Onshape

4.5 (314)
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Full-cloud 3D CAD system for design teams

About Onshape

Onshape is a 3D CAD solution designed for agile design & engineering teams, with complete functionality for modeling parts and assemblies, and creating production drawings. The built-in version control and collaboration tools allow multiple users to work on the same data without overwriting each other’s edits, and enables the performance of tasks in parallel to compress design cycles.

Onshape automatically records all design steps, creating a full audit trail of changes with details of exactly what was changed and by whom. Previous design versions can be restored, allowing users to compare and explore design variations, and recover from any mistakes. User access permissions can be edited or revoked at any time, and notifications are automatically generated when documents are shared, versioned, or commented on.

Onshape includes an open-source programming language, FeatureScript, which allows users to create custom features. Native CAD data can be read from a number of applications, including SOLIDWORKS®, Rhinoceros®, CATIA®, Creo®, Autodesk Inventor®, and Autodesk AutoCAD®, and Onshape can write native SOLIDWORKS®, Rhinoceros®, and AutoCAD® data. Users can upload and store data in any format within document tabs, and view TXT, PDF, JPEG, PNG, MOV, and MP4 files natively.


Key benefits of Onshape

  • All design steps are recorded, creating an audit trail of changes, and previous design versions can be restored to compare variations and recover from mistakes.

  • When modeling parts, users can directly resize holes and fillets, move or replace faces, delete surfaces, and simultaneously edit multiple parts.

  • Custom features can be created using Onshape’s open-source programming language, FeatureScript.

  • Onshape’s assembly modeling capabilities include assembly restructuring, in-context editing of parts, mechanical relations definition, snap mating, dynamic assembly motion, and more.

  • Onshape can read and write files in a range of formats, including SOLIDWORKS®, Rhinoceros®, and Autodesk AutoCAD® data, and allows users to store data in any file format within documents, with native viewing of TXT, PDF, JPEG, PNG, MOV, and MP4 files.

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    Reviews

    Overall rating

    4.5 /5
    (314)
    Value for Money
    4.5/5
    Features
    4.1/5
    Ease of Use
    4.5/5
    Customer Support
    4.6/5

    Already have Onshape?

    Software buyers need your help! Product reviews help the rest of us make great decisions.

    Showing 5 reviews of 314
    Favio
    Favio
    Overall rating
    • Industry: Architecture & Planning
    • Company size: 2–10 Employees
    • Used Daily for Free Trial
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Value for Money
    • Ease of Use
    • Customer Support
    • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

    Accessible and efficient software for Architectural design. Great Cloud service

    Reviewed on 2022/12/26

    We had a good experience in the little time we used it, but as it was taking us more than usual to...

    We had a good experience in the little time we used it, but as it was taking us more than usual to learn, and we needed to finish our projects faster, we decided to migrate to another software.

    Pros

    The best part is their customer support. They can help you almost immediately if you ever have a problem. The cloud data they offer is really helpful to develop projects in teams and constantly upload new data to it. The changes are saved to the version history which is really helpful to review past versions if needed.

    Cons

    The only thing that I find as a con, is the learning curve. You might need to have a person that already uses this software to teach your team in order to learn correctly. It's not the hardest but as it is not the most known or used, you might find it hard.

    David
    Overall rating
    • Industry: Railroad Manufacture
    • Company size: 2–10 Employees
    • Used Weekly for 6-12 months
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Value for Money
    • Ease of Use
    • Customer Support
    • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

    Has the possibility to be the new CAD paradigm like SolidWorks was back in 96 when I left 2D...

    Reviewed on 2017/08/15

    No real benefits yet, but hopeful.

    No real benefits yet, but hopeful.

    Pros

    Support is responsive, pricing is fine, love the 'pay by the use' subscription format for advanced features seldom used like FEA. Will be a great all around CAD platform for small flexible companies like ours when its fully featured. I'm very interested in seeing what CAD designed without 20 years of baggage will look like when OnShape is mature.

    For the amateur, hobbyist, and students; Onshape should be the first system they learn on. Back in the day I used to steer these people to Alibre when asked for a 3D CAD recommendation because they likely couldn't justify the high entry price of SolidWorks and its maintenance. My hope is that Onshape gets this market and most of the small businesses like ours.

    I do recommend that Onshape come up with a lower tier plan between free and the current paid plan that allows really small organizations to grow in their financial commitment over time. Something token priced per user limited to forum support and limited cloud memory for a longer term test drive. This could accelerate Onshapes replacement of SW because small commercial users can start experimenting without the public files. Picture rouge Engineers in a company already paying for SW that might want to show something to management and shouldn't have to pay per month personally to keep a small amount of company files private!

    Cons

    OnShape is not quite ready for us to use on our bigger projects. Like watching the Matrix movies I'm dying to figure out how they keep 'branches' and the current 'versioning' paradigms and also allow part and assembly configurations that should not require an exact linear history. I really hope they do better than the Matrix movies in closing the loop.

