Happy holidays and a quick thank you to OS

Ben_

To all that are working at Onshape: 

CAD was all but dead to me and I was about to change careers into something else, designing and sharing the work I do had become too much of a pain in the arse. I wanted to build some open source projects and share them with the world but all the sharing and collaboration CAD models were seriously flawed and totalitarian in their thinking about the files and business model. I could not build and collaborate the way I needed to unless I could afford to buy friends and other people I hardly knew a licence to some CAD system that would work on their systems and not be so frustrating that those that wanted to collaborate would give up after a few hours of playing with complex, bloatware that is crashy and all sorts of ugly... That before even considering the price of a seat of and CAD system.

 Then Lou contacted me and told me about this cool project he was working on and wanted to know if I would test it out. First minute of use (no joke) I could see that Onshape is a huge game changer and to top it off it has been beyond rock solid in performance and above all else stable. Thank you Lou for bringing me into the loop!

Now dreams about some projects I wanted to work on that I had all but been given up on came to mind. And I am finally after quite a few years excited about designing things again. Thank you that has been a gift in it self.

I see a few things happening in the year. 

1. The maker movement en-mass adopting OS nearly immediately upon launch
2. Collaboration and design will take on a new life and be accessible to those  creatives that would have never considered it.
3. AMAZING new developments in nearly every industry as these creatives now will have a 'design' voice and be able to contribute 
4. Companies with the vision to share their designs on-line and allow users to help, modify and develop new iterations of their products will find amazing new developments in their products. Think 'Local motors' and 'Ultrascope'  http://openspaceagency.squarespace.com/ 
5. I am willing to wager that some world changing developments will be made only because OS will facilitate this sort of development life cycle that no one has ever even considered before.  Within the first year. 

So I look forward to this coming year and seeing what comes of the launch. Thank you for having vision, and wanting to build something for design types and engineers that they need because they need it. Too much of the design industry has taken on a for profit model that serves no one but the stock holders, I understand businesses need to make money but making money should not be the primary focus that has become apparent in this industry. It is apparent first Onshape wants to make a great product and they understand that the profit will follow. 

All my best, and keep up the amazing work.

Ben

</Fan boy gush>

caradon

For me, Onshape is joining a (very) select group of tools that are genuinely fun and exciting to use.
In the past 3 years or so this group has grown to just two members: KeyShot and now Onshape.

Just like Ben, it was immediately clear to me that you at Onshape are building something very cool.
I think coolness will be a very important metric for success in 2015 and beyond.

Keep up the good work.

Dries

fastwayjim

@JonHirschtick shared a "brief history of CAD" in his last webinar, discussing some of the major advancements in the industry. It is evident that OS is going to be the next major advancement, and thus a permanent chapter in that story.

Can't wait to see what you guys are going to do next year, thanks for letting us be a part of it!

jon_hirschtick

Thank you @Ben, @Dries‌, and @FastwayJim‌!  It is *so* gratifying to hear this.  We've been working hard to build Onshape, and as you know as fellow engineers there's nothing more satisfying than having your designs come to life and be successfully used.  In our case we design CAD of course, but it's the same feeling I think as when you all design great products.

I want to thank you, our earliest users, for putting your time, heart, ideas, and passion into Onshape!  You have all meant so much to us in shaping (pun intended) what Onshape is becoming.  You have been patient with our early versions.  You have been generous with your feedback, both criticisms (always offered in the spirit of building a better system) and praise.  You have done amazing work with Onshape, including showing us examples and techniques that we ourselves did not know were possible.

You guys are awesome!