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Improvements to Onshape - October 10, 2025
mlaflecheCAD
Member, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 191 
This Onshape update delivers major productivity and collaboration enhancements across the platform — from configurable Variable Studios and improved simulation performance to new enterprise-level security and sharing options. You’ll also find refined drawing tools and UI improvements in CAM and Render Studio. Plus, Onshape AI Advisor makes its in-app debut!
CAD IMPROVEMENTS
AI ADVISOR IN ONSHAPE
Onshape AI Advisor is now available directly inside of Onshape. Onshape AI Advisor is an AI-powered Onshape expert that uses Onshape's vast library of learning materials as its source of truth. Professional and Enterprise company administrators can now access a new preference to enable or disable Onshape AI Advisor. For Enterprise customers, the AI Advisor is disabled by default and must be enabled by an administrator. Important to note: While the Onshape AI Advisor is now integrated into Onshape, it does not have access to your data.CONFIGURABLE VARIABLE STUDIOS
Variable Studios now support configurations, allowing multiple sets of variable values to be defined and referenced across Part Studios and Assemblies.
EXPANDED SUPPORT FOR THIN AND LARGE ASPECT RATIO GEOMETRY IN SIMULATION
Onshape Simulation now supports thin-walled parts and assemblies with large aspect ratio geometry, making it easier to run Linear Static and Modal studies on sheet metal, frames, and similar structures with greater speed and accuracy.
CONFIGURATION OPTIONS ON INSERT
Insert dialogs across Onshape now support inserting the active or default configuration of a part or assembly.
DATA MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENTS
SEARCH FOR CUSTOM PROPERTIES ON FOLDERS, PUBLICATIONS, AND PROJECTS
Onshape Professional and Enterprise now support searching by custom properties applied to folders, publications and enterprise projects, making it easier to find and organize data by product line, work type, or program phase.
FOLDER/DOCUMENT DIVIDER IMPROVEMENTS
Onshape now remembers the divider position between folders and documents in the Documents view, keeping your preferred layout consistent as you navigate and across sessions.
DRAWINGS IMPROVEMENTS
SHADED BREAK VIEW
Break views in Onshape Drawings now support shaded display. Simply right-click the view, choose Hide/Show, and select Show shaded view to toggle shading on or off.
REMOVE ALL INSPECTION ITEMS FROM A DRAWING
Remove all inspection items at once, making it faster to start fresh when creating new or copied inspection documents.
ENTERPRISE IMPROVEMENTS
EXTERNAL CONNECTIONS
Onshape Enterprise now supports External Connections, enabling secure collaboration between separate enterprises such as OEMs and suppliers. Connections allow data to be shared selectively between organizations, with clear visual indicators, admin approval, and full control over access.
EXPORT CONTROL PERMISSIONS IN ONSHAPE ENTERPRISE
Enterprise administrators can now manage who can export data from Onshape. The new export permission lets admins restrict file exports to selected users or teams, improving control and data security across the organization.
RENDER STUDIO IMPROVEMENTS
RIGHT PANEL NAVIGATION
Render Studio now supports placing the Libraries panel on the right side, freeing up vertical screen space and improving workflow. Tabs have also been reordered — Libraries, Appearance, Environment, then Scene — for a more natural, top-to-bottom workflow.
PROJECTOR MANIPULATORS FOR TEXTURE CONTROL
Render Studio now includes manipulators for texture projectors, providing visual controls to position, rotate, and scale textures directly on your model for precise and intuitive material placement.
WORKSPACE REFERENCES FOR BLOB DATA
You can now create workspace references for non-geometric assets such as HDRI backgrounds, textures, and other rendering data — no version needed.
PCB STUDIO IMPROVEMENTS
SUPPRESS ITEMS FROM IMPORTED ECAD DATA
PCB Studio now supports suppressing components, keep-ins, keep-outs, and outlines from imported ECAD data, keeping assemblies clear while preserving full ECAD integrity for round-trip collaboration.
CAM STUDIO IMPROVEMENTS
USER INTERFACE IMPROVEMENTS FOR VERSIONED TABS AND OPERATION DIALOGS
Editing toolbars are now removed for versioned tabs, and confirmation dialogs display the specific operation name when deleting jobs, machines, setups, tools, or toolpaths.
Please take a moment to try out these new features and improvements and leave your comments below. For a detailed list of all the changes in this update, please see the changelog.
Remember: The updates listed here are now live for all users when creating new Documents. Over the next few days, these features will also be available in Documents created before this update.
Comments
Very Exciting. Now to re-do all of my assemblies to use this tool. I'll see you all next month when I finally come outside to touch grass
Configuration options on insert 👏
Lots of good stuff here!
Configured variable studios will help clean up "family" designs for sure! The lack of broken shaded views has been thorn in our side forever, nice to see it finally addressed.
Insert "active config" sounds minor but will save quite a bit of time when working with highly configurable things so very welcome. Slow simulation of thin/slender shapes has also been something we've run into quite regularly. Also looking forward to trying out the new render studio layout as I never liked the bottom library thing (especially working on 21.5/9 screens)!
Possibly the biggest thing left on my wish list right now would be getting "exclude from properties" for assemblies!
