 05/01/2019 - 10:36
    +4

    Solidworks is a great piece of software.

    Incredibly powerful and the easiest to learn (IMO) out of the ones I've used. It has excellent in built tutorials, too so if you download it you can easily play around in it.

    • Ulysses31 on 05/01/2019 - 12:01
      +1

      Agreed.

      It can get religious/political, based on user requirements and ability to get a good price/service-package, though. (sound like MSOffice?) Some are a pig to run, requiring extra everything, but the outcome is worth it. (like every second AAA game?)

      IE:
      Depending on working with sheet metal, tubing, entire engines/vehicles/etc, the software can be an absolute dream/nightmare. Not to mention learning curve or ease of use for certain users (new vs veteran in field).

      • Mehrad on 06/01/2019 - 07:49

        Thanks for your detailed comment. I'm extremely convinced/confused. Love/hate it already.

        I wonder if it includes Solidworks electrical. That's the direction our company is pushing for and away from AutoCAD electrical, so if it does, it would be useful to have a free licence to master it before we do so at work.

  • bjdchwr on 05/01/2019 - 10:43
    +4

    Direct Download link 2018-19

    CAD: 9020 0085 4501 9225 RTC2 22H7
    CAM: 9020 0085 4511 3590 QJHQ V5HD

    Direct Download link 2017-18

    CAD: 9020 0068 9458 4269 T76X CR89

    Direct Download link 2016-17

    CAD: 9020 0051 9414 8799 RMK5 TBKC

    The serial numbers are the same…

    • Taegukgi on 05/01/2019 - 10:49

      Thank you, updated OP with info.

  • bjdchwr on 05/01/2019 - 11:35
    +6

    Solidworks is used in many courses in the university for Engineering students.
    I think it is easier to use for me compared to Autodesk products.

    Owning a 3D printer, I think this is a must-have product :-)

  • heineken016 on 05/01/2019 - 13:00
    +4

    for anyone interested, Fusion 360 is also free for hobbyist use:
    https://www.autodesk.com/campaigns/fusion-360-for-hobbyists

    I haven't used solidworks for a few years, so take that into consideration, but Fusion is a much more powerful tool, and still very easy to learn. Can do FEA/CFD built in using cloud computing power, easily export STLs for 3d printing etc. Worth a look.

    • jayel on 05/01/2019 - 13:45
      +2

      I'm not sure fusion is much more powerful than sw. perhaps on par and with a better user experience. The thing with sw is it's industry standard position where companies use it because it's what people have skills in and what suppliers use and people learn it because that's what jobs require. It's not the best package but at least a lot better than creo. (Creo exists for people who are too old to learn anything new)

      • heineken016 on 05/01/2019 - 19:21

        must have changed a bit when I used it, it was quite a bit behind. but yeah, very fair re it becoming the industry standard.

        funnily enough in the few design jobs I've had I've never used it! Altair hyperworks, NX, and a bit of casual autodesk stuff.

    • bluebagger1 on 05/01/2019 - 15:22

      Thanks to op for starting thread and Heineken016 for fusion 360 link. Will try later for 3D printing.

    • Autonomic on 05/01/2019 - 15:46
      +1

      I've used Fusion360. It's quite good (especially considering it's free) but it's nowhere near as powerful or feature rich as Solidworks.

    • jmcc on 07/01/2019 - 00:22
      +1

      I would disagree that fusion is more powerful at all, let alone much more.
      Solidworks doesn't even compete with fusion, solidworks competes with inventor. Fusion is inventor lite + 2.5 axis CAM, it unfortunately also brings over all the reasons solidworks is the current standard over inventor. my biggest pet peeve is the slow constraints system in inventor.

      For modelling Solidworks is more poweful, more feature rich and easier to use than fusion.

      That being said, solidworks (and all direct 3d modelling programs really) is a terrible terrible program, hyper expensive, you basically are forced to buy each new generation despite almost no change from the last, as soon as one client upgrades then you will too.
      It's pretty unstable for a commercial product, it will crash doing the simplest operations if it doesn't like your geometry, and is poorly optimised for hyper threading so pretty slow overall.
      it's a resource hog, and consumer graphics will cards will be slow, despite no need for quadro.

      save often, save iterations, design with intent and constrain everything, BLUE IS BAD!

      There are a few people saying CATIA and NX are dead and useless, the reason they still exist is assemblies. Solidworks does not deal well with complex or large part count assemblies especially if you start building parts referencing the assembly. (handy tip: usually, its easier to just build multiple bodies in a single part and then export them to parts when you are done rather than using assembly references)

      but like other have said, if you wan't to work in design, engineering, prototyping you are probably going to have to learn SW. I don't see fusion taking over it's spot, maybe onshape, depending on their decisions in future.

