Best Of

When I add a hole, OnShape will auto-populate the merge scope of that hole. Sometimes this is useful, other times it extends the merge of the hole well beyond what I want it to be, which can be frustrating to have to delete multiple items from the merge scope list when I just want the hole to go all the way through one or two parts, not every part that hole could theoretically touch in a continuous straight line.

Further, there have been multiple times where I've gone in to edit the parameters/dimensions/etc of a hole, and after making those edits, the merge scope changes itself to include more parts. This is incredibly frustrating and has led to multiple instances where that change in merge scope causes problems in other parts that I don't catch until much later into the design process (one time after a small edit request by a machinist almost led to a catastrophe when that hole change edited multiple parts it wasn't previously set to edit).

Is there a way to turn this off? I'd much rather just have to manually select the relevant parts every time I make a hole instead of risking these problems.

Currently, for our internal ECN and NPI processes, we really only use the Released management fuctions but have two custom properties: one for "Approvers" and one for "Approval Date," as we require external customer approval frequently. We also have a custom property for the ECN/NPI reference, which is shown in our revision table.

The details of an ECN/NPI are tracked using Smartsheet forms, which monitor reference numbers, stages, and other relevant information.

One of the challenges we face with Onshape is that to have non-CAD users (such as approvers) involved in the approval process, you need to have an Enterprise account. However, since we need approval from many external customers, this setup doesn’t work for us, and we’ve had to find workarounds.

A little off topic but additionally, from my past experience, very few PLM/MES/ERP software providers cater to SMEs without requiring a large upfront commitment. Most providers I’ve contacted expect a minimum purchase of five licenses, which makes it difficult for small businesses like ours. Even Arena, which integrates well with Onshape, has this same limitation, and that’s been quite disappointing.

That's what we do, but using a template in MS Office 365.

There is no integration between OS and any other system at my company. We have an ERP system and had 2 companies come in to show us how to integrate OS with it. They were both outrageous money, something like 10-15k per year. Way more than OS, and I think more than the ERP system.

We are a very small startup, with only 3 CAD licenses.