Why Onshape, why not this other CAD software?

Ste_Wilson

I like Onshape.  I think it's brill, however....
I'm trying to get my college to go Onshape, but...one team member has said, 'What about Solid Works 3D Experience?!?!' which seems to be solidworks online experience.  I've not looked at it too closely yet.  Does anyone have any experience with it?
So...umm...what about Solid works 3d Experience?  How does it compare?  Why Onshape? (I WANT to use onshape!!!)
Any insights, reasons, comparisons, and marketing gratefully received.

Ste

billy2

The main reason, the cloud.

No other cad is based on this newer compute paradigm and they're stuck with filed base systems.

As time goes on.... this is going to prove fatal and limiting to their platforms.

matthew_mueller537

Hi @Ste_Wilson ,

The fundamental difference is that Onshape is cloud native, built from the ground up to take full advantage of cloud computing technology and runs perfectly well on any device (even Chrome books) with an internet connection, providing capabilities like simultaneous editing and agile design processes like branching and merging you won't find in any other platform. We like to say that 3D experience (or Fusion 360) are cloud enabled using a "thick client" approach, meaning you still need a downloaded app on your computer (3D experience only works on Windows machines) that need to be fairly powerful and there is no simultaneous editing like Onshape.

This talk from Onshape live last year is fairly technical but does a great job of explaining the fundamental differences from a technical standpoint. We see industry going in this direction, taking advantage of the cloud to accelerate innovation, but especially in Education, the clearest value proposition is the time it takes for students to get started. Good luck making sure all student's computers meet certain specifications and having them install and activate the license for the app. Alternatively, send them to www.onshape.com/edu and everyone has an account and is modeling in minutes.

Happy to address any more specific questions.

Best,
Matt

john_mcclary

At its core, Onshape is more than just a cloud based version of 'any comparable cad package' 

It is a built-in solution for many aspects of collaboration and development. What Onshape brings to the table other software can potentially do, but none of them do it for free out of the box with zero setup or additional maintenance subscriptions. 

Managing software licenses, grating/revoking access to one file or the entire company can be done in mere seconds. 

The support team and developers behind Onshape respond and close thier tickets very efficiently and throughly. Sometimes fixing major bugs minutes after discovering them. (instantly for all users at the same time). Their support staff will even offer suggestions on better modeling strategies while working your ticket. They don't have to do that, but they do.

Community support is also very effective since a document can be shared with everyone with a link. Then you could have hundreds of people assisting you as well. 

Needing to maintain and replace bleeding edge expnsive computers to keep up with the software's requirements is not an issue since it runs in a browser, or a tablet.

You don't need to buy or maintain a server to host your files or PDM suite. You don't need to double down on that for offsite data backups and recovery. 

Onshape has fewer bugs and crashes than any systems I've used before.

I can go on for hours. But it isn't glaringly obvious how much better it is until you've had to experience both systems for a few years in the field on a day to day basis. Nobody likes changing systems. But you should at least give them all a good try before making a final call. 

john_mcclary

I suppose in all seriousness, one of the disadvantages to not using SolidWorks or Inventor would be the lack of education for fixing / maintaining a cad station, and troubleshooting file references and stress management. Which are extremely critical skills if a company you go to is stuck on an old system.

bryan_lagrange

What I am hearing on other forums, the little dirty secret on Solid works 3d Experience is storage. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe you are only given a certain amount and have to pay extra for more if needed. As far as I know Onshape doesn't have that limitation. 

adrian_vlzkz

As User you can start using Onshape in a minute, on any device, from anywhere. I don't believe that would be true of any other tool.

nick_papageorge073

This is my experience compared to Creo, which is the most mature system of all I believe, having its roots in the early 80's. And probably the most popular amongst mid to large size companies. I have not used the SW 3DS, so can't comment directly to that.

If you are a small company doing your own IT, its a life saver not having to deal with licensing, expired licensing, license renewal, borrowing a license to work from home, logging in from home to your company's VPN to use the license that way, etc. That alone makes it worth it, IMO.

If you need a PDM solution, its built into OS. Often times that's even a bigger expense on other CAD packages than the core CAD program itself.

The helpdesk is the best helpdesk I've ever experienced, across any type of product or industry.

Modelling is very efficient. Designs can be made with fewer features than some other systems.

Failures in the tree when changes occur are very easy to fix. I was impressed that many times there are very few failures, and when there are failures, the model fails gracefully and you can work through it to fix. Of course this assumes you have a robust modelling strategy, which comes with general CAD experience.