      • jayel on 07/01/2019 - 19:50

        So true on being an extortionate subscription model and version in-compatability of models with identical features.

        For bugs, if you consider software complexity and userbase then its not suprising that compared to say msword that CAM software is just going to be more unstable (though you would think considering the software does not change much between versions that they could iron out a basic functional system, I'm currently running a quadro and its no less buggy than running on a geforce card.

        also + for multibody parts.

        • jmcc on 08/01/2019 - 20:30

          yeah, if the functions significantly year on year, I could understand it being slightly unstable. But after all these years atleast fillet should be infallible.

          I get alot more viewport slowdowns and choppyness with gtx 1080 than I do with the p5000 at work, and the 1080 is much faster. But yeah the quadro doesn't make it seamless either

      • qvinto on 08/01/2019 - 11:00

        Agreed. SW is a bug ridden mess which can be infuriating with regular crashes.

        I have been looking for a more stable and powerful alternative that has a intuitive interface (this rules out CATIA!)
        Any recommendations? However I don't want to be forced into cloud storage so that may rule out fusion. I can get most of the common tools using an academic licence

        • jmcc on 08/01/2019 - 20:34

          Honestly, solidworks is probably still the program to use despite all its flaws.. There is a comment on here saying NX is a dream but I haven't used it and can't afford to try it.

          You can try inventor for free with academic, but I'm not a fan, it's pretty clunky

          • qvinto on 08/01/2019 - 20:51

            @jmcc: Inventor does have a clunky interface. It hard to bean SW for UI. If only it would not crash so often and not be riddled with repeatable bugs e.g. one from today: split a body with a plane and delete one of the resulting pieces. Add some extrude operation to the remaining body and don't merge them together. Eventually if you continue to build your part, the deleted piece from before will magically reappear in your part at some point. This is not acceptable for the price of this software.

  • [Deactivated] on 05/01/2019 - 13:37

    Is it legal to use these codes?

    • jayel on 05/01/2019 - 14:01

      Not criminal like pirating it but against their T&C as this is for members of a particular maker space only. With an unusual volume of activations with this code and/or SW/Reseller seeing this post, I suspect they will pretty quickly deregister these licenses. So I wouldn't be relying on these codes if you are engaging in commercial or critical work as you may be locked out at any time.

      • [Deactivated] on 05/01/2019 - 17:11

        Yes I understand but the software reseller obviously didn't agree for this information to be publicly available. And getting access to software by means other than what's allowed by the company's terms and conditions, especially without paying is the very definition of software piracy.

        • [Deactivated] on 05/01/2019 - 20:19
          -2

          Disabled user?

          Ha!

          • [Deactivated] on 05/01/2019 - 22:39

            @[Deactivated]: As much as I like free codes, regardless of being a disabled user or active, they were right.

      • ethan961 on 06/01/2019 - 00:43

        T&C to me didn't look like it specified any specific maker space usage, it just said Makers. Apparently the code was handed out at Maker Faire. I would say that legitimate maker use is perfectly within the scope of this license, but yeah, not commercial use of course.

  • first in line on 05/01/2019 - 14:18

    Majority of ozbargainers shouldn’t bother downloading this. You definitely need some good amount of training before you can use it.

    • toristo on 05/01/2019 - 15:09
      +1

      I'm deliberating whether to try it over Fusion360… now is fine, but if in 12 months I love it and it expires, I'll have a hrll of a time justifying paying for a license.

      I think I'll stay eith Fusion

      • jayel on 06/01/2019 - 06:55

        try both, good skills to have.

    • Autonomic on 05/01/2019 - 15:56

      That's not true. I've taught people to use Solidworks and a few hours in the built in tutorials is more than enough for basic things.

      • Brevill on 05/01/2019 - 20:02

        He's right, I picked up Solidworks about 6 months ago and have already saved my family thousands in prototyping and moulds for casting tooling, I'm no expert but every roadblock has a solution published on YouTube or another forum. It's not that hard to pick up if you willing.

        • jayel on 06/01/2019 - 06:47
          +1

          I'm curious how you have saved your family thousands in prototyping and moulds? sounds great!

      • triviums on 06/01/2019 - 18:02

        I agree that solidworks isn't hard to learn. Out of the two CAD programs I use (Solidworks and Catia), solidworks is by far the easiest for me to learn how to use.

  • vishalpandi97 on 05/01/2019 - 15:20
    +1

    Aren't these softwares usually free when you study at uni especially the engineering faculty?

    • ozdesi on 05/01/2019 - 15:22
      +5

      But you can use this deal without studying at any uni and without being a student or faculty

  • Mischaseb on 05/01/2019 - 15:48
    +3

    Wow, best deal I've ever seen posted on ozb

    • [Deactivated] on 05/01/2019 - 17:47
      +1

      I guess that's why you've upvote… Oh, never mind.

