Render Studios, PCB Studios and CAM in the free educational plan

CFraser100

Hello, I think it would be great to get render studios, PCB studios and CAM at a minimal cost for the educational free plan I am on said plan as part of school and I believe that it would be great as an educational tool to teach kids about design in the 21st century. I also think it would be good for marketing as these kids are going to grow up and some will work in design, if they remember Onshape as a good tool for all round design they may move to implement in their companies thus making more money for Onshape.
What do you think?
Thank you for reading.

minkyu

I am an educator teaching industrial design at a university in South Korea. While I agree with CFraser100's opinion, I also understand PTC's stance.

It must have been a tough decision to make Render and PCB Studio, as well as CAM, available for free for educational use, considering the significant budget that went into their development. On the other hand, they might also be wondering, "Is it really necessary for undergraduates to learn these advanced features?"

As an educator, my opinion is as follows: Outstanding students are willing to learn and utilise more skills and features, and they often exceed my expectations through their efforts. Other students tend to benchmark these top performers and follow their lead.

Many industrial design educators are probably facing the following dilemma: Should we purchase paid educational versions of the more widely used industry-standard software within our limited budget, or should we opt for free educational software that might not be as commonly used in the industry but is sufficient for teaching design concepts?

The former likely refers to mid-range CAD programs like SolidWorks or Solid Edge in their educational versions, while the latter would be Fusion 360 or Onshape.

(I will not mention Rhino here as it is both affordable and widely used in the industry, although it serves a different purpose compared to the aforementioned programs, so I won’t include it in the comparison.)

Personally, I recommend Onshape to my students. The reasons are as follows:

1. It can run smoothly on low-spec laptops that students often have access to, without requiring high-performance computers.
2. Collaboration with students is seamless, and I can closely monitor their work progress. Moreover, I believe it is the best solution for remote classes.
3. Onshape’s interface gives students the impression that it’s not difficult to learn. This first impression definitely motivates them to self-learn the program, which I consider the biggest advantage.
4. The basic interface is similar to other CAD programs, which makes it easier and quicker for students to transition to other mid-range programs when necessary.

The issue, however, is that despite these advantages, top-performing students still prefer Fusion. Although not quite on the level of Rhino, I have heard that Fusion is used far more frequently in the industry than Onshape, with estimates of 5 to 10 times more users. While this preference may be due to the larger user base of Fusion, this is not the cause but rather the effect. This can be overcome.

The reasons why Fusion is often chosen over Onshape are matters of choice that Onshape can address, but the core advantages of Onshape are aspects that Fusion cannot overcome due to its inherent system.

Fusion 360 is a near-perfect CAD program, functionally speaking. It includes ECAD, Rendering Studio, CAM, and Sub-D — all built-in features offered in the educational version. Are there any of these features that students, practising product design, engineering, or development, wouldn’t find useful or necessary?

I used SolidWorks in the industry, but when I started my own business, I switched to Onshape. I quickly became attracted to the unique advantages of Onshape and have since been promoting it to my students. However, the absence of the aforementioned features in the educational version weakens the argument that this program is superior to Fusion.

I fully understand the potential financial impact of making Onshape’s Rendering Studio available for free in the educational version. This could undoubtedly put additional strain on server resources. Considering the annual subscription fee for educational KeyShot licenses, there might be an option where the preview in Onshape’s Rendering Studio remains free, but rendering above a certain resolution is paid.

I believe, in some way, students should be provided with the opportunity to experience these advanced features within the student account.