NI Community Edition Software Usage Details

Overview

LabVIEW Community edition and G Web Development Software Community edition may only be used for your personal, non-commercial, non-industrial purposes. You may not use the Software for teaching or research at a degree-granting educational institution. For exact details, see the NI General-Purpose Software License Agreement, Addendum F (the "online terms"). General guidance for multiple use cases is provided below. Kindly note that NI may change its NI General-Purpose Software License Agreement terms from time to time, and in any case of inconsistencies between the online terms and the terms presented herein, the online terms shall take precedence.  

Contents

General Guidance on Use

Non-Commercial, Non-Industrial Purposes

In general, noncommercial and nonindustrial references any use case that is not intended to make a profit. LabVIEW Community edition and G Web Development Software Community edition are intended for personal projects.  Here are some examples:

  • Home hobbyist projects
  • Making free, open-source projects or add-ons for the community to reuse
  • Using LabVIEW to study for an upcoming certification
  • Using LabVIEW at home to keep skills sharp or try out new ideas outside of work

     

K-12 (Primary & Secondary School) Use Cases

LabVIEW Community edition and G Web Development Software Community edition may be used:

  • For all primary and secondary schools (K-12)
  • For clubs and competitions (such as FIRST Robotics) outside of K-12 education

General Guidance on Restricted Use

Commercial, Industrial Purposes

Using LabVIEW Community edition and G Web Development Software Community edition at a place of business or to create test systems, exe. files, toolkits, or other items that you intend to make money from, directly or indirectly, is not allowed. In these situations, purchased software licenses must be used. Examples of situations where community edition software cannot be used include, but are not limited to:

  • Professional engineering work done for your company, solo, or otherwise
  • Professional engineering work done at your home
  • Professional consulting
  • Projects created for a startup

     

Teaching or Research at Degree-Granting Educational Institutions

Purchased Academic Volume Licenses or individual LabVIEW or G Web Development Software licenses are required to use LabVIEW for teaching and academic research at degree granting institutions. Academic Volume Licenses also include access to additional LabVIEW modules and toolkits typically used for academic research and teaching, which are not included with LabVIEW or G Web Development Software Community editions. LabVIEW or G Web Development Software Community editions are not for use at degree-granting institutions such as universities, vocational schools, and certification programs.

LabVIEW and G Web Development Software Community editions cannot be used for the following use cases:

  • Teaching a course
  • Academic research

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: "How can I activate community edition software?"
A: Activate NI Community Edition Software using the NI user account that you signed in with when downloading the software.

Q: "How long does the license for LabVIEW Community edition last?"
A: LabVIEW Community edition is a one-year renewable license that starts when you activate LabVIEW Community edition on your computer. At the end of each annual period, you can return to your ni.com profile and renew the LabVIEW Community edition license for another year by navigating to LabVIEW Community Edition and selecting Renew Your License.

Q: “I’m a high school teacher and a LabVIEW advocate – I’ve created some LabVIEW apps to help run some experiments. Can I use the new LabVIEW Community Edition?”
A: Yes. Non-commercial primary/secondary school uses are allowed by the LabVIEW Community Edition licensing.

Q: “I’m a professor teaching an undergraduate signal processing course and I use LabVIEW to demonstrate filtering concepts. I require that my students use LabVIEW for various homework and labs. Should they install and use LabVIEW Community edition?”
A: No. As a post-secondary degree granting institution, you should have an Academic Volume License with enough seats to cover the class attendance, which also allows students to install/activate on their own computers via the Student Install Option and ensures access to needed modules/toolkits not included in the LabVIEW Community edition.

Q: “I’m the student president of our college campus biomedical engineering club. We use LabVIEW to design and test new cost-effective devices for developing countries pro-bono. Is this use included in the LabVIEW Community edition license?"
A: Yes. Even though this is being used at a post-secondary degree granting institution, the use is outside of a formal classroom setting, not required as part of a course, and is being used for non-commercial purposes.

Q: “I’m a student at university and we are taught how to use LabVIEW software in the classroom. I like to tinker at home with LabVIEW because it’s fun. Is this use included in the LabVIEW Community edition license?”
A: Yes. Even though this is being used at a post-secondary degree granting institution, the use is outside of a formal classroom setting and not required as part of a course.

Q: “I’m a student at university and we are taught how to use LabVIEW in the classroom. I’d like to use LabVIEW for homework assignments which I like to do at home, but I can’t get access to the labs on campus to do this homework. Should I use the LabVIEW Community edition license?”
A: No. Since the use is part of your enrollment in a post-secondary degree granting institution, your university should have an Academic Volume License with enough seats to cover the class attendance and that allows students to install/activate on their own computers using the Student Install Option.

Q: “I’m a professional engineer and use LabVIEW as part of my day-to-day role in test software development. I’d like to use LabVIEW on the weekend for fun home projects. Is this use included in the LabVIEW Community edition license?”
A: Yes, provided the home projects are not connected to any work-related activity.

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