Fab Foundation has just announced that SolidWorks has donated a premium copy of its popular 3D CAD software to each of the 350 Fab Lab facilities all over the world.
Each official Fab Lab is eligible to receive one free commercial copy of the entire 3D CAD SolidWorks suite. Additionally, all Fab Lab sites that host the popular Fab Academy How to Make (Almost) Anything courses will receive ten student licenses. The student license grants access to all SolidWorks programs, however they will have “Educational Use Only” watermarks. The education edition of SolidWorks is the same suite as the commercial edition, however it includes extra educational materials and software.
SolidWorks Director of Education Community Marie Planchard announced the donation at the international Fab Lab meeting FAB10 in Spain last month. FAB10 was the tenth Fab Lab annual meeting, and brought together students, makers, engineers, artists, educators and industry professionals to discuss the future of the Fab Lab Network.
“Since our founding in 1995,” explained Planchard, “SolidWorks has wanted to be more than just a supplier. To formally achieve that goal, we instituted a number of programs that help users ranging from our active SolidWorks Community to a project identifying startup companies that need technical support to assisting First Robotics teams. There are 28,000 schools that teach with SolidWorks and 240 SolidWorks user groups around the world with the underlying principle to share knowledge and expand capabilities for everyone to succeed in their design and digital fabrication projects.”
Here is a video of her announcement:
The Fab Foundation was founded in 2009 to help administer and organize the global Fab Lab network. Fab Labs are hack spaces and knowledge sharing networks where the local community of technologists, educators and makers pool their knowledge and resources together. It is a non-profit organisation with a focus on connecting makers, educational institutions and businesses together in order to help them develop new technologies, workflows and products. There are over thirty countries with over 350 Fab Lab locations in the Fab Foundation network.
“As our network grows, Fab Lab projects are becoming more complex, and in many cases, developing into commercial opportunities,” explained Fab Foundation director Sherry Lassiter. “To support these projects, the Fab Foundation wants to provide Fabbers with the powerful design and engineering resources they need to produce professional projects that will have a beneficial impact on lives and livelihoods around the world. All digital fabrication students registered for our “How to Make (Almost) Anything” course will have access to a sophisticated design tool for creating their projects, whether for social or economic benefit. That’s pretty special.”
You can find out more about the Fab Foundation and locate the nearest official Fab Lab in your area by visiting their website. You can register for the Fab Academy How to Make (Almost) Anything classes – or any of their courses – here.
