Nitty Gritty details of free plan.

james_mcpherson11762

Firstly: I want to pay for Onshape. I'm a maker and can't justify the pro-plan. I'm no pro. 

So Im stuck with the 100mb free plan.

What at happens when I create a new private document with 99mb in my private documents? Does my ability to work stop when 100mb is reached?

What happens IN TOTAL if you have exceeded 100mb in your 10 files(if that is possible)? Can I still edit them?

When I'm over my limit, how does Onshape decide what to delete?

-Jim

Alex_57

One option would be for you t export (i.e. back up) all of your Onshape files to your hard drive in the format of your choice from what is available and then you work with only as many files at a time as fit in the 100MB limit.  
Alex

david_sohlstrom

Alex
That is all well and good if you never want to make any changes to those parts in the future. When you export a part you loose the history and if you load it back into OS you can't go back and edit it. It is just a dumb part.

Dave 

michael3424

As I understand it, Onshape only exports dumb solids right now.  If that is the case, then it will be difficult to make design revisions on projects that have been exported to local storage and then imported back into Onshape at some later point.

Has (or will) document activation/inactivation been removed from the free plan?

john_mceleney

@michael3424 @david_sohlstrom Please take a look at the plan changes/ FAQ this describes things in detail  (https://www.onshape.com/free-plan-changes)
John

billy2

Jim-

I'm curious why you don't make your work public? Why is privacy such a big deal?

I have to have privacy due to NDA's.

3dcad

@john_mceleney
 One part of @james_mcpherson11762 question remains unanswered: If you have 7 private documents and in the middle of modeling you reach 100mb private limit - what happens?

andrew_troup

michael3424 said:

<snip>

Has (or will) document activation/inactivation been removed from the free plan?

john_mceleney said:

@michael3424 @david_sohlstrom Please take a look at the plan changes/ FAQ this describes things in detail  (https://www.onshape.com/free-plan-changes)
John

Hmmm.... you might want to look more closely at that link, @john_mceleney.
The words "active" and "inactive" do not appear in either of the places cited.

The opening page makes it look as though the future deal is equal or better "value" in every respect, than the present deal.

The FAQ details the future deal only, with no reference to the present free plan, and certainly does not address "what has been removed". 

james_mcpherson11762

billy said:

Jim-

I'm curious why you don't make your work public? Why is privacy such a big deal?

I have to have privacy due to NDA's.

@billy "Why is privacy a big deal"... Oh man, I could write a book on that question. I'd say it doesn't matter. Why do you care if what I make I want to be private? That is wholly my call. I'm willing to pay for privacy, just not at the rate Onshape demands ($100/month). Even though it doesn't matter, I'll answer you: I make guns on my garage CNC machine. I make silencers, and short barreled shotguns. Everything I do is legal, but I don't want it on my concience if someone uses my designs to do something illegal. Is that good enough?

@3dcad you are exactly right... No answer yet to what happens when you exceed 100mb while using a private document. This is a very broad reaching question given how many individual parts can go in one document. 

-Jim

dave_c

@james_macpherson11762 Darren Henry has answered elsewhere on another discussion that you can continue to edit your private document privately.  You cannot create additional private documents when you are over one of the free limits.

michael3424

john_mceleney said:

@michael3424 @david_sohlstrom Please take a look at the plan changes/ FAQ this describes things in detail  (https://www.onshape.com/free-plan-changes)
John

As @andrew_troup pointed out neither the subject of activated vs inactivated documents are addressed in that link or the associated FAQ.  Apparently those have been disappeared from the free plan and I am disappointed at that prospect and more importantly at Onshape's failure to address this forthrightly.  My previous concern in the free plan was with the 100 MB storage limit, but I see now that is probably not the major issue I'd thought previously.  Being limited to 10 private documents without the possibility of activation/inactivation is now starting to look like a deal breaker to me.  I can live with it for simple "maker"-type projects but occasionally take on outside design work and that currently generates far less income than is needed to justify $1200 per year for the Pro plan.

