Solidworks user considering Onshape, some questions on its ability to handle large assemblies

scott_mayfield

Hi All,

I’m a physician by day, but I moonlight as a high end camper builder. Here is a link to the last project I finished and sold.

https://expeditionportal.com/expedition-portal-classifieds-award-winning-f550-full-custom-camper/

Ive been doing all of the design work in Solidworks, but I am running into some computing limitations. My models themselves are pretty simple, but I am working on a dell precision 7720 laptop that is limited to 16gb of ram. While my models are simple, they are mated to the cad models from Ford and Isuzu which are quite large and complex. I’m currently working on a ford transit build and the model is 200gb with an inordinate number of surfaces. I talked to puget sound about building me a new rig, but that would be in the 5-6k range on top of the Solidworks pricing. Because this isnt really a money maker for me, just cant totally justify that kind of expenditure, and to be honest, I’m tired of the constant updating and sharing models with other users with a different year of Solidworks.

Given my use model, how do you think Onshape will perform with these larger ford assemblies? I dont generally work with the vehicle model always open, I’ll mate the surfaces I need and then just switch over to the camper, but I do spend a fair amount of time with both open. 

matthew_stacy

@scott_mayfield, that's a gorgeous rig you built.  As an RV denizen, I'm green with envy.

Onshape offers many advantages for assemblies, one of which is their unique approach to mating parts together.  Another advantage is that you're leveraging the power of cloud-computing to significantly reduce your local hardware performance need.  A decent graphics card (Geforce or similar) will suffice.  Think gaming station rather than CAD workstation.  That said, run the Onshape hardware compatibility test (the URL eludes my memory ... google it).  Not to mention that their pricing/subscription options from PUBLIC up through ENTERPRISE are quite attractive relative to platforms like SolidWorks.  Onshape has a great business model from my perspective.

One bothersome limitation is that Onshape does not yet offer any provisions for organizing parts (and mates) into folders.  So the assembly tree can get rather ugly in larger assemblies.

That's my $0.02.

tim_hess427

You can check the performance of your machine here, Compatibility check (onshape.com) and some people on the forums have posted there performance numbers and I think some have shared the size/complexity of their models as well. There are certainly people using onshape with large assemblies (think factory layouts and heavy machinery) and seem to make it work. 

One thing that may work in your favor, is that you could import the large assembly, then when designing your parts, you could reference only what you need from the larger assembly. Check out the documentation around in-context design. 

As you also mentioned, the ability to easily share things with others is really easy (if they're willing to sign up for a free account, or you're willing to create a link that anybody could open). 

The largest learning curve coming from something like solidworks is probably data management in general, because there are so many different ways to link things together an organize your work, but there's some good information on the forums about what's worked for others. 

christopher_quijano

Hi Scott,

I love your camper! I am more of a van camper person but that truck and camper makes me a little jealous.

In my experience all cad systems will bog down with large imported cad especially if it's complex and some are worse than others. Solidworks does this and so does Onshape. Your best bet is to create a public account and load up a representative file and play with it. Since it will be a public document give it an obscure name and then delete as soon as you are done to reduce the chance of others seeing it. If you know someone with Onshape professional account they could upload the file and then share it to you (I think).

Good Luck!
Christopher

mahir

You can request a trial period of a Professional license for testing purposes. Once imported, I would guess that your assembly will likely load faster in OS. There are limits, but think of the cloud processing as everyone taking advantage of a high end CAD workstation... but remotely.

NeilCooke

Or you could request a professional trial where your docs will be private. 

scott_mayfield

mahir said:

You can request a trial period of a Professional license for testing purposes. Once imported, I would guess that your assembly will likely load faster in OS. There are limits, but think of the cloud processing as everyone taking advantage of a high end CAD workstation... but remotely.

mahir said:

You can request a trial period of a Professional license for testing purposes. Once imported, I would guess that your assembly will likely load faster in OS. There are limits, but think of the cloud processing as everyone taking advantage of a high end CAD workstation... but remotely.

BY OS, are you referring to Mac OS? I guess that’s my other issue, I do a lot of music recording as well so always have a loaded MacBook Pro. Having a $4000 MacBook Pro and a $8000 pc desktop just seemed a little stupid. 

NeilCooke

No, he's just being lazy   OS = Onshape