Trying to use Solidworks 2007 again

[john70t]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I received SW 2006 from a settlement and went on to purchase the SW 2007 upgrade which was supposed to be substantially more powerful than the previous version. The upgrade was about $1500 iirc.

About that time I had filed a patent on an electric motor and modelling it would have been significantly less expensive than trying to create small and large prototypes for different types of applications all from scratch. CAD can be a lot of fun. I'd already made a few model with Sketchup which was simple to use, but learning SW was too large of a step up despite taking worthless classes. There seemed to be constant error bugs in the ver. 2006 at least which I wasn't able to get around. The patent office had found existing artwork and I ended up dropping the whole thing in disgust.

Recently I found the 2007 program again on a newer offline Win10 computer.
"Oh great let's try it out again" I thought.
It was a pricey purchase and I want to use it...

The program opened fine, but when "create a new model" an error states there is no subscription associated with the program.
(There was no subscription necessary before at the time of purchase.)

The program is paid for, registered, and my license valid to infinity.

[Nostril Cheese]

I may be incorrect, but I seem to remember a dongle was required back then?

[john70t]

Memory is hazy, but I don't remember any connectivity being required other than registration back then.
I did use it offline.

The subscription block (which is apparently new) is perplexing.

[id10t]

For giggles I'd suggest setting the BIOS clock back to 2008 and see what happens, it could be there is a simple check that if the date is beyond 2020, 2015, whatever then to throw an error

If you end up needing a replacement, then I'd take a quick look at Bricsys (sp?) - their eval version is fully featured and works for 30 or 60 days IIRC. I liked 'em 'cause when it was released they were willing to give students home use licenses for free if the school bought licenses for the labs, and they offer Windows, Mac, and Linux versions.

[unclebilly]

I’m not sure why it wouldn’t run. I’d suggest you reach out to your reseller (Hawkridge) and ask for some help.

[Nostril Cheese]

Originally Posted by john70t

Memory is hazy, but I don't remember any connectivity being required other than registration back then.
I did use it offline.

The subscription block (which is apparently new) is perplexing.

I worked in an architectural office then.. I remember us needing something to substantiate our copies of the software (online and off) to grab "parts" from the company library...

BTW, have you looked at Fusion 360? I use it to run our CNC and 3d printer. very versatile software

[doug_porsche]

Originally Posted by Nostril Cheese

I may be incorrect, but I seem to remember a dongle was required back then?

My brothers company used SW and I remember a dongle requirement also.

[john70t]

That must be so. Didn't remember it that way but you're probably right.

I've been looking at FormZ. It's more design oriented but has a lot of features.
https://forums.formz.com/gallery/category/15-a-b/

[unclebilly]

I never had a dongle on SW 2007 back in the day.

Call Hawkridge, they will help.

[unclebilly]

I run SW nearly every day (including right now). Seriously, call Hawkridge - 877.266.4469

https://hawkridgesys.com/

[dad911]

I miss solidworks. Used to qualify for the educational version, no longer. I didn't have a dongle, the educational version used to connect to the internet to check, and it timed out in three years.

I'm using Onshape now. Free, can open solidworks files, but your files are online and open.