SOLIDWORKS subscription renewal season has a way of sneaking up on engineering teams. One week you are pushing a release out the door, the next you are getting a renewal quote for licenses nobody remembers buying. Here is the checklist we walk through with our customers every fall.
1. Confirm your SOLIDWORKS subscription renewal dates
Start with a simple inventory: every SOLIDWORKS, PDM, and Simulation license you own, its serial number, who uses it, and when it renews. Expect a surprise or two, like a seat assigned to someone who left. 
Two things to watch. First, do not let a subscription lapse by accident. A lapsed license still runs on its last installed version, but you lose upgrade rights and reseller support, and reinstating later means paying back the years you missed. Second, if your licenses renew on scattered dates, ask about aligning them to a single renewal date. One renewal a year is easier to budget and much harder to miss.
2. Use the subscription benefits you already pay for
A subscription is more than the right to install next year's release. It includes technical support from your reseller, access to the SOLIDWORKS Knowledge Base and customer portal, and training resources most teams barely touch. If your engineers spent the year searching forums for answers, that is value left on the table.
Before you renew, ask your team two questions: when did we last open a support case, and when did anyone last take formal training? If the answer to both is "not sure," fix that in 2027.
3. Plan your upgrade to SOLIDWORKS Design 2027
SOLIDWORKS Design 2027 brings practical improvements rather than flash. Highlights include stamped geometry directly on sheet metal bend regions, grouped sketch relations that hold as geometry changes, automatic fastener cluster detection for patterns, and the option to group mated components without building formal subassemblies. BOM cleanup gets easier too, with one click reference numbers for identical instances.
Treat the upgrade as a project, not a weekend chore. Test on a pilot machine, confirm your add ins and PDM version are compatible, update templates and standards, and schedule the rollout around your production calendar. Upgrading PDM and CAD out of sequence is one of the most common causes of a rough January.
4. Plan seats and capacity for 2027
Look at next year's hiring plan, project load, and any upcoming contracts. Will you add designers? Do you need another Simulation seat, or is one sitting idle? Are reviewers and shop floor staff stuck waiting on engineers for drawings? This is also the time to review hardware. If several workstations are due for replacement, it is worth asking whether buying new machines is still the right model. 
Cut the year end IT burden
For many small teams, every item on this list lands on one senior engineer who doubles as the CAD admin. That is time pulled away from design work. MCAS (Managed CAD Administration Services) moves that work to Converge: planned annual upgrades, license optimization, user setup, and quarterly reviews, handled as a plan instead of a scramble. Teams that would rather stop managing servers and workstations altogether can host SOLIDWORKS and PDM through EpiGrid, with infrastructure and administration bundled into one predictable monthly service.
Neither is required for this checklist. They just mean you do not have to work through it alone.
Start 2027 with a plan
We will review your licenses, renewal dates, upgrade path, and seat needs with you and leave you with a clear plan for next year. No pressure, just a practical conversation with engineers who do this every day.
Schedule your 2027 planning session with Converge and head into the new year ready.
