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pmedina-21-Visitor
1-Visitor
December 19, 2014
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Is there any way to open student edition files on commercial version

  • December 19, 2014
  • 3 replies
  • 31298 views

Hello, I am the CAD mentor for one of the First teams and we have been using the student edition of Creo.

Being a small school, resources are very limited. Not only computers, they don't have a student accessible network for printing.

The stock Creo PDF writer creates PDF files 50 megabytes and larger so I have to take them to work to print out.

I use Creo full time at work and recently I have the opportunity to use a company laptop with the commercial version of Creo.

I know the student files and commercial files aren't interchangeable.

It would be really handy to be able to work with the student edition files on this computer, and generate much smaller size PDF files for printing.

My question is it possible to get the student files "unlocked" somehow so I can open them in the commercial version?

Particularly the Creo drawings.

It would really save us a ton of headache!

Thank you

    Best answer by sm_01

    No. Student files can never be opened in commercial software and there is no converter. I would suggest installing a student license on your laptop. Then you can choose the license type at startup.

    I've never looked at the size of the PDF created by Creo. Are you creating PDF from drawings? Can you share a screen shot of a sample?

    3 replies

    D
    dschenken1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    December 19, 2014

    This really should be on the splash screen for the Academic license version: Pretty much, no. I'm certain that they want to prevent organizations outsourcing work to schools and Univerisities as a way to get the benefits of their products without paying for their products.

    PTC apparently does have translators/converters, but I don't think that will work for your situation.

    I am curious as to what makes the files so large - that's an avenue that can be worked on. 50Mb is a pretty large file.

    How are the files being created?

    Some things that might make files large:

    1) shaded views

    2) bitmaps as part of the format

    3) complicated fonts, possibly with the 'stroke fonts' config option

    To better diagnose this, make an empty drawing - no part and no format - and draw a line and print that to a Postscript file and post that file.

    Also post Creo Version and datecode. I doubt it has anything to do with it, but it makes looking for info easier for people who might have the same problem later.

    S
    sm_011-VisitorAnswer
    1-Visitor
    December 19, 2014

    No. Student files can never be opened in commercial software and there is no converter. I would suggest installing a student license on your laptop. Then you can choose the license type at startup.

    I've never looked at the size of the PDF created by Creo. Are you creating PDF from drawings? Can you share a screen shot of a sample?

    D
    dschenken1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    December 19, 2014

    I can't say that you are wrong, what without inside info and such, but what about the information mentioned in http://communities.ptc.com/message/252001#252001 or http://communities.ptc.com/message/238191#238191?

    I still think a big splash screen for the education market would be a good addition.

    P
    pmedina-21-VisitorAuthor
    1-Visitor
    December 19, 2014

    Thanks everyone for the responses, it's really too bad as it seems entire unrealistic a company could or would try to outsource CAD work to schools. At least where I work, it could simply never happen.

    Large PDF files were from shaded robot assembly drawings with muliple views and sheets.

    These worked best to communicate design concepts, but files are too large to email to a teacher to print.

    I think the individual part drawing PDF's were much more reasonable in size.

    I just know from experience at work the stock Creo PDF writer makes big files.

    I would love to install the student edition on the company laptop, but unfortunately they have a very strict policy that keeps it fully locked down. No software installation is allowed, no exceptions. If there is a way to install the student edition without requiring admin access I'm all ears.

    The PDF issue we can work around, the bigger issue is training.

    I was hoping to load the company laptop with all the robot files from last year and kit of parts files for training demos, how to and such. It's so much more productive to teach them when using the same models they are working on, and you can't demonstrate editing/creating parts from a step file.

    S
    sm_011-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    December 19, 2014

    Paul,

    You could try printing to JPG instead of PDF as an option. PDF is not very efficient with images unless configured for it. There is also a Save As option in Adobe Acrobat to create a reduced size file. As far as I know, it is only available in Acrobat Pro, not the Reader.

    reduced+size+pdf.png

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