Solidworks & PDM Work from Home Ready
Tips and Tricks • Emma Mearns • 17 March 2020
The ability for employees to work from home/remotely is becoming more important for employers as it can provide more flexibility for many personal, company and global situations.
Below we will discuss how you can utilize and work from home/remotely with your Solidworks license.
Standalone License:
If you are working remotely and using a different work station you will first need to make sure that you have Solidworks installed on this secondary station. You can download the software by visiting the download section on the Solidworks customer portal https://customerportal.solidworks.com/ as long as you have a current Solidworks subscription.
After this, all you need to do is ensure that you are Deactivating and Reactivating your license to swap the license from station to station. This can be found by navigating to the Help menu in your software
Online License:
Solidworks online licensing gives you the flexibility to use one license across all your devices, in any location, without having to manually activate and deactivate the licenses on each machine. An online license is a license that is converted from a standalone license. See the following link for details on how to convert your license:
http://help.solidworks.com/2018/english/AdminPortal/c_change_products_to_online_licensing.htm
You must have internet access to sign in and use online licenses, but after signing in on a machine, you can select offline mode and work while the machine is not connected to a network.
Also, you can synchronize Solidworks settings across machines, and access Solidworks websites such as MySolidWorks.com and the Solidworks Customer Portal without having to log in again
Network License:
You can still use your network license from home.
If you have a workstation that you have the ability to take away from the office i.e. a laptop you can borrow a license for a maximum of 30 days without connecting back to your network.
Things to Consider:
There are also some other aspects to consider.
- Are you working from files stored in a shared location? If so will you be able to access these or will you need to move them into a local location? If you can access them i.e. through a VPN are these files large and/or complicated? If so you may be better moving them to a local location. large files such as complicated assemblies can struggle to open and save through a remote connection.
- Are you working with other users? How will you be communicating to ensure no work gets missed or work gets done twice?
- Internet connection speeds. Will your internet connection be good enough for how you want to communicate and collaborate.
- SolidWorks Product Data Management (PDM) may be an option for you to explore.
- PDM itself is work from home ready Solution. Just check out the files you need and turn on the Offline mode. Need to know more? Contact your local Central Innovation account manager.
If you have any issues or would like some more information surrounding the above topics please feel free to email us on support@intercad.com.au
Emma Withers
CAD Specialist
Central Innovation, Auckland
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