Still looking for these requests to be filled:
*Add Internal guide/profiles to boundary surface
*Fix the Curve/Surface analysis tool to retain selections with final button (drops inputs depending on selections and scenarios)
*Improve sketch performance while using curvature constrains
*Sketch blocks
*Allow configurations to reference releases of parts and their configurations in an assembly
/* Sheet metal loft mentioned in the update diffs. */
Time to go bully the kernel and see if it'll shoot out lofted metal for me before it's public access.
Another impressive release. Configurable variable studios, enterprise sharing, shell FEA elements, improved data management, drawings, rendering, and better access to AI advisor. Tons to digest here.
Simon Gatrall | Product Development Specialist | Open For Work
New login flow - does this change anything for accounts in multiple enterprises where some enterprises have SSO enabled?
Is the enterprise collaboration only enterprise-enterprise or can it work with enterprise-professional ?
Custom FeatureScript and Onshape Integrated Applications
Variable studio configurations? Thin walled solver?! Render studio love and affection! 💖
Learn more about the Gospel of Christ ( Here )
CADSharp - We make custom features and integrated Onshape apps! Learn How to FeatureScript Here 🔴
@Caden_Armstrong the connection is enterprise to enterprise only. So professional connecting with enterprise is not included
I will have to create an improvement request for this unfortunate limitation. One obvious thing that an enterprise wants to do is hire contractors using the contractors’ seats of Onshape. It would be a lot more efficient than having to have extra seats lying around in case you need additional temporary help.
Simon Gatrall | Product Development Specialist | Open For Work
The new sign in flow is only for people accessing https://cad.onshape.com and doesn't change anything for Enterprises. Now, if a user goes to sign into https://cad.onshape.com but is part of an Enterprise (or multiple Enterprises) they will be given a choice of which domain to sign into. This prevents ambiguity some of our customers have had where employees sign in and start working on IP in the wrong domain.
If the user is signing in directly to the Enterprise there is no change. If the user is signing in via SSO, there is no change. If the user is not part of an Enterprise and signing into https://cad.onshape.com there is only a minor change of entering email then password, as opposed to entering both at the same time.
Most people will only see a minor difference at sign in.
In the Changelog: "New CAM Studio for Educator plan." Does this mean that CAM Studio is now also available in the Educator Plan?
Wow!
Can't wait to try out tets to shells or what ever it is. This will make analysis easy especially for sheet metal parts.
AI Advisor…
My prompts with answers:
what is parametric feature based modeling? blah, blah, blah
who invented parametric solid modeling? PTC
Sorry but Gemini nailed it…
The Problem: In the early 1980s, 3D CAD systems were difficult to modify. If a designer needed to change a dimension on a completed 3D model, they often had to manually rebuild the model from scratch—a tedious and error-prone process.
The Vision: Dr. Geisberg, a brilliant mathematician who had emigrated from the Soviet Union, envisioned a new kind of modeling system. Instead of creating a "dumb" geometric shape, a designer would build a model based on features, parameters, and constraints. This would capture the "design intent" of the object.
The Company: After failing to convince his employer at the time to pursue this radical new idea, Dr. Geisberg left and founded Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) in 1985.
Is AI Advisor trained on PTC's database?
would really love to see ecad file support for Kicad!
I'll be honest I don't see why people don't just use Maps in their Variable studios:
MyValue (Type Any) = {"Value1":1mm,"Value2":2mm,"Value3":3mm}
Then later just use → MyValue.Value2 ← or whatever to get the correct version of that value. I suppose maps aren't for everyone but I find them easier to use then configurable Variable Studios. Hopefully this wasn't hard to implement. Seems like a very niche problem.
However thin part simulation!!!!! OHH BOY!! now I'm Salivating! And AI assistant makes it easier to convince boss to get more licences.
CAM Studio is not implicitly available for all Educator plans, but now can be enabled for eligible Educator plans. We should have more in the coming weeks about it.
Reagrding the expanded support for thin and large aspect ratio geometry in simulation, the current online help states the following in the tips section:
At this time we do not recommend using simulation for geometries with aspect ratios above 100:1.
Does this need to be updated, and if so, what is the revised aspect ratio guidance for thin walled geometry?
aiai, that's a pitty. as a freelancer, i'm obviously not nor ever will be on an enterprise license, but I'm about to start a project for an enterprise user. I guess the old "transfer ownership" will do though.
Enterprise to enterprise connections are a good step, but connections with Pro accounts to enterprises is pretty darn important. Collaboration is at the core of Onshape's architecture, so this has always felt like a miss to me. Is it on the roadmap, or is it a planned limitation?
The Onsherpa | Reach peak Onshape productivity
www.theonsherpa.com
Oh should have also said. Configurable Variable Studios! Heck yeah! I've been needing that. The config insertion updates are very welcome too. The updates on FEA are also really important. It makes Onshape much more viable as the FEA tool to use instead of needing a secondary thing.
The Onsherpa | Reach peak Onshape productivity
www.theonsherpa.com
@christopher_dziuba
As cool as maps in variables are, they are not very convenient to use or define (at least for now). Even more importantly, they push the problem of selecting the correct value to the tab that is consuming that value, rather than the variable studio that is providing it. In other words, suppose I have a design that is driven by two different dropdown (enum) inputs. With maps, I'd have to know which variable is controlled by which input to select the correct value, while a configured variable studio provides a specific set of ready-to-use values given the two inputs.
Just been checking the new SIm solver……so much quicker. Where the server used to timeout the results come through in good time.
Thank you