If you are a veteran of the U.S. or Canadian armed forces, you can get a student version of Solidworks 2015 for $20. They actually ship you the two DVDs priority mail.
You will have to download and fill out the form from the Solidworks Military Veterns Education Store and submit a copy of your DD-214.
I did it and it took one day for verification and about three days before I received it.
I hope this helps someone out.
Now all I have to do is find my DD-214.
You can request a copy staright from https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/. Of course it is a bit of a process and takes a while but it was easier that going back through my files looking for it.
Thanks for the link.
LOL I love how wants to know the dates of Service – Hello, I don’t remember the exact dates of service, that’s what I want the DD-214. I was in ROTC so I have two Honorable Discharges, which does it want? Also, I don’t remember if my start date was when I got orders and included travel time from CA to TX or 1st day of Officer’s Basic, or date I signed contract!
Wow is this for real!? This is the best news I’ve heard all year–thanks!
Wow, yea that is complicated. I was enlisted and served a consecutive tour so it was easy for me. I’m sure they’ll be able to help you out once the system is back on-line.
Yes i am a vet and bought it. One year license full suite. It puts a “studen version” text on your 2d dxf exports but easy to delete. You can also get the cam software that, ironically, autodesk makes. Forgot the name but it is professional grade for free
Does it run on Macs (without using a Windoze partition in BootCamp or similar?)
Thanks.
Chris
Awesome Tip, Be nice to a have a legal copy of solid-works outside of work. 
Thanks a bunch for this info. I was just approved for a $20 copy. (The software is actually free, the $20 is for postage.) There are also courses on Solidworks on Lynda for those of you with a subscription.
OK, you’re right. It does not run on Mac unless you install Windows in Bootcamp or Parallels and run it that way.
And it does not run on windows 10, so don’t upgrade if you have SW
Actually I am running it on Windows 10. Although, Microsoft had released a security patch that (for me) broke the toolbox. See enter link description here
After trying several fixes online, I ended up uninstalling Solidworks, manually set the registry key RemappedElevatedProxiesPolicy to 1, installed SolidWorks 2015 and then set the key back to 0. So far, I have not run into any issues.
Well im using 2014 and had the preview edition of windows and SW would not load. Havent tried it on release version because i went back to 8.1
One year? Do we have to buy a (re)new copy every year? I am not familiar with their licencing.
Even if they do require that, $20 a year is dirt cheap.
