onshape vs solidworks

gideonwaldner

I have been using on-shape in school for the last few year but i think i might switch over to solid-works my friend uses it and he let me try it out and after 10 mins I like it better then on-shape. i have been having a few issues with on-shape and might stay with it if i find out how to fix it.
here are the questions.
when extruding and it comes up red is there a way to see why its not working.
second Im 30 feet from a router and can watch 1080p videos on YouTube but a lot of the times it take forever to load on-shape documents  
third and final question is we have a small plasma and when i try and export dxf files they show up empty on our gcode converter 

adrian_vlzkz

You can try running the system check:

https://cad.onshape.com/check

mlaflecheCAD

@gideonwaldner once you run the system check and determine if your web browser is configured properly for Onshape, feel free to share me into a document that you have seeing any slowness on and we can compare.  Also, when exporting to DXF, there are a number of settings that you can try on export that may be compatible with your plasma.  Try a few combination out and see what works.  Are you exporting direct from the surface in a part studio or from a drawing?

MBartlett21

gideonwaldner said:

when extruding and it comes up red is there a way to see why its not working.

@gideonwaldner
You can hover over the feature title that is in red. It will pop up a box with the error message

steve_shubin

@gideonwaldner

1) YOU ASKED — When extruding and it comes up red, is there a way to see why it’s not working ?

Why don’t you post a link to the document your having a problem with so we could take a look at it. There are a lot of very knowledgeable people here in the forum that could probably help you on this

2) YOU SAID —  i’m 30 feet from a router and can watch 1080P videos on YouTube, but a lot of times it takes forever to load Onshape documents

I’d be curious to take a look at one of these documents that takes a long time to load. If you could post a link to one of these documents, others could see if they are having the same slow load times

john_mcclary

I've used Solidworks for years, Onshape doesn't have a few things SW dose, but what it has implemented. Works much better and with fewer bugs than SW.

In short, SW is a huge waste of money. You won't really see the big issues until your a week into the project and you start tangling the web of files and in-context references. The real way to use Solidworks is to avoid using all of it's the best features, like in-context for example, or ANYTHING parametric between two parts!!! I mean, sure you CAN use those features, but you will regret it every time.  Heaven forbid you open two assemblies with one of the parts having the same file name... lol good luck with that 😈

I mean, it isn't just SW, it is inherent problems associated with file based CAD. Removing files from the equation is the next leap forward for CAD, which is the foundation of Onshape. right now Onshape is the only pure database CAD, and the difference is massive when it comes to having a parametric design, not just a parametric hole related to the outside perimeter of a cube..

Edit (fixed misleading sentence above):

P.S.
You know the cloud model is starting to take over. Some of the big cad players are starting to give database (sort of) options now. Some of them are kind of pseudo-cloud. Basically files on a cloud drive. Onshape is the first and (afaik) the only pure cloud platform.  And if I had a dollar for every time I heard "F$#@ing SolidWorks" muttered throughout the day (by some of the biggest SW supporters / anti-Onshapers I work with), I could eat a steak for lunch every day

steve_shubin

@gideonwaldner

I’m pretty sure @john_mcclary made a typo.

I believe John was intending to say ... it is inherent problems associated with file based CAD, which is NOT the foundation of Onshape

I think John left the word NOT out of the sentence 

I believe John was intending to say that Onshape is not a file based CAD system but rather, Onshape uses a document-oriented database model

https://www.onshape.com/cad-blog/the-difference-between-files-and-databases-and-what-it-means-for-cad-and-product-design

And Gideon, you really should listen to what John says because this guy knows a tremendous amount about SolidWorks and Onshape — far more than I’ll ever know. I could only wish that I had his expertise in these things

john_mcclary

Thanks @steve_shubin that did sound weird after I read it again. Thankyou for clearing that up

gideonwaldner

john_mcclary said:

I've used Solidworks for years, Onshape doesn't have a few things SW dose, but what it has implemented. Works much better and with fewer bugs than SW.

In short, SW is a huge waste of money. You won't really see the big issues until your a week into the project and you start tangling the web of files and in-context references. The real way to use Solidworks is to avoid using all of it's the best features, like in-context for example, or ANYTHING parametric between two parts!!! I mean, sure you CAN use those features, but you will regret it every time.  Heaven forbid you open two assemblies with one of the parts having the same file name... lol good luck with that 😈

I mean, it isn't just SW, it is inherent problems associated with file based CAD. Removing files from the equation is the next leap forward for CAD, which is the foundation of Onshape. right now Onshape is the only pure database CAD, and the difference is massive when it comes to having a parametric design, not just a parametric hole related to the outside perimeter of a cube..

Edit (fixed misleading sentence above):

P.S.
You know the cloud model is starting to take over. Some of the big cad players are starting to give database (sort of) options now. Some of them are kind of pseudo-cloud. Basically files on a cloud drive. Onshape is the first and (afaik) the only pure cloud platform.  And if I had a dollar for every time I heard "F$#@ing SolidWorks" muttered throughout the day (by some of the biggest SW supporters / anti-Onshapers I work with), I could eat a steak for lunch every day






I wish onshape would have a offline version though that saved files until next time your device connected to wifi 

gideonwaldner

steve_shubin said:

@gideonwaldner

1) YOU ASKED — When extruding and it comes up red, is there a way to see why it’s not working ?