Hopefully, at some point in the future Onshape will have a business case for offering a middle tier - I'd much rather give you guys that money than continue giving it to GeoMagic.  

james_mcpherson11762

dave_c said:

@james_macpherson11762 Darren Henry has answered elsewhere on another discussion that you can continue to edit your private document privately.  You cannot create additional private documents when you are over one of the free limits.

Really? Thank you. That is very interesting. If that is truly the case, then 100mb is actually no limit at all since I can have 100 workspaces within a single document. Just name that document private, do each project in a new workspace, and forget that 100mb exists, because it doesn't. 

-Jim

3dcad

dave_c said:

@james_macpherson11762 Darren Henry has answered elsewhere on another discussion that you can continue to edit your private document privately.  You cannot create additional private documents when you are over one of the free limits.

So what happens when you reach 5gb? Or in other words, can there be a situation that free users cad just freeze and can't create more features - or do you just receive email that you have reached the limit and should think about going pro?

Darren_A_Henry

@3dcad

Currently there is no mechanism within Onshape that will cause the CAD to freeze.  But to be clear - the private data limit of the Free Plan is 100MB. Once a person exceeds the private data limit he/she is expected to upgrade to the Professional Plan.  

james_mcpherson11762

So you'll disable my account if I go over 100mb? Where is that documented?

3dcad

@darren_henry
Thanks for clarification. 

I think I have reached my 100mb limit talking about plans and limits
I rest my case.

andrew_troup

In the past there has been pressure brought to bear on Onshape on this forum by users pointing out the much larger amounts of free storage available in other contexts.

I personally think this is an irrelevant red herring, in the Onshape context.

It seems to me that Onshape are limiting the free storage not because of what storage costs them, but because of what CAD development costs them.

They do not recover those development costs in ANY other way than from Pro users, so it does not make sense for them to continue to offer almost the same convenience and capacity to free users as to Pro.

james_mcpherson11762

Totally agree Andrew. I don't want more out of the free plan than they will offer with this new plan. I want a 1GB tier and I'd be happy to pay for it. I want Onshape to make money, I don't want to use it and not pay for it. Onshape is forcing the issue by not giving any other option. 

-Jim

Darren_A_Henry

james_mcpherson11762 said:

So you'll disable my account if I go over 100mb? Where is that documented?

Hi James

You're account will not be disabled if you go over 100mb.  I think we covered this point in multiple posts.  

Darren

james_mcpherson11762

Thanks Darren. I too am done whining about this. Just know that I'm disappointed and confused by all of this. No more so than by your responses in this thread. I will be given the ability to exceed 100mb of private data, but if I do so I'll be "expected" to upgrade. If I don't upgrade there will be no consequences...., more confused now than ever. 

Like I said, I wish Onshape the best. I wish you'd let me pay you. 

-Jim

Darren_A_Henry

@james_mcpherson11762

Hey James, I completely understand.   I think it may be confusing because of the lack of hard-coded consequences.  But, I think you would agree with our priorities.  We want to focus development on meaningful CAD functionality, rather than mechanisms to enforce limits.  

I love the fact that you want to pay us, and I believe if you spend a large part of you life designing you'll soon come to the conclusion that our Profession Plan is well worth the price.   

Darren

onshaper

My only thing to add is I switched on Onshape because every Fusion release brought on confusing and inconsistent policies with many nooks and crannies that no one could explain. When I saw how straightforward and simple and concrete everything was with Onshape, I screamed like a 5 year old girl out of happiness. This change and thread makes me sad.

cristian_ibanez

I was wondering if OnShape has plans of creating a hobbies/students plan? I don't design much, and if I needed to I could use the software at work, but I try to avoid using their resources for personal use. I do see a lot of potential with OnShape, but for people that are not making a profit out of it it might be hard to justify a monthly subscription much higher than Netflix or Amazon prime. [I know its not the same, but I do use them with about the same frequency]

