Best Of

This is how I would like to see it work. That's a great system.

This on one hand is true, but realistically quite insular. The prime/bulk of your Onshape users (the people doing the work) are happy and enjoy the tool! (like me)

The giant umbrella of users that we might want to share our Onshape data with include grumpy sour toolmakers that use their own tool, and look at your link with a "what in the fresh hell is this crap?" point of view. In my Solidworks days I had shouting matches with graybeard engineers over Multi-body models (they forbade them, I wanted to use them). I think you might not have a full grasp of the people we might want to try and work with. They Do Not want to use your shiny new thing. They hate new stuff, are tired of learning it, and absolutely aren't making an account on your behalf. In this light, we need a PAINFULLY easy way to securely share, preferably with a splash screen with (I'm not joking) how to pan and view a model or be slightly oriented. I've had conversations with vendors where they tried for 10 seconds and then gave up, or were scared they were messing it up, or were confused on what was being shared with them…. etc. (Part Studio, Document, branch, version there's a lot there if you've never seen any of it before).

I think fundamentally the Onshape share button is super valuable and enables a lot — but it is built for CAD users, and best for people who are familiar with Onshape. The corollary to google docs is relevant here too, everyone knows what they're opening when they click a google doc link. There is no explanation necessary. But sharing CAD data at the document level with someone not familiar with Onshape is just not practical in my experience. We have resorted to exporting PDFs and part solids or assemblies, it is the fastest and least painful way to share with vendors.

Building on the UltraLight user theme above ^^ I am imagining some kind of view that is similar to what you see when you build a release but is like a 'review'? Where the viewport has no context of where this component/assembly/drawing package came from, but you can view it with all the normal tools, add comments, etc. It shows no details on any other tabs, or version history. It kind of sounds like a publication, but those are Tab-centric, and not very useful in my experience. And I'm talking like export level easy. Select objects, right click, 'start review', toggle how many times the link can be opened, and how long it can remain open, and you can send a link to this view to get feedback. If it's not that easy, people won't use it.

@robert_johnston I had a few reasons for switching back:

• Everything for app dev or game dev seemed to need some small work around. On Windows, it just works. I could make things work though.
• The M2 Air wasn't powerful enough for me. A Pro probably would have been fine from a performance point of view.
• Apple doesn't support any games! 😱 (Or rather no one makes games for Apple) And the M2 chip doesn't support intel. So even the windows emulations or parallels wouldn't work well, I tried them all.

@robert_johnston

I have been running a Mac for quite a while.

Onshape and all browsers and any actual cloud-based systems seem to work fine.

I use 3Dconnexion devices, and while they work relatively well, expect to see a few glitches that are not an issue on Windows. (see the 3D connexion forum)

Most programs that have a Mac version seem to run fine. The bugs and glitches that you find will often be different than on Windows and, at times, not as well supported. I use Fusion a little (and dislike it), but it behaves differently on Mac vs. Windows. Expect a similar experience with any locally installed Cad.

I don't use Microsoft, so I can't give any thoughts on that.

Do research and buy a Mac that supports multiple monitors, and that will be a non-issue.