Why don’t you post a link to the document your having a problem with so we could take a look at it. There are a lot of very knowledgeable people here in the forum that could probably help you on this

2) YOU SAID —  i’m 30 feet from a router and can watch 1080P videos on YouTube, but a lot of times it takes forever to load Onshape documents

I’d be curious to take a look at one of these documents that takes a long time to load. If you could post a link to one of these documents, others could see if they are having the same slow load times

I’d be curious to take a look at one of these documents that takes a long time to load. If you could post a link to one of these documents, others could see if they are having the same slow load times

its a privet document but can i share it to you 

gideonwaldner

mlaflecheCAD said:

@gideonwaldner once you run the system check and determine if your web browser is configured properly for Onshape, feel free to share me into a document that you have seeing any slowness on and we can compare.  Also, when exporting to DXF, there are a number of settings that you can try on export that may be compatible with your plasma.  Try a few combination out and see what works.  Are you exporting direct from the surface in a part studio or from a drawing?

Everything works fine according to the compatibility check exept for my laptop has a inter-graded GPU would that cause it? 



can i share the document with you?

gideonwaldner

Thank you to everyone that commented (another thing thats a benefit of working with onshape) I will be sticking with onshape untill schools over then ill see what ill buy  

john_mcclary

Integrated GPU should be find for Onshape if you are making small/medium size projects.

By that I mean a bunch of simple shapes, like square plates with holes it them, rather than a car fender, a mesh, or a bunch of curvy fancy stuff.

Unfortunately desktop grade software is generally more hardware dependent. So what you see in Onshape will always perform faster than a Solidworks model if you are using an integrated GPU.
  
You will also be limited to one processor core at a time. So you are stuck regenerating / saving one thing at a time. Right Now I have 4 (similar) projects open. I am detailing them all at the same time, when one tab decides to be slow and needs a regen, I get it started then switch to the other tab and keep working. Which is another thing to consider if you like to multi-task.

Here, I tiled my active tabs so you can see what I mean.


And this is the message I get when I try to just "open" SolidWorks without even a part open..

gideonwaldner

would this be the reason im colabing with another student to make something and we picked this also this is not the laptop i use to design  

john_mcclary

That's true too, if you have more than 1 person you are collaborating with in Onshape, you will see slower regen times.

Although in Solidworks you simply cannot have the same model open without one person being in "read-only" mode

gideonwaldner

john_mcclary said:

That's true too, if you have more than 1 person you are collaborating with in Onshape, you will see slower regen times.

Although in Solidworks you simply cannot have the same model open without one person being in "read-only" mode

he made most of it and then I made a copy and now im finishing 

owen_sparks

Have a look into branching and merging, copies are bad in database CAD...

Cheers, Owen S.

peter_1776

There are some basic questions to ask before choosing which direction:

What is your primary usage? Hobby or own business?

Are you willing to pay for the software every year?

Do you work on files on different computers?

Do you want security of 'owning' your files?

Will others work with you on your files?

There are plenty of other questions to ask, but these are some that can get you started. I used to be very concerned about 'owning' my files, but am less so now. My meaning is if you choose Onshape, and down the road decide to change systems, you can download the dumb parasolids, but you will have to re-model your parts if you want to make a change. At least with Solidworks you could quickly do a revision (in Solidworks) of legacy parts, while using your new 3D CAD program to do new parts. That said, for us small guys, this scenario may not be something we will actually come across.

If you're running a business, the annual subscription fee is a reasonable cost, and the benefit of having all your 3D managed thru Onshape in the cloud is huge. For most situations, it more than overcomes any lack of capability in the software when compared to other packages.

john_mcclary

If you move from any cad system to another, you are very likely to be working with dumb solids anyway. Converting to native is an 'as necessary' thing.

I'm not sure what you are referring to with solidworks revisions being any different. I thought that was to modify legacy sw files to attempt to stay compatible with people using older sw versions.. Onshape is always compatible with itself and other systems.

But with Onshape, you don't need to fully re-model a dumb solid as much as you would in SW. It's direct editing tools are far better than SW.

Not to say SW can't ditect edit to the same 3 dimentional outcome as OS.. but you will spend twice as long mucking with SW just to find you need twice as many features on the tree.. so in many cases in SW it is better to re-model it native.

Example, import a generic belt conveyor in Onshape part studio, move face, window select one end, set a new distace set to a config variable, make composite part.

Want that as an assembly instead? Skip the composite part step, and create an assembly instead. Insert the entire part studio. Window select everything and 'group mate'. Fix one part to keep it stationary.

Now you have the entire catalogue of that conveyors lengths. 

Try that with SW.. it will take you a good part of a day. Each part will need to be configured separate. Each part will need to be mated in a sub assembly to move correctly. the sub assembly will need to have matching configs of each part, and you will need to match them all up.

If you try to do it multibody, you will need waaayy more than just 1 move face feature. And some move body features as well..


Now lets have the coveyors parasolid updated by the manufacturer. Onshape: just hit update on the parasolid you imported. Done..
SW: do it all again from scratch or make the changes manually. Then replace the part/assembly in all the other assemblies you reference it...

So if you are working along side other CAD systems.. hands down, Onshape wins by a landslide.