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Home Usage License

Home Usage License

Home Usage License

(OP)
Hey guys and gals,

Looking for some input. I act sort of as a CAD administrator here at my company and am wondering what some of your company’s polices is on Home Usage Licenses. Do you hand them out or not? Any input is very much welcomed, don’t be shy. We currently do not have a policy and I am being looked to to form one and am open to hearing pros and cons to either policy

Thanks

RE: Home Usage License

Your users are entitled to a home copy and if you have 20 seats for example, then those 20 users can get the option to take it home and most of my users all get to take it home without question. You can only activate that serial number "X" amount of times. If you use the example above, then you could only activate 20 seats then.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP pc2
www.scottjbaugh.com

Quote:

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: Home Usage License

It's all perfectly legal, so long as the 80/20 rule isn't violated. Hell, if you can get your users to work from home, wouldn't that be a bonus for the company? Bill can't make it in to work due to <insert illness/injury here>, but he can still work from home.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog
Dell M90, Core2 Duo
4GB RAM
Nvidia 3500M

RE: Home Usage License

We (I) do use the HUL.  It helps me out a lot when giving presentations, answering questions after hours, traveling to client locations and tending to the occasional fit of inspiration that I have in the middle of the night.  It also saves the inconvenience of checking out a license.  I just keep it on my laptop, and I'm always ready to roll.  

Now if you're asking who should get the license that's another story.  If there isn't anyone that clearly needs it more than anyone else, then I would suggest accepting bribes and personal favors.  Let the bidding begin!

Dan

www.eltronresearch.com

RE: Home Usage License

(OP)
Now if you're asking who should get the license that's another story.  If there isn't anyone that clearly needs it more than anyone else, then I would suggest accepting bribes and personal favors.  Let the bidding begin!

Ha... I like it. Nothing like a good doughnut lever!

RE: Home Usage License

We let people use it at home but there has been a couple times that they have left the company and not uninstalled the software at home. Give this some thought on how you will handle this.

RE: Home Usage License

Quote (SW License Agreement):

At the time of registration (see Article 9 below) you must inform us of the maximum number of potential users of the licenses you purchase.  We recommend you also inform us of the names of all potential users so that we can notify them of upcoming updates and other pertinent information.  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. You will keep accurate and up-to-date records of the numbers and locations of all copies of the Software, will supervise and control the use of the Software in accordance with the terms of this Agreement and will provide copies of such records to SolidWorks upon reasonable request.

As admin of the system you should be able to notify SW that a home license user is no longer employed with you, and they should be able to de-activate the home license.

cheers

RE: Home Usage License

The install does check the SolidWorks site for the license so I don't think SWX can deactivate.

As rporter said, what happens when someone leaves the company, how do you get it back?

Jason

SolidWorks 2007 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2
SolidWorks 2008 SP0.0 on WinXP SP2

RE: Home Usage License

An installed version may not check the validity of its license, but when a license is transferred from one computer to another, the license has to be de-activated first. If SW is notified by the admin that the home license is no longer applicable for that user, that license can be de-activated by them. SolidWorks will still run on that computer, but it will have become an illegal version and will not be elligible for any uppdates. SW will have been informed who is running it. The license holders (the companys) obligations will have been met. It will then be up to SW to proceed further.

That's my take on it anyway.

cheers

RE: Home Usage License

I'm contracting right now.  They don't let contractors load SW at home.  

RE: Home Usage License

Tmoose ... who are "they"? SW or the company you are contracting to?
Do you mean the home license portion from a valid license on a computer which is used by someone else 80% of the time? If you are the person using the 80%, the work/home license could be switched ... as long as someone else isn't using that license at the same time.

cheers

RE: Home Usage License

I have 2007 home liscence, and just got 2008 at work. do i need to go and get the boss to get 2008 home liscences or can each of us take the dvd home and load it.

RE: Home Usage License

If you have standalone licenses, you can take the DVD home and specify that it is a Home license during the install.

If you have SNL at work you will need a Home User License (HUL) issued via your VAR. If you already have a HUL for SW07, I doubt you would need to get another for SW08 ... but I could be wrong on that one.

cheers

RE: Home Usage License

For a HUL for a network install you must set up a new license agreement every year.  I am in the process of doing this now with our VAR for 2008.

At the moment our SW 2007 HUL serial number will not activate SW 2008 for any more than the thirty grace period.

Cheers,

Anna Wood
SW 2007 SP4.0, WinXP
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse
http://www.phxswug.com

RE: Home Usage License

That's what I thought as well, and that's how it has been previously.  However, this year my VAR said that I can just use the same HUL# without filling out the paperwork.  I haven't had the chance to work on it yet (and probably won't in the near future), but if I do I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime maybe somebody else can confirm my outlandish story...

Dan

www.eltronresearch.com

RE: Home Usage License

The only way a company can control the HUL is by controlling the DVD.  The license is done online so there isn't much that can be done with controlling it from that standpoint.  

Anyone can go to the About page in SW and write down the serial number and register a HUL as long as one is available.  I know in 2006 I was changing machines and had SW on three different machines at home with no problems.  They have changed it since then so SW can keep better track and control the number of licenses per serial number.

If you don't want someone to get a seat at home then don't give them the disks.

As far as policy goes I use if someone wants a seat at home let them have it.  The only reason I can see, and have seen, to stop people from setting up computers at home is because the company is using a home license to create an additonal seat at work. I think many people still remember the early days of Autocad with one set of disks running on 50 different machines.

RE: Home Usage License

Anna Wood,
I just installed SolidWorks 2008 SP 0.0 on my home PC last night using the SolidWorks 2007 serial number. The software told me it never expires.

bigbuck,
We let those who use SolidWorks to install it at home. Most of our users do not install at home. If a person has the DVD and serial number it is hard to stop them from installing SolidWorks at home if they wanted too.

JamesBarlow,
You’re right on the mark with HUL. A star for you.

Bradley
SolidWorks Premim 2007 x64 SP4.0
PDM Works, Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB, nVidia 3400

RE: Home Usage License

If you have multiple users, then you should be loading SolidWorks via an Admin Image instead of passing around the DVD. That way users can't just take home the DVD. Just another level of control.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog
Dell M90, Core2 Duo
4GB RAM
Nvidia 3500M

RE: Home Usage License

Bradley,

I can keep/use my current SW2007 HUL install of SolidWorks on my home computer forever.  If I want to install SW2008 at home I need a new HUL.  My SW2007 HUL does not work for SW2008.  I have already tried to see if it works, it doesn't.

I am in the process of getting a new HUL for our SW2008 seats.

I am not sure what would happen today if I uninstalled SW2007 at home and tried to re-install it today with our SW2007 HUL.  It may not to work.  I need my current SW2007 install so I can't experiment to see if this is the case.

Cheers,

Anna Wood
SW 2007 SP4.0, WinXP
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse
http://www.phxswug.com

RE: Home Usage License

Bradley,

To confirm we have a network install of SolidWorks at work.  The Home Use Agreement is different then for a stand alone seat of SolidWorks.

Cheers,

Anna Wood
SW 2007 SP4.0, WinXP
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse
http://www.phxswug.com

RE: Home Usage License

"Tmoose ... who are "they"? SW or the company you are contracting to?"

The company I'm contracting to says oh nay-nay.

" Do you mean the home license portion from a valid license on a computer which is used by someone else 80% of the time? If you are the person using the 80%, the work/home license could be switched ... as long as someone else isn't using that license at the same time."

I'm using SW on a workstation about 92% of the time at work.  Once very month or so somebody gets blocked when we get into an N=1 licenses situation.  I think SW would consider me a legit home license candidate.  

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