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Onshape is the leader in innovative professional CAD
December 19, 2017

Onshape is the leader in innovative professional CAD

R. Dirk Price | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Onshape

We use Onshape in the engineering organization. The great thing about Onshape is that we can share our CAD information with anyone and receive feedback and they don't need to have an Onshape account. The biggest solution Onshape offers is professional grade, engineering CAD. It is used to create designs for tooling fixtures, production line layouts, and representative models of equipment on the manufacturing floor. It is a useful tool for communicating visual information to upper management when working on projects.
  • One strength of Onshape is that it is truly portable. Onshape runs in a web browser, so it isn't tied to a specific computer and doesn't require specialized hardware. Also, Onshape has full CAD functionality in a mobile app as well, so I can take my designs on the production floor and edit them on my smartphone.
  • Onshape also allows complete collaboration. Multiple designers/engineers/CAD users can be designing in the same workspace at the same time. Everything is updated in real time, so I always know what is happening and what changes are being made.
  • Onshape can accept many different file types and can export the most common file types. There isn't any issue with file incompatibility, ever.
  • Onshape is fairly new, so it is still adding features. There is a new, relevant update about every 3 weeks.
  • Since Onshape is run in the cloud, if you lose internet connection, as my company does fairly frequently, you are stuck until connection is restored.
  • There are some very useful features that other CAD systems have that Onshape hasn't yet implemented. The drawings in Onshape are the weakest point so far. There are many features that I would like to see implemented in drawings, but things are still in development.
  • Because of how Onshape is written and run, it does not run in microsoft browsers.
  • Onshape is a great value. Instead of purchasing any seat of our desktop-installed CAD system, we spent $2000-$3000 per year less to purchase an Onshape license
  • Solidworks, Solidedge and Bobcad
Onshape is a good competitor against other CAD systems. Solidworks and Solidedge still have more features than Onshape, but the gap is shrinking every 3 weeks. There are still some drawing features that have kept my supervisor from switching completely to Onshape himself, but they are certainly in the works. We decided to try Onshape primarily because of the cost difference for our rotating supply of interns. I have continued to use Onshape because I enjoy the versatility of the product and the flexibility of the workflows that it allows.
Onshape is an incredible collaboration tool. If you have a design team and work on your own product designs, Onshape will excel for your organization. That is where you can really take advantage of the cloud architecture. It is less useful when you are working on projects individually, but still incredibly powerful. Onshape is also great for manufacturing engineers because it can be taken onto the factory floor and easily put to use creating tooling fixtures right at the machine.