1. Mcafee Free Trial

I've been using Autodesk Inventor ever since version 1 and have recently been questioning my lack of Solidworks knowledge. I wanted to give it a spin and see what I've been missing. Is there a trial version of Solidworks available?

23 Answers

This could help.
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/education/real-jobs.htm

SDK, Student Design Kit. The educational versions are great for training, around £80 in the UK gets you the full version, with CAD, render, simulation etc for one year.

4 days ago - Thank you for your interest in evaluating SOLIDWORKS® by taking advantage of a SOLIDWORKS Free Trial. More than 2.5 million product. My company is going to introduce solidworks 2015. I will be in charge of paying the 3D CAD. I requred free trial solidworks 2015 (3D disign). But I can not try.

SDK is free, but only when the University has bought the license and there is a free one available (ie all the licenses are not in use already). But the last one is 'I believe/think'. But to download you do need some information from University to fill the download form blanks with. I have heard, though, that when you download a SW through torrent, or use an original (from a friend of from work, for example) but without the serial, you can install it as trial version instead of pirating it. But I am not sure in this, just a rumour.

Otherwise as already pointed out: http://www.solidworks.com/sw/education/SDL_welcome.html and put in the right information in the download form.

if you are a boy or girl scout you can get a free license here: http://www.solidworks.com/sw/education/9391_ENU_HTML.htm

SW has a free trial version, believe it's only 30 days or a certain number of saves, like 30 saves. SW also has a low cost student version but you have to be a registered student.

You fill out the information there and you get an email with installation instructions then you have a Student version od Solid works for 60 or 90 days to give it a try

You can try Solid Edge for 45 days (http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/solidedge/free-solid-edge.shtml), or download student version (http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/forms/solid-edge-student.cfm) for free.

No the SDK is free but I found that I needed specific information from my University in order to download and then register the software properly.

I think it also checks if the email address you use is an academic/student one.

For the Student version or SolidWorks to work, you must be a registered student or teacher at an accredited college or university. Many moons ago when I was in school, they accepted a simple copy of your student ID, but today I believe they require more solid proof. You can call them to ask, or search their website for specific requirments.

For lack of a better name there is a 'home version' standard license that is issued for each purchased license at my work. Ask your CAD admin if they do not know about it contact the SW salesman. Every time a new version comes out I go see the CAD admin guy and he gives me a flash drive with the install image on it.

Just google 'vgtu solidworks' and go to the end of page :)

Mcafee Free Trial

student version costs $150 and lasts for 1 year

the demo version lasts 30 days and you have to register with a VAR

Another option is that SolidWorks provides beta versions prior to release of the official version every year. I'm not sure if you need to have an active seat in order to obtain the beta or not. Of course having come from SW and now being an Inventor user of 7 months I would recommend not trying SW or you are going to hate your day job when you go back to inventor.

Bear in mind, any parts designed in the student version are NOT portable into the mainstream Soldiworks edition. Also, as started above, all Soldiworks licenses come with an office license and home license, on the basis you cannot be using the software in two different locations simultaneously. I run 2010 on a HP box in work and on my MacBookPro at home running bootcamp Win7 64bit with no qualms on licensing.

I've had this student edition, but it lacks a lot of functionality like toolbox etc.
That wont work properly. My advise would be....(can't tell you tou obtain illegal software)

wrote a post about it

I used inventor in high school and now solid works in college. they are more or less identical and have extremely minor changes. Ive only used solid works for about a week and its just as user friendly as inventor. nothing has really changed.

Why try SW when you have Solid Edge available? Get the Student Edition here: http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/forms/solid-edge-student.cfm

It's free, valid for 1 year and then you can renew it.

Solid Edge is the current state-of-the-art 3D CAD modeller, based in Parasolid just like SW,but it has Synchronous Technology, the new technology by Siemens that is the current 'big thing' in the CAD world. SW doesn't even come close to this!

little answer
if you have a comparision between solidwork and catia and autodesk you'll be understand the best one is the solidworks

See this,

Not sure if it is legal or not..

I believe only if you are a student or tutor. But even then you have to pay for it. and if you have the correct codes. i may be wrong though. keep in mind does Solidworks really want trial versions out there like Inventors done. anyone with a email address can get a student edition Inventor from what i have seen.
But i could be wrong..