Cheapest way for a non commercial NI license

[David_Baratheon]

Hi guys, I am a user of NI products.

I used Labview in Uni and bought a myDAQ and myRIO for home use.

I have also used NI extensively in my role at my previous company.

I currently work for a company that does use NI products, but my role doesn't require it, and I dont think I will get signed off on a license if my role doesn't use NI products in any capacity.

I was studying a masters but I am not sure if I am even classed as enrolled or not now, since it was all frozen during the pandemic.

I would like to go back over my LabVIEW training notes, and maybe do some home projects, and maybe go for labview certification. Mainly just to keep my skills sharp, as I anticipate going for more roles that use NI products in future. I also want to complete a masters and use LabVIEW as part of my project. So getting my skills sharp now will help me later with a masters.

I also want to make use of the circuit design and simulation and PCB layout packages.

What is the cheapest way for me to get a license? 

I cant afford a £200 a year commercial license. I am not sure if I would qualify or not for an academic license.

Is there any sort of non commercial license that is affordable and a one off cost? Or some sort of cheap online deals or anything?

[mcduff]

https://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/labview/select-edition/labview-community-edition.html

[Bob_Schor]

Note that the Community License can not be used for Academic purposes (so you can't use it for working on your Master's Project -- you would need to do that using, perhaps, an Academic license) nor for any purposes related to your employment.  [I suppose if you used it to get NI Certification, and then went to your Employer and said "I have CLD Certification from NI, please obtain a Full LabVIEW License from NI that I can use while working for you", that might be allowed, provided that you then used your Employer's license for all work for that Employer ...]

Bob Schor

[David_Baratheon]

Yes no worries, I work for a large employer and they would never dream of asking me to pirate software or use it illegally. If I need it for my job, my employer will provide a license, as they do for any other software I use in my role.

If I do a masters then my university will almost definitely have an academic license i can use. 

Im just in a limbo at the moment where I've completed many labview training and never got round to certification but wish to sharpen my skills and keep them fresh. 

Does the community license include the multisim and ultiboard packages?

[BertMcMahan]

As I understand it (hopefully someone can correct me if I'm wrong!), the Community Edition doesn't watermark or otherwise prohibit usage in professional settings. For example, if Alice is a hobbyist LabVIEW user and creates some open source code, then Bob can use it professionally.

I would assume this applies for what you're doing as well. You're seeking LabVIEW certification on your own time, unpaid from anyone and aside from any academic institutions, so it's not academic and it's not commercial. The instant you are paid to make LabVIEW programs (or even to train on LabVIEW!) it becomes commercial and you can't use the Community edition.

As an aside, I've considered doing something similar in the past for projects that aren't financially viable for my job but would be fun to do and could *help* in my job. I'd create the stuff and open-source it on my own time at home, then use the tools at work (with my work computer and work LV license) to develop commercial software. As I understand it, that satisfies the spirit and the letter of the community/commercial licensing system.