      • Mischaseb on 05/01/2019 - 18:02

        Very sassy!

        • Diji1 on 05/01/2019 - 20:03

          Still no upvote though.

  • knackers on 05/01/2019 - 16:43
    +1

    Solidworks is essential learning for design engineers. After 15yrs on NX I had to learn SW for a new job.. Today 90% of design engineering jobs require SW exp. Unfortunately, NX and CATIA has priced itself out of the market for small to medium firms. Larger companies like BOSCH, SIEMENS, OPAL/GM/Holden, BOEING, BAE, Thales continue to use NX.

    • [Deactivated] on 05/01/2019 - 18:13

      What I don't understand, is why companies still use ProE/Creo.

      • Macky1012 on 05/01/2019 - 20:09

        Hhmmm.
        Why is that?

        Only used creo during all my design jobs…

        And i am keen to learn SW..

        • jayel on 06/01/2019 - 06:42

          Coming for SW to Creo in a previous job I found Creo pretty painful. I recall when making changes within the feature tree of Creo 2 (The key functionality of parametric MCAD) is made difficult in a complex feature tree by the fact that clicking on features does not visually highlight them in the model view or vice versa when clicking on a part of the model highlighting features in the tree. This wastes so much time spent trying to discover the feature you want to change. I also found sketching clumsy compared to Solidworks auto-solved sketching.

          Of course, it may just be not knowing the software well enough but I felt the workflow was slower.

          • Nugs on 23/01/2019 - 12:31

            @jayel: that must be a user setting, I use Creo at work and it does highlight in both directions that you mentioned.
            .

      • knackers on 05/01/2019 - 20:13
        +1

        Transitioning from one MCAD package to another is a costly endeavour.. a seemingly small decision in the 90's by a now unknown engineering manager means a company is handicapped in perpetuity…

        I see many of these small/medium engineering firms struggle with Solidworks as it cannot handle whole vehicle assemblies.. a buck saved today can be two dollars wasted tomorrow.. NX is a dream to work with but at $28k per seat I can understand the allure of Solidworks.

      • jmcc on 07/01/2019 - 00:34

        Assemblies is the first thing that comes time mind, solidworks is a dog when it comes to complex assemblies.

        The stuff you use at scale isn't really there either PDM and PLM are both pretty meh

    • BFOOT on 06/01/2019 - 12:26

      Thales doesn't use NX, we use Creo Parametric. In Australia anyway.

      • knackers on 06/01/2019 - 14:18

        I worked for a mob that was an offshoot of ADI.. we used Unigraphics. I assumed the founders stuck to what they were familiar with. Do you know if ADI used Unigraphics at any point in their history?

        • BFOOT on 09/01/2019 - 17:50

          It's possible, not in my time & my site however. There are so many sites/business units it's hard to know for sure.

  • Dollarsandsense on 06/01/2019 - 00:50
    +1

    Hey all, for a structured learning pathway I recommend solidprofessor.com. with solid works you can 3d model an item many different ways. Solid professor teaches design intent and designing so that you can easily make changes to the drawing later without it stuffing it all up… Something I am good at

    • Mehrad on 06/01/2019 - 07:57
      +1

      I'm not a pro on this however with the small amount of work done with Onshape I can totally agree with you. Very good advice.

      Even though you can ski* the cat a thousand ways, there are definitely better approaches on starting a 3D design.

      Thanks for the recommendation. Will look into it.

    • jmcc on 07/01/2019 - 00:25

      Lynda is pretty good too, though I used it quite a while ago.

      honestly though, even the SW guru's I know still end up with a bunch of cherries when they change a sketch too far up the tree.

  • [Deactivated] on 06/01/2019 - 08:44

    all the links are dead here and on their website

    • soob on 06/01/2019 - 17:33

      Working for me.

  • TazX on 06/01/2019 - 18:51

    Just shared with my HackerSpace peeps - thanks a bunch!

  • jmcc on 07/01/2019 - 00:28

    It should be pointed out that despite this being for "makers" the licence is the same as the academic licence. all files will be watermarked and should never be utilised in a commercial project even if they have been edited with a commercial version. The licencing is embedded so deep into the file system it basically impossible to remove.

  • first in line on 07/01/2019 - 19:33

    Is it just me or the download link not working anymore?
    Should have installed in earlier :(

    • madfree on 07/01/2019 - 22:21

      Download link for 2018-2019 still works.

  • myfeetarehappy on 13/01/2019 - 11:31

    Anyone know if it's 12 months from activation date?

    Not going to have time to install/use it until later in the year.

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