-C

Darren_A_Henry

@cristian_ibanez
The Free Plan is for hobbyists/students.  You have 5GB for public documents and can work on up to 10 private documents, with 100mb of owned private data.

cjdubea

Darren,

I have literally just started investigating some of the latest tools for CAD design, notably Onshape and Fusion 360. I like both.  They have a lot of similarities. The thing, at this point, which gives Fusion 360 a major heads up over Onshape is the "enthusiast/startup" license, which is free. No strings attached, no storage limits, no project limits, totally free.

Knowing Autodesk, I realize that this free license will eventually be rescinded, but the first company to achieve critical user mass will win out.  Look at what happened with SketchUp.  Prior to Google giving it away, few people had heard about it, much less paid for it. It's pretty much defacto now even though it's really a poor modeling application.

I've been a SolidWorks user since '95.  Currently my employer generously pays my subscription fees, but in the not too distant future, I'm planning on retiring from my day job and want to have a fully capable 3D modeling app available for my personal use. I am willing to pay for that app, but it would have to be far less than my SolidWorks subscription for it to make any sense. At $100/month, I'll maintain my SolidWorks license. Frankly at $50 a month, I would still maintain my SolidWorks license.

Will Onshape be that app?  It's not likely, based on the very loosely defined limits of the free plan.

I encourage Onshape to revisit this strategy and to try to find a balance that allows Onshaps sufficient revenues without driving away the absolutely huge amateur user base that is emerging and is hungry for tools to design stuff to print with their 3D printer.  Myself included.

Chris

billy2

James-

I can understand your reason for secrecy based on your hobby/craft.

For me, I spend a good part of my day trying to get engineers to review my private designs and find it ironic that we're on both ends of the spectrum.  

A common mistake I see is that new users create a new document for everything instead of using a new part studio inside a document. One guy had 4 bracket documents and suggested he have 1 document with 4 brackets inside. Maybe you can have 1 document called silencers with your family of silencers in that document. Guns is another document. Hallow point ballistics in another document. That's only 3 documents.

I think the free program is generous and great idea. I have a high school kid, an assembler and my son using onshape's free license. Without this option they wouldn't have access to CAD and can't learn. So far it's working, I'm sharing models with them and privacy isn't an issue because onshape allows for this.

I think onshape's pricing is reasonable, but I sold pro/e licenses for $25,000 so maybe I'm not a judge of this value. I have many people that can't get access to Solidworks, Inventor or Pro/e to learn CAD and onshape's ease to try/learn is a great thing.


Sorry it doesn't work for you, it works for me,

juan_aviles

There seems to be no middle ground for those of us who do (or plan to) make money with Onshape.  I have a small home business where I do sell items that I don't want to be made public.  I don't have issues with NDA's, but I still don't want anyone having access to what I sell.  Full functionality, 100 megabytes and 5 private documents is more than generous to figure out if Onshape is right for me.  Unfortunately, $100 per month is more than I can afford if I decide to stay with Onshape.  

It seems the gap is just too big for those of us who are not a full blown business, but larger than a home hobbyist.

  

brucebartlett

darren_henry said:

@cristian_ibanez
The Free Plan is for hobbyists/students.  You have 5GB for public documents and can work on up to 10 private documents, with 100mb of owned private data.

Hey Darren,

One thing I am still a bit hazy on is the 100mb per private document or for total of all the private documents.

andrew_troup

@brucebartlett
The latter

Darren_A_Henry

Hi Bruce.  Yes, it is the latter.  You have 100MB to create up to 10 owned private documents. 

michael3424

I 'll probably be staying with Onshape for a while using the free plan but will reluctantly resume doing most of my work with my current CAD software so as to avoid hitting the storage limits on private docs.  It will be exciting to see how Onshape develops and perhaps in time a middle tier plan will be introduced that folks like me can afford.