The only con I've come across thus far in about 1.5 years of use, is it can definitely be slow on larger designs. Enough that it will force you to change your modelling strategy.

While its true you don't need a fancy computer to run OS, if you a are doing anything complex, you still need a fancy GPU, and a lot of system memory. Usually one doesn't get a high end gaming GPU, 32 or 64 GB of ram, and then get the bottom of the barrel CPU. System builds are typically "balanced". So the computer cost might end up being the same as for a traditional CAD system. Yes, it will run on a $300 laptop from a mass merchandiser, but you won't like it for anything other than simple things.

matthew_stacy

@Ste_Wilson, collaborative capabilities such as sharing document privileges with individual Onshape users and "link sharing" view-only with ANY individual are hugely powerful.  We can collaborate up and down the supply chain: supply, design, marketing, customer, et al.

However these capabilities will only bear fruit when Onshape's market share grows.  Hanging out your shingle as an Onshape freelancer is currently a challenging proposition, whereas SW designers are actively sought out.

nick_papageorge073

I misread the first post and thought it said "colleague" rather than "college".

For a school, its typically one semester of CAD in a mechanical engineering program spread over the 4-5 year program. Its a fairly small part of the overall curriculum. When an employer is looking for a new hire fresh out of college, they know their CAD skills will be very limited, and typically the first few weeks of the new job will be going through CAD training, in whatever software the employer uses. Then the next year will be spent making a lot of mistakes in both CAD and in general part design, with help from co-workers to improve both.

From a hiring perspective, I don't think it matters what CAD program one was trained on for that single college semester.

With that in mind, from a school perspective, the ease of setup by the IT staff would be the number one consideration, IMO. In that case, OS is at the top. Zero to install. Works on Win/Mac/Linux/Tablet/Phone. OS also has an education specific version that is really their top tier large corporation version. They made it free for students/colleges/high schools at the start of Corona so its easy for the teachers to use it and monitor their students.

NeilCooke

I'm not allowed to say anything bad about the "competition", so all I'll say is: search reddit for 3DEXPERIENCE and you'll see that it doesn't get a whole lot of love.

eric_pesty

@NeilCooke
Ouch... 

brucebartlett

I don't think it compares at all apart from both being cloud-based MCAD. I think you'd find it'd be a very bad experiance. I'd be pushing very hard to use Onshape.

andrew_kleinert

Ste_Wilson said:

I like Onshape.  I think it's brill, however....
I'm trying to get my college to go Onshape, but...one team member has said, 'What about Solid Works 3D Experience?!?!' which seems to be solidworks online experience.  I've not looked at it too closely yet.  Does anyone have any experience with it?
So...umm...what about Solid works 3d Experience?  How does it compare?  Why Onshape? (I WANT to use onshape!!!)
Any insights, reasons, comparisons, and marketing gratefully received.

Ste

Are you a student or staff?

If you're a student, consider having a quiet word to your college people and politely tell them that you'll do your projects in Onshape.  You'll be on your own with no support from your college.  Your college will likely tell you that you won't receive any special considerations with marking.  But if you really believe that Onshape is the best MCAD tool in your toolbox, and you're prepared to back yourself, then considering doing it.  Uni / College is for learning.  (But never ever do this without giving the person marking you a heads up first.  If they forbid you, then that's a shame.  But my own experience most academics respect that academia is for learning, and if the request is reasonable (you're not cheating or gaining unfair advantage over your classmates) then it's only a question about how strongly they advise against it, rather than actually forbidding you from doing it)

If you're a staff member, consider the next frontier of the design industry may very well be teams of people working effectively in a collaborate environment.  Obviously the curriculum would need to support that (eg: some group projects).  I'm obviously an Onshape evangelist here as we all are, but in reality I don't have a good sense about how well the other packages do / don't support collaboration. 

I think it would be wonderful to see a bunch of graduates of a Design School who work well together / play well together start up a Design Agency and use the collaborative features of a tool like Onshape for their competitive advantage.  It's a very competitive world out there, and starting up an agency is a big ask for graduates, but having a team who can collaborate effectively together might tip the balance in their favour.  It's been happening in the software industry for decades.