    If they were more open about when we could expect 'configurations' to be ready, my team might be able to jump to bigger projects sooner. But modeling without 'configurations' is really hard for those of us who grew up on SW. It is the king of all built in work-arounds in my design methodology and the longer I try doing things in Onshape the more I realize configurations are a key requirement of mine.

    They also need to get conical and cylindrical sheet metal as this is sending me back to SolidWorks on some simple jobs I should have gotten done in Onshape, even without configurations.

    I have less Pros than Cons to talk about at the moment, but my true feelings are demonstrated by the fact that I'm still investing my time in using the software as much as I can, I'm hoping that this can be our primary CAD system in the next 6 to 24 months. SW didn't have that much to offer by 1998 so OnShape is likely comparable in its advancement along this path.

    Jeremy
    Overall rating
    • Industry: Mechanical or Industrial Engineering
    • Company size: 11–50 Employees
    • Used Daily for 6-12 months
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Value for Money
    • Ease of Use
    • Customer Support
    • Likelihood to recommend 0.0 /10

    Fairly easy to use after a lot of training. Extremely frustrating at times. Sad emoji.

    Reviewed on 2018/02/15

    none that i could not get in a more professional software

    none that i could not get in a more professional software

    Pros

    The fastener mate command is useful. I also like the documentation set up. It makes it easy to find parts specific to an assembly I create. They finally implemented the configuration option which is helpful. That is about it though

    Cons

    I do not like part studio set up. Inserting parts into a part studio get extremely frustrating when I insert said part studio into an assembly and it inserts all the parts in the part studio without their orientation towards each other and they do not follow the tramsform command. It also inserts the parts individually. I also loathe that when (about 20% of the time) I make a drawing for an assembly it does not transfer all the information and will add lines that are not there and omit lines that should be there. From a production stand point this is impossible to work around and makes our documentation look like a joke. Their customer service told me they are working on it over 2 months ago and it still happens and then they told me I needed to remove all the hardware (about 100 pieces) one at a time until i found the culprit. They also told me to leave it out in the drawing which also doesn't work for me. The branching of workflows is also frustrating when multiple people are working on something and the document will not allow a merge. The document ends up being left and no one knows which branch is active.

    Joshua
    Overall rating
    • Industry: Research
    • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
    • Used Daily for 2+ years
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Value for Money
    • Ease of Use
    • Customer Support
    • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

    Excellenty CAD collaboration platform.

    Reviewed on 2021/04/20

    We are a non-profit research university, so we use their Education license. The ability to get all...

    We are a non-profit research university, so we use their Education license. The ability to get all the players in an instrument design on the same digital document is invaluable to us!

    Pros

    The collaborative features allow us to work in remote teams, often on different continents and time zones. Visual communication crosses language barriers better than any other means we know of.

    Cons

    The lack of well-integrated CAM makes the final step in engineering solutions a bit harder than some other packages.

    Alternatives Considered

    SolidWorks Premium

    Reasons for Switching to Onshape

    Price, collaborative capapbilites
    Verified Reviewer
    Overall rating
    • Industry: Information Technology & Services
    • Company size: 201–500 Employees
    • Used Weekly for 2+ years
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Ease of Use
    • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

    Onshape is awesome

    Reviewed on 2019/09/16

    Pros

    I love the combination of direct editing with parametric modeling. The options opened up with direct editing is simply amazing. I often work in my job with models that came for outside of my organization, leaving me without the full feature history to work with, so direct editing is a game changer.

    The cloud based access is also incredibly helpful. I’m no longer tied to a particular device to access my models. Working in the office, at home or on road, it doesn’t matter. I wondered at first if working in a browser would be tough given that cad programs are so computationally heavy, but I have never had an issue.

    Cons

    The only time I’ve wished I had a feature not available was when I needed a font that wasn’t available.

    Showing 5 reviews of 314 Read all reviews

    Onshape FAQs

    Below are some frequently asked questions for Onshape.

    Onshape offers the following pricing plans:

    • Starting from: US$1,500.00/year
    • Pricing model: Free Version, Subscription
    • Free Trial: Available

    Onshape's Standard plan for individuals is $1,500 per user, per year. Onshape's Professional plan for design teams is $2,100 per user, per year. Free versions (not for commercial use) are available for students, educators, and open source & public design projects.

    Onshape has the following typical customers:

    2–10, 11–50, 51–200, 201–500, 501–1,000, 1,001–5,000

    Onshape supports the following languages:

    Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese

    Onshape supports the following devices:

    Android (Mobile), iPhone (Mobile), iPad (Mobile)

    Onshape integrates with the following applications:

    Cadasio, Capital Electra X, Duro, ESPRIT, KeyShot, Mastercam, OnScale Solve, OpenBOM, SimScale, SimSolid, SprutCAM

    Onshape offers the following support options:

    Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Chat

    Related categories

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