Hello, I used to work for a Reseller of solidworks, I have a pretty good handle on this, though the basic prices are from memory.
Plain Solidworks goes for just under $5,000
Office Professional (incl photoworks/PDMworks plus a few others) is around $6,500 I think.
Office Premium (all the bells and whistles: FEA and Routing etc.) is over $8,000 I believe.
Just ask for a quote from one of your local resellers, or make a query through SW website, and they can just toss you a quote, easy like.
The maintaince is $1250, $1500, andaround $2000 per year for each level of the software respectively. Thiskeeps your software 'up-to-date' and you get Tech-support. If you have a good VAR to work with, then it is usually a good investment.
I hope that helps you get a feel for your potential business plan. I'd work on getting at leastthree good potential customers before you launch out and get the seat of Solidworks. (unless you just have $10,000 laying around with nothing else to do with it.) Since starting up your business right (with an LLC or S-corp) will be at least 50 to 100 hours of planningto do it right. (depending on your state and city laws.)
Hope that helps!!
Tim Ganstrom, cswp
vea-design.com
PS. If you live in the puget sound region, we are always looking for talented free-lance minded CAD types we can possibly work with.
