Vectorworks 2008 Designer

[Dave Mandehr]

thinking of buying a used copy of VW 2008 Designer which comes w/ a dongle. when did they start coming w/ this device? is this american or a UK version? will i need to use the dongle to run it on my G5 IMac? thanks.

[michaelk]

hmmmmm

You want to make sure that the license is transferrable to you.

Make sure it's not an educational version. In the US they had dongles.

If it is educational it will watermark all your drawings and make you not very popular with any vectorworks user you want to share drawings with.

mk

[IanH]

I would reiterate that the license is transferrable too.

Newer versions of VW (2011 on) are dongle free yet still require legal ownership of earlier versions if upgraded. The serial number controls this.

Apart from the legal implications, if you purchased a 2008 version that has an upgrade associated with it, it would be useless to you if you ever wanted to upgrade in the future, such as would be necessary if you ever upgraded your Mac.

If buying an older version, make sure that the license is officially transferred to you. It is relatively straight forward so if a seller is reluctant to do it, then alarm bells should start ringing.

[Tamsin Slatter]

I must add to that, the licence can only be transferred through the distributor (at least that is the case in the UK) and there is a charge for that so do check that out before purchasing.

And if you upgrade, you will need to upgrade your G5 as PowerPC is no longer supported.

[michaelk]

I'm pretty sure that VW2008 did not have a dongle in the US - except for the educational version.

Usually when older versions are being sold legitimately, the ability to transfer the license is clearly stated.

I would proceed very cautiously.

mk