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Will PTC ever let the use of OnShape for makers/individuals free from any monetary concessions?
greg_smith174
Member Posts: 2 ✭
in General
It's a fantastic tool but harvesting intellectual properties as a payment for a "free" platform is pretty shitty
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Best Answer
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Ste_Wilson
Member Posts: 429 EDU
As far as I can tell Onshape makes no claims to IP on the free plan, but work done on it does become essentially open for anyone to use and reuse.
That's the tradeoff. Onshape doesn't have to be a free resource.
That there isn't a hobbyist tier for a more modest amount of cash is another matter!
2
Answers
There are no plans.
What are the alternatives?
As far as I can tell Onshape makes no claims to IP on the free plan, but work done on it does become essentially open for anyone to use and reuse.
That's the tradeoff. Onshape doesn't have to be a free resource.
That there isn't a hobbyist tier for a more modest amount of cash is another matter!
I agree that it would be nice if Makers had a way to use Onshape and especially CAM for a cost something less than Pro. But the problem is it costs big $$ to develop and host Onshape. Having just retired (from Onshape), I'm now in the Maker category myself and working with 3D printers and CNC machines, so it would be nice if I could use Onshape's CAM.
A few ideas:
(1) Can Onshape reliably detect what timezone the browser is in? (accounting for any VPNs etc?) If so, offer an 'outside of business hours' account.
(2) Offer a 'Weekends only' account where documents could only be edited on weekends. Users would need to fix their timezone so that edit-access started late Friday afternoons and finished first thing Monday morning.
(3) Charge access time by the hour on a pre-paid plan. eg: $2/hour for standard access, $3/hour for professional.
I guess one of the main problems is that prices and also wages in the US went up much more than in many other places in the world. We just don't see this in the exchange rate because for the dollar as de facto world key currency other rules apply. Also the division between poor and rich is more pronounced in the US than e.g. in many parts of Europe.
I wouldn't be surprised if a good portion of the Onshape users are actually hobbyists for which $2500 is more pocket money than a substantial investment.
Not much we can do I fear than looking elsewhere.