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I absolutely love Onshape!
digitalcarbon
Member Posts: 77 PRO
After 20 years working with Architectural cad, working in Onshape is so enjoyable. I have projects in both architectural and mechanical. Onshape is not for architecture and that is ok. When I spend a few weeks on a mechanical project in Onshape then move on to an architectural project in my Architectural CAD. I immediately start hitting brick walls, crashes, broken links, etc. This is so profound and I never noticed this pain before as one gets used to it. The result of that experience is that now I have been moving my business to take on less or zero architecture inorder to take on more mechanical work just so I can work in Onshape.
The difference between old CAD paradigms and the new Onshape paradigm is just that great.
Comments
Interesting opposing opinion to the I can't take it anymore thread. LOL
Similar story here. What Architectural cad do you or have you used? and which one(s) are crashing?
We are a high end custom cabinet manufacturer. Interestingly enough, we have used Onshape since 2017 with the understanding that it is not suited for architecture. That being said, we swapped over from Vectorworks because we saw the benefit in being able to customize Onshape using FeatureScript and the API.
Onshape is definitely not built for architectural design, but you can customize it so that it can be used for it. What we essentially did was superimpose a cabinetry CAD system over top of Onshape by developing a large suite of custom features. Very few of our original team understood how to use mechanical CAD software, but because we were able to make our own UI and workflow, they are now making large kitchens without any assistance.
I'm not necessarily saying that anyone coming over from the architectural world needs to build their own CAD system, but if there are hurdles in using Onshape because of the paradigm shift, there might be some custom features that would close that gap enough for you to enjoy the benefits of Onshape.
chadstoltzfus@premiercb.com
Clarification: In architecture anything that requires shop drawings I would consider prime material for Onshape.
As to the bigger aspect of buildings, I suppose one could do a “hospital” in Onshape but the drawings would look more like the drawings for the space shuttle vs any architectural set of drawings. That is ok for me but you would need to get every discipline involved.
I use Vectorworks and still need it for its 2d graphics, but I have spoken to other Revit, Archicad users and they are not at all a fun experience.
I did a set of stairs in Onshape then imported to VW. Now I originally modeled in VW and that was ok until someone decided to change the vertical height (fl to fl) by 1/2". The stairs shown I can adjust an inch up or down and everything updates, railings and all with just one dim change.
@chadstoltzfus
A question on the cabinet shop thing. I have done shop drawings in 2d years ago. Have thought about starting up 3d cabinets in Onshape as I have a cousin who has a cabinet shop. In all these years he has never called me so I just assume cabinets can just be done with some simple sketches by the cabinet maker. That's what he does. But if you want a fancy rendering then people go to Home Depot. I’ve seen some of their cabinets and thought they were ok.
So what am I missing?
Nice work on the stairs. I've never used Vectorworks so I can't comment on that but I have extensive experience with Revit and haven't had issues with it crashing. it does very well for what its designed for. It lacks a bit in ability to do some more complex geometry but for a documentation tool for buildings its way better than most… imo. although your onshape stairs are probably more user friendly than revit stairs. ha
I'm using Revit for cabinets currently. Its working well with what I have configured. very few objects and lots of configurations possible. I could see onshape doing well with them as well. I'm actually currently creating cabinet marketing material in Revit using renderings, graphics, text, etc.
the problem with architectural cad is they have tools to do stairs for one example. these tools can never capture every conceivable stair configuration & that is understandable so one ends up doing direct modeling. This requires architectural cad to have a 3d cad system build into the main system. And this is where you have the breakdown.
When I model in architectural cad I think like this, "if i model this correctly then i can get plans, interior elevations, exterior elevations and 3 inch details all from one model." That is a hard game to play. You have to be a type of "Grand Master" of the CAD system to pull that off. But in Onshape I do not find that pressure, it only works one way, you model and pow! everything work.
I would say that you're correct and cabinets can just be done with some simple sketches. We've been using 2D for almost 30 years. But we switched to Onshape for a number of reasons, I can highlight a few here.
These are just a couple reasons, but I would say if we did just swap to Onshape without making these custom workflows and custom features, it would have been difficult to justify doing 3D at all. For many cabinet shops, drawings are just pretty pictures and the carpenter is the artist. We are trying to move some of the artistry to the digital world and we've done that pretty successfully.
chadstoltzfus@premiercb.com
While I'm sure that plenty of this is proprietary secret sauce, I would love to see a video or document with more info on the types of custom features that Premier Custom Built uses and what your workflow looks like. I've seen the case study that Onshape has, but it's very light on the details.
As an end customer, I've worked with California Closets and seen their purpose built tools for semi-custom cabinetry and I was impressed with how quickly they could build up something that would take hours in non-specialized CAD tools.
Yeah the reason I don't post much of my FeatureScript endeavors on here is because there's a lot I can't demo. I did do some demos on Onshape's old podcast Innovator's Insider, but those are pretty old. The only video I know we have is from LiveWorx 2023, where I do a few quick demos on some specific custom features. But our workflow is more about the sum of its parts instead of focusing on a few custom features, and currently I can't demo that in its entirety.
I can talk about a few ways we've leveraged the API to work with templates and I can discuss some of the ways we've put attributes on parts to create a system where parts can talk to each other in order to enforce business rules. That might be better suited to a private message or a call. Shoot me a message if you have more questions.
chadstoltzfus@premiercb.com
Thanks for sharing that video, Chad, Helps bring words to visual. I specifically liked the mention of building business rules into the content. Reminds me of what I've been doing with Revit content I've built. A lot less burden on the memory and reduced time and errors for sure.
@chadstoltzfus Thanks for pointing out the LiveWorx video. I missed that before this.