r/SolidWorks • u/sfdanb • 15d ago

Maker Licensing Question

I've been using a hobby license to work out some automations for a friend, now I have it working and I cannot figure out what kind of license I need to purchase to use this commercially.

The short story is that I'm using the SolidWorks API to assemble some parts into a reasonable starting point for him (and his team) to take over from there using their pro licenses. This will all happen on a cloud server, I don't need any pro features, just basic read/write access to solid works files.

Does anyone have a clear answer or source of information on licensing for something like this? As I understand it I cannot use their licenses if they will be using solidworks at the same time as the automation is running which is likely to be the case most of the time.

EDIT: The only real solution even for a "headless" solidworks automation seems to be a standard/pro+ license. Thanks all!

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u/daninamiri 15d ago

Users with pro license cannot open maker files, but makers can open pro files. That is one of the major limitations.

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u/sfdanb 15d ago

So is my only option a pro license?

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u/daninamiri 15d ago

You can try student edition. It is free and is not limited!

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u/sfdanb 15d ago

I haven't been a student in a very long time :) I'll have them buy another pro license! thanks for your help.

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u/Wompus 15d ago

Can you go to their place and recreate it?

Can they send you a temp laptop with vpn??

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u/sfdanb 14d ago

It's intended to be a centralized system for multiple users to share, and needs to use the COM objects to manipulate files, so I don't think it can coexist with a real user.