Ste_Wilson

Thanks for your replies.
A few new things to think about and some things I already knew
@andrew_kleinert I'm staff, recently started at a new college, I set my old up place using Onshape and they have been happily using that for the last few years and took advantage of the free enterprise edition during covid.  I'm just encountering one or two entrenched objections and want to be able to have my ducks lined up for the next small step in Onshape world domination

john_mcclary

Let me know how you win over those 2 entrenched objectors. I have 2 here that have been the sole prevention from letting go of Solidworks completely. 

nicholas_radzykewycz

My two cents for whatever they are worth, been using Onshape for about 4 years out of college, got immediately after college to replace my school given Solidworks license. I've also used Creo a little bit

Cons:

There are a couple features of the older CAD systems I do miss, that would be the expanded screw and threads database, some of the better texturing and rendering functions such as putting decals on parts. Both of these are being actively worked on by Onshape and community members and I'm sure we will get those capabilities added to Onshape over the coming months and years.

The other big one is the one everyone points to, and that is industry momentum. Solidworks and Creo have both had decades of marketing, user experience, and people branding themselves as Master users with a lot of sunk cost fallacies. It's difficult to find Onshape jobs, I just got my Certified Onshape Professional (The current highest level) and am actively job hunting for an Onshape career (hint hint hiring manager viewers, PM me). As everyone points out, it's a more difficult sell to a lot of positions that are strictly CAD based positions to not have Solidworks or Creo experience, usually of late in my job searches I've found they also want FEA experience usually to go with it which I don't have because I've not really needed or could afford FEA for most of the parts I work on (3D printed veterinary equipment). FEA for 3D prints is super complicated anyway and often unnecessary. That being said I really wouldn't recommend trying to get into just a CAD only entry level job right now as drafters are getting paid fairly poorly from what I can see of around $40,000 to $60,000 per year. I will be very happy if I can find a job for $70,000 a year in a remote position using just Onshape, and that's with a full Mechanical Engineering degree with Honors and 4 years experience.

Pros:
Programming access is everything in the modern age, as interconnectedness with other data sources is becoming commonplace and basic user tasks are being automated. While I'm sure for some unknown to me pile of cash you can get the ability to write custom features for Solidworks or Creo, automation and coding for Onshape comes right out of the box. You can build entire workflows for all of your configurations, custom part orders, etc directly with configurations and Featurescripts. You can also find complex additional pieces of code and functions to expand your Onshape software for free by browsing the featurescripts available. For example there is a nice one for Aerofoils and another one for Beam weldments. Plus the ability to use any of these and reference them in your own programs means the Onshape network is ever expanding as we build upon and improve each other's work in the community. For compatibility there is even a nice spreadsheet import function, so even if your 3D party software cannot immediately API integrate with Onshape, you can dump data into spreadsheets and then do mass runs of Onshape parts from that data. You can run entire companies off this functionality alone.

Definitely found it's capability of running from Linux machines makes it a lot nicer to talk with the folks in IT who all have Linux systems. The sharing capabilities in Onshape are also pretty robust and provide improved cybersecurity over sending part files all around in emails. It's a great platform for working from home as you can login from several different locations and have your parts accessible. Onshape mobile is great for client meetings and can be integrated with your sales process as it fits onto tablets and phones so you can whip out a model and show someone what you are working on.

Conclusion:
I've used things like Windchill, TeamCenter and a few other features that are sharing and part model collaboration tools, and they work. There is a reason behind that stuffy office feeling though that comes whenever you hang around too many old 2014 edition excel spreadsheets. With macros that work, but the guy who made them got a new job a year ago and now no one knows how it works or how to fix it. It's not really the fact that it's an online CAD platform that makes it special. It's the core philosophy of being a CAD software that's organized along understood software development best practices, and will bring your hardware development experience closer together with the software development that always happens alongside it, be that for user interface, automation of CAD work for custom parts and configurations, etc.

So from a college graduate standpoint, I'd recommend it from the standpoint that I think it is the future of CAD software, but I'd also recommend basically getting your hands on as many software licenses as possible, even free ones like Meshmixer, Blender, but also if you can get Matlab, Python, some Excel Macro experience, AutoCAD, Solidworks, Creo, etc... Then do so, because the vast majority of companies use this really stupid metric called "Years of Experience" and most job descriptions will put together some jumble of random specific things they are looking for for their perfect candidate. Normally to get decent pay at a "mid-level" job you need 5 years experience in something, so it's much better to start the clock ticking on as many things as possible as soon as possible so that you have a better chance of landing in the position you want in a constantly changing environment. Like a caltrop you want to be diverse and adaptable so that you always land with one side pointed up towards a better future.