Traceparts, 3DX, Grabcad, or onshape

astinwes

For onshape users, is there any benefit for venders to make their parts public in onshape vs. using a hosting site like traceparts or hosting on their website?  Search wise, is it easier to look through onshapes files, or go to the venders site and download the file (or go to traceparts and find the file)?  I've looked through onshapes public files and it doesn't look like anyone is doing this, so my questions is why?  

Is there a way to make a vender products easier to find / download through onshape?

Juergen_1

Hi Astinwes - if your company provides STEP files you can easily add your parts to https://onshape.partcommunity.com which is directly integrated in ONSHAPE - also your data will be available through much more sites (see here https://www.cadenas.de/microsites/calculator/index.php?lang=en  )
you can send me also an email - j.heimbach@cadenas.de

if you want to see the integration - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkaKxdgOfY8

CU J

3dcad

The future is in sharing not in download/upload procedures.

It would be awesome to have standard parts shared as public Onshape documents. It would be so nice to change configurations and simply add to assembly without holding any imported copies. Updating to newer version would be just a mouse click and all the part data would be right there where it belongs. 

owen_sparks

I quite agree, it would also allow us to allow Onshape specific mates to allow us to have pre-made moving assemblies.

robert_d_noftle

Hi Astinwes,

Your post hits a number of very good points, let me provide you with a few more:

TraceParts and 3DX - create 3D product catalogs for manufacturers of industrial components.  To this list you can also add Cadenas/Part Solutions and Catalog Data Solutions.  These companies provide great service to the manufacturer and are used to dealing with all of the different CAD systems used by the manufacturer.  By working directly with the manufacturer, they are able to provide “certified” product models to all CAD users.  Each of these companies have their own business model and, sadly for the Onshape user, competes with each other.

GrabCAD - is probably the largest CAD related community around.  They are not providers of manufacturer certified product models, but they do have a very active user community that shares models they have created, with members of the community.

For the most part, manufacturers do not care what CAD system their customers use.  They focus on solutions that allow them to support as many of them as possible.  They do not want a service that forces them to re-create their models in a specific format.  The list of manufacturers who should have a 3D product catalogs is measured in the tens of thousands

Understandably, Onshape users require manufacturer components for their designs. Their preference would be to have the models in the native Onshape format with all its great features. Given the number of manufacturers in the world, this would be a huge, and expensive modeling effort.

To help Onshape users, I would propose an Onshape “Manufacturers” app, designed jointly by Onshape and the 3D catalog providers and manufacturers who have standardized on Onshape for their engineering needs. The app would contain all “certified” models and use Onshape searching.  Such an app would be a win-win for all participants.

My company is the provider of the 3DX app for Onshape.  We also publish 3D catalogs to 40 other web sites.  Like my friend Juergen, if you’d like to discuss any of this in more detail, feel free to email me at: bnoftle@3dx-media.com

Best regards,

Bob

3dcad

I agree about the huge amount of remodeling, but if you wan't to go forward rather than do what has been always done - Onshape is the only environment where you can make real models with movement, limits, configurations etc. They would serve Onshape users perfectly but also all other cad users since instead of seeing dumb solid on website they could inspect real model inside Onshape and then export in their favorite format. Win-win?

robert_d_noftle

Absolutely a win-win.  Onshape is the perfect platform for manufacturer content!