Best way to create a 3D model of a board.

[Aodhan145]

Striking amount of anguish about "stolen" software, although the OP only mentioned having a Student edition without saying whether he is a student or not.  Reminds me of the old adage about nobody being so righteous as a reformed "professional lady".

There is something seriously wrong with how our intellectual property works.  People have no qualms about buying used hardware.  This forum is rife with people gloating over high quality professional equipment that they paid a tiny fraction of the new cost.  In many cases, hardware that is still being sold new by the manufacturer.  This forum also has threads about how to get around software limitations in various hardware products.

But software is stolen if resold or given away.  No matter how old or obsolete.  I know there is a license agreement inside the package that says you didn't really buy the software, you only purchased an opportunity to use it for a little while on some finite number of machines, and perhaps by more than one person as long as they are using the same physical hardware.  But that sales mechanism is an exploit of the crazy way IP works.  I am sure that there is a business model that works based on actual sale of the software product.   Just compare it to any hardware item.  The manufacturing cost for software is criminally low.  Yes it is easy to duplicate, but in reality, so are a great many hardware items.

This is true everyone is hacking all the rigols and unlocking every feature but as soon as some one pirates pc software they are the worst person ever.

[zapta]

Ill just whip out a couple of thousand of pounds for altium. I'm 15 cant afford that shit.

Excellent answer!

Minus the profanity.

[wraper]

If you are able to steal SolidWorks, you should be able to steal Altium Designer too right?

The only things left on the list are a stolen win7/win10 and a hacked version of photoshop.
Why pay for one license if all the rest is illegal anyway.

Why not just steal the whole fucking computer?

Why not just run an extension cord out to the neighbor's house and steal his electricity? And maybe he left his WiFi router open and insecured, so you can steal his bandwidth too? Why not steal his cat?

There is one big difference. If you steal computer, electricity, cat, those physical things disappear where they originally were and no more available for original owner. Not the case with software. Other than company not receiving "potential" profits nobody lost anything. The person who stole the software, not likely to buy it for money anyway. More like just opt out to not using it at all.
So while pirating the software is not something to be endorsed, IMO comparing it with stealing goods is not right either.
At the same time most are completely fine with buying clone/counterfeit stuff (original manufacturer don't receive the profits) and even using it with original software  (clone Salae Logic, J-link, Pickit, name it). Or hacking oscilloscopes to obtain more functionality for less money (again manufacturer don't receive profit). Smells like double standards for me.

[timofonic]

Ill just whip out a couple of thousand of pounds for altium. I'm 15 cant afford that shit.

Excellent answer!

Minus the profanity.

WTF are you talking about? Those are nice words even dear Dave used.

No shit, Sherlock!