Onshape

Score7.6 out of 10

79 Reviews and Ratings

What is Onshape?

Onshape is a cloud-native product development platform with integrated CAD, data management and analytics. Onshape aims to accelerate time to market and improve innovation by:

1) Access: Unlike file-based CAD which is on-premise only, Onshape enables remote access for designers and engineers from anywhere, and on any internet-connected device -including tablets and smart phones.

2) Collaboration: Onshape aims to eliminate the version control problems and blocking of file-based CAD and PDM systems by enabling real-time, simultaneous access and collaboration for designers and engineers.

The vendor boasts over 2 million users who work in Onshape to modernize and streamline their product development cycle. According to the vendor, Onshape users in 170+ countries have logged over 6 million hours modeling advanced robotics, biomedical devices, industrial machinery, agriculture equipment, and consumer products. Onshape is designed to be an anywhere, anytime CAD system. The vendor reports that 1 in 8 sessions occur on mobile devices.

Founded in 2012, the Onshape leadership team includes the original creators of SOLIDWORKS® and other leaders in cloud infrastructure, data security, and mobile. PTC purchased Onshape in 2019.

Categories & Use Cases

Gaurav Chakraborty View profile

R&D Engineer in Research & Development at PREMO (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Modular software, great customer support, easy to work, doesn't consume much data space easy to communicate between various simulation softwares.

Pros

Design
Analysis
Optimization

Cons

Importing Solidworks documents without issues

Return on Investment

Cost
Time
File sharing

Other Software Used

CATIA, SOLIDWORKS, Autodesk Inventor

Majd Sukkarieh View profile

CAD/CAM Specialist in Manufacturing at ngen squared (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

At ngen squared we use Onshape for both generic conceptual design/rendering and design-assist for design-build projects in the construction and manufacturing spaces. The problems we faced before are difficult client project coordination, chaotic document management, lack of out-of-the-box intelligent CAD tools, high CAD down-time and high cost with other CAD software. Onshape solves these problems.

Pros

Fast opening and closing of application
Amazing solid and surface extrusion features
Amazing document sharing features
Amazing revision management features

Cons

Dealing with physically larger model (100 meters to 200 meters dimensions)
Replacing identical duplicate part features easily in Assembly tab

Most Important Features

Revision management
Cloud sharing
Part Studio design method

Return on Investment

Positive ROI for services and prototyping

Alternatives Considered

CATIA and SOLIDWORKS

Andrew Defever

Teacher in Engineering at Big Rapids Public Schools (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Students use Onshape to learn basic CAD skills and designing parts for additive manufacturing. They use mostly basic functionality of the software, but do utilize the collaborative component. As the teacher the monitoring and support aspects are developing and getting much better than when I was first introduced to the program. I can now send students starter documents and set up collaborate groups. I don't limit available features, but I know that is also available. The biggest problem for me that this program addresses is it's capability to operate completely within a web browser. Most students only have school chromebooks that don't have the memory space to support a downloaded program so being able to access through a web browser is a big plus despite any limitations that creates.

Pros

Ability for user to collaborate on documents.
Ease of access to all documents from any web connected device.
Straightforward and easy to navigate user interface within document.

Cons

Administrative page for enterprise users is hard to add users or change user permissions.
Alerts for failed features are sometimes difficult to find.

Return on Investment

Improved access to design software with platform being 100% onlie
Recent release of content built for Onshape has lessened learning curve.
Increased IT issues over desktop based program.

Other Software Used

Autodesk Fusion 360, Autodesk Inventor

Keegan Schoch View profile

Co-Founder/Engineer in Engineering at Poindexter by Design (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are a web-based mechanical engineering services company, providing anything from technical drawings through complex machine design and analysis. In order to seamlessly integrate with companies' teams, having cloud-based CAD is almost a necessity. Passing local copies of files back and forth is inefficient, error-prone, and, frankly, just not fun. Onshape's cloud-based CAD system addresses all of these issues. Additionally, the transition from other nodal-based CAD was easy and we now prefer it over any other software we have used, not just for its cloud-based infrastructure.

Pros

Cloud-based infrastructure and collaboration is a primary benefit.
The available documentation is extremely thorough.
The ability to integrate with other software for simulation, renderings, etc. is fantastic.
Not having to save and being able to clearly see versions and change history is excellent.

Cons

Some of the hole callout features in drawings are very limited.
I have noticed some speed issues in larger assembly drawings.
Click responsiveness of dimensions within drawings.
Cut list flexibility is constrained to frames-only components.

Return on Investment

Improved productivity and client satisfaction
Integration with other companies' engineering teams

Other Software Used

SimScale, SOLIDWORKS, AutoCAD LT

Mike Hudzik View profile

Senior Staff Engineer in Engineering at Poindexter By Design (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Poindexter By Desing utilizes Onshape to seamlessly collaborate design work with other company's engineers in real time.

Pros

Second to none streamlined design collaboration. There is no down time waiting for files to be saved and shared or emailed. Whether you're working with a fellow engineer in the same office or across the globe, it is all the same with Onshape!
There are several unique features Onshape provides that other CAD software will never be able to. The big one that comes to mind is the in-context editing. Have you ever found yourself designing and flipping back and forth from part to assembly and then back to the part to take measurements to drive part level features for fit? No more my fellow engineers! Onhsape allows you to do what is called in-context editing, it is a tool that allows you to drive part level features and dimensions directly from the assembly level! I highly recommend you learn more about this and the many other features only Onshape can provide your engineering toolbox!
Documentation management! I cannot say enough good things about how Onshape gives you the ability to organize a design into tabs, folders, documents, and document folders. The ability to control different permissions such as editing, or view only is fantastic! Easily apply these permissions to teams or individuals to employees within your organization or more importantly, with customers who don't even have an Onshape account!

Cons

Dimensioning a hole feature in a drawing when there are multiple holes, the hole count does not parametrically update. For example, when there are 3x of the same hole, Onshape forces you to manually type in 3x instead of parametrically populating the hole count. This gets very dangerous if say, one of the 3x holes changes but you forget to update the 3x to 2x. Other CAD software does provide this.
I know Onshape provides guidance on performance considerations and how to structure a project through their literature, however, a dedicated video from Onshape that directly addresses the guidelines on how to minimize file load and reload times would be beneficial to all future and current Onshape users. I think they should incorporate this directly in their training. Poindexter by Design went through the growing pains of this issue but through the Onshape literature and our own experiences we've developed guidelines on how to keep our Onshape performance maximized!

Return on Investment

Poindexter By Design provides on demand mechanical engineering services and Onshape is directly responsible for a large portion of our customer base because of how easy it is to share and collaborate design projects. In most cases, we are literally up and running on new projects within an hour directly due to Onshape.
It is inevitable that a project will go through some level of scope creep. Poindexter By Design had a project with a 4-week deadline. Initially, we scheduled two engineers on the project but when the project's scope creep set in and the original deadline didn't change, we were very quickly and easily able to bring on a 3rd Poindexter By Design engineer on the project to handle the scope creep and still meet the deadline. Onshape gives our company the ability to very quickly increase our capacity on design projects with little to no effort and to us, this is priceless.

Other Software Used

SOLIDWORKS, AutoCAD LT

Onshape