Has anyone used Onshape for projects while in college? How have professors reacted...

caroline_read

How has your work been? 
I'm moving to school soon and want to use this program so I don't need to buy the expensive versions of other CAD or download free student versions that I might not need.  Just looking for experiences.  

Stuart_Tod

@caroline_read ,

Just so you don't feel completely ignored....although this probably won't answer your question!

I'm in the situation of being a CAD user in work (SolidWorks), but in the past (and during my spare time) I'm an enthusiastic amateur inventor and tinkerer who loves envisaging ideas I have (mostly mechanical) on screen using a 3-D CAD package. I was lucky enough to have a daughter going through college who needed CAD too, so she went for the free student version of Inventor, which I was then also able to use on our home PC.

Had I had access to Onshape, I would have used that. It's much easier (more intuitive) to use than anything I have used in the past, and everything you learn in this package will carry over in your future career even if your employers/college use other CAD programs. Plus, if it keeps going the way it has up until now, then very possibly Onshape IS the future of 3-D modelling, and by the time you finish college everyone will be using it!

I now use Onshape at home in preference to Inventor, I can use it on my PC, or 'scratch' quick designs on a NoteBook, and just as quickly have a look at them in the office at lunchtime. No file transfer! No swapping licences! If you've never had to do that before, you won't quite understand how freeing that is for a creative mind. Draw up whatever you have just thought of, when you think of it, and refine it later. Unfortunately I can't use mine when driving the car, but I ought to put in a request for voice activated controls for my phone version so I can talk up a model while driving (just joking, officer....I think).

So - go for it. Get in on the ground floor now, read all the posts here on the forums and understand how a proper CAD package is being developed, what functionality the experienced and wiser heads on the forums are requesting, and learn that functionality while it's being developed. By the time you get through college you'll be one of those heads.

And have fun making anything you can imagine!

ben_basseches

Hi Caroline,

I just graduated from college this year, and have been using Onshape since September.  My experience is that most professors are open to letting students use whatever CAD package they would like for creating models/drawings for projects. Onshape has the ability to export documents in all major CAD formats so professors could view your models in whatever software they use. 

In the case of my CAD class, the professor asked everyone to use solidworks (licenses were provided by my school) for their project submissions because that's what he was familiar with and what he was teaching in the class, however he encouraged me to continue using Onshape for comparison and to share it with the class.  He recognized that web-based CAD (like Onshape) is the future of 3D CAD because it streamlines collaboration and provides the flexibility of accessing documents anywhere without file transfers.  I think my entire class realized this when we had to work on a large collaborative project using solidworks, which required constantly sharing files back and forth using a Product Data Management (PDM) system.  Had we been using Onshape, we would have been able to see and work off of eachothers' progress throughout the project without ever having to manually share files.

In short, I think it's a great idea for you to start using Onshape now.  I believe you will find it very useful for any personal CAD work you need to do for projects, and a good way to learn CAD.  I expect most professors will be happy to let you use it (especially if they do not provide free licenses for another software) for class work.  If professors are not familiar with Onshape, which I expect they soon will be, you will be able to show them the advantages it offers.

Hope that helps!

-Ben

caroline_read

Thanks for "not ignoring" me @Stuart_Tod and @benjamin_basseches245

I'm really excited to see how using OS goes in my engineering courses, I've been using it for a few months now and have learned a lot.  It's much easier to pick up than Inventor or SolidWorks have been in the past for me.  Probably because OS is so similar yet different.  

My college has a lot of computer labs that have more mainstream CAD programs on them but if the lab is full than I'd be out of luck, or if one computer has the newer edition than the other.  Also, if this is becoming the standard, you're right that getting in at the ground floor will absolutely be great moving forward.

OS downloaded to SW has worked really well for me.  I've mostly  had to do it when I needed to make a drawing of a part so I'm excited for the drawings feature to come to beta.