Solutions
Software licensed for how you work
Eight trades, eight routes into the catalogue. Start from the work rather than the product name, because the right licence is usually decided by what your clients send you and how long the project runs.
Architecture · Structural · MEP · Civil · Mechanical · CNC · Toolmaking · Plant
Before anything else
3 questions that decide the licence
These three settle most of it, whatever the trade.
What arrives in your inbox?
This sets the release yearHow many work at once?
This sets standalone or networkHow long does the project run?
This settles owned or rentedBy industry
Start from the work
Architecture practice
Revit, Vectorworks, Allplan, Archicad and AutoCAD Architecture for design and documentation.
Structural engineering
Analysis, reinforcement detailing and drawings, on licences that stay valid for the life of the project.
Building services (MEP)
Mechanical, electrical and plumbing design for teams coordinating systems across one model.
Civil engineering & surveying
Site, terrain and infrastructure work, from field measurement through to setting out.
Mechanical & product design
Inventor, SOLIDWORKS, CATIA and NX for parts, assemblies and simulation.
CNC manufacturing
CAM owned by the shop that runs it, rather than rented per machine, per year.
Toolmaking & mould design
CAD and CAM for precision tooling, owned outright by the shop that uses it.
Plant & process engineering
Piping, equipment layout and P&ID work on long-running capital projects.
The process
From your first call to a working seat
The same four steps whatever the trade.
Describe the work
What you draw, what arrives from clients, and how many people need it open at once.
We narrow it
Product, release year and licence type, with the reasons, before you pay anything.
We transfer
Reassigned under the publisher's terms. The previous owner ceases use.
Complete
Registered in your own name. Keep the documentation for audits.
FAQ
Choosing by trade
We are a small architecture practice. Where do we start?
Start from what your consultants and contractors send you, because that decides the release year before anything else does. Once that is fixed, the choice between Revit, Vectorworks, Allplan and Archicad is about how your office already draws, not about which is better. Call us and we will talk it through.
We run a machine shop. Do we need CAD and CAM separately?
Not always. SolidCAM runs inside the CAD model, hyperMILL and PEPS run alongside one, and NX and TopSolid carry both in a single seat. Which suits you depends on where the models come from: clients sending them, or your own people drawing them. That one question usually settles it.
Ten people have it installed but only three draw at once. What do we buy?
Three network licences, not ten standalone ones. A network licence is shared, so you buy for how many people work at the same time rather than how many have it installed. On a team of that size it is usually the single biggest saving available.
Will a 2ndhand licence satisfy a client audit or a tender?
The documentation is what an audit asks for, and you receive all of it: a proper invoice, the transfer record, and the licence registered in your own name rather than ours. If a client has specific wording they need to see, tell us before you buy and we will confirm what we can supply.
Can you advise before we commit?
That is the intention. You get a person who uses this software, not a call centre, and we check availability and eligibility before you pay anything. If the right answer is a product we do not have in stock, we will say so.
Not sure which version you need?
Tell us what you run and what your clients send you. You'll get an answer from someone who uses this software, not a sales script.