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Onshape has been acquired by PTC

135

Comments

  • brian_bradybrian_brady Member, Developers Posts: 505 EDU
    I don't doubt the commitment Onshape employees have for their customer base. However, when the acquisition is complete, you will be PTC employees who work on the Onshape product. I wasn't a SW user back when Dassault Systems acquired them, so I don't know if they made and kept (or not kept) promises to keep to keep SW independent. Lots of huge companies that acquire smaller companies initially make promises and say all of the things they are supposed to say. They never say "we're acquiring Company X to absorb them and make their great product suck or cost more or to use its tech in our current product and close it down." Look at Microsoft and GM and even PTC for examples of those things actually happening. I worked at GM, I have a feel for how big companies can make great things terrible.

    I don't follow PTC closely since I started using Onshape for teaching instead of Creo. But the last few versions that I used go more and more puzzling as to what were the "improvements" and why did they make choices they did. I never saw their commitment to cloud-based software that Jon eluded to in his statement. So, until we actually see what happens I'll stick with Onshape. I love it. My students love it. Most of them hate SW and Creo after using Onshape.

    So I hope PTC doesn't force or coerce (they will be the bosses btw) the Onshape team into making their product more PTC/Creo like. That would be a shame because I would have to find a new CAD package to teach with. Maybe this will actually be PTCs first product that can work cross platform and stay that way. They have never had any interest in working to make their products work on Linux or Mac OS in the past though. 

    I'll try to not be my normal self and actually be optimistic that this will be a good thing. 
  • larry_haweslarry_hawes Member Posts: 478 PRO
    edited October 2019

    NeilCooke said:
    @larry_hawes if you’ve ever had the misfortune to watch any of his other videos (especially about Onshape) I think you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that he is a little bit biased (and doth protest too much methinks)  :D


    Yes, I have indeed had the misfortune but are any of his points valid at all? I know that in your position at Onshape you cannot agree with any of his points but are there really only 5,000 subscriptions? And did PTC really pay 470 million? Those numbers don't even remotely work in any business universe but there they are, in an official PTC press release.

    More than surprising that any company would let on how many subscriptions it has but to open its most basic financials (which are even less than most basic) to such scrutiny seems not only odd but not very smart. Maybe it begs another question as to why PTC would even offer such business information to the business community? Again odd at the very least, just not smart at the very worst. IMO.

    I personally have no faith in the future of Onshape staying even remotely in the same form it is today. Pricing WILL change, it's just a business reality. And reading some the posts about how Onshape will remain the rainbows and unicorns that it's always been read like all the other posts about all the other companies that have been bought out. Have no fear, nothing will change for the user etc. etc. then low and behold after a couple of years everything changes or the company/software simply disappears.

    Of course Onshape is different and nothing like that could ever happen here but time will tell.

    I personally have NEVER had a better experience with ANY software company EVER and hope that experience remains as positive but where is there an example of these types of acquisitions where everything did not change (for the worse) to fit the new corporate paradigm and the very real business need to recoup a $470 million dollar investment?
  • konstantin_shiriazdanovkonstantin_shiriazdanov Member Posts: 1,221 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I don't doubt the commitment Onshape employees have for their customer base. However, when the acquisition is complete, you will be PTC employees who work on the Onshape product. I wasn't a SW user back when Dassault Systems acquired them, so I don't know if they made and kept
    I think SW was pretty independent, at least as a tool. It couldn't become dependent because of different kernels. I don't see anything bad in the SW lifecycle after acquaring, it just get old at some moment. So I'm expecting something like this for OS too, the difference is that OS can enrich PTC with its cloud technologies and modularity.
  • mechanica_demechanica_de Member Posts: 1
    This is BAD news!

    In the early 90's I worked for an amazing startup called RASNA that was acquired by PTC. RASNA's product, Mechanica was a great product but, despite all the empty-corporate-speak-press-releases about how great this would be and how Mechanica would continue to be developed, the product was castrated and ended up buried as a Creo module. I also used to work for Hewlett-Packard. PTC bought HP's cad products and buried them too.

    The UK sales/pre sales team was flown over to Boston and subjected to an aggressive east coast American Boot Camp where one of the PTC founders came in and proved he was a complete Dick by insulting every nationality there. He then introduced one of his star salesmen, an ex marine whose sales methodology seem to involve threatening customers with violence if they didn't buy Pro Engineer. 

    This had the desired effect and most of the UK field team that wasn't fired, because they were over 40 or had a beard(!), left along with our European colleagues. PTC never wanted the field teams, they wanted the development team, offering them each a $1m retainer in share options. There will be a lot of very happy Onshape employees currently.

    I stayed for a little while while I planned my escape from the Evil Empire and was tasked with taking PTC UK management in to meet my Mechanica customers. This proved to be very entertaining as most of my customers also hated PTC due to their aggressive (God Bless East Coast American) sales tactics and delighted in telling PTC management that they would never buy a PTC product..

    5,000 subscribers at an average of $1,500 is $7.5m. PTC are paying $450m for Onshape! 

    This is a repeat of RASNA. The VC's and founders get their money . PTC are buying the development team not the customer base. This is either the equivalent of a Donald Tump  David Pecker (only in america!) catch and kill action by PTC or they do want the development team.

    Anyone on this forum who is not an Onshape employee should be mourning the death of another great little product and making contingency plans. A $1.2 billion annualrevenue doesnt care about your  $7.5m contribution.

  • larry_haweslarry_hawes Member Posts: 478 PRO

    5,000 subscribers at an average of $1,500 is $7.5m. PTC are paying $450m for Onshape! 

    These numbers simply cannot be correct, can they? If they are, then the purchase is just a really bad business purchase, isn't it? Can the development team really be worth that much? If they are not correct, then not sure what to think about publishing them - at all.

    Any way I will enjoy Onshape for now and watch closely as to how the future unfolds. I'm a single user with very little at stake and hope everyone benefits, or at least is not harmed in any real fashion, from this purchase.
  • Alkis_KaraolisAlkis_Karaolis Member Posts: 10 PRO
    Congratulations to Onshape.
    PTC clearly bough you for the technology and talent, certainly not for the user base as you only have 5000 users.
    Creo use the Granite kernel which was developed in-house by PTC. Onshape uses Parasolid kernel which is now owned by Siemens (Siemens NX is a competitor of PTC)
    PTC will need to recoup their 470mil cost and clearly this will not happen from the licensing fees of just 5000 users. I think they will expand their kernel and make Creo or an incarnation of Creo available online, just like Onshape is.
    When this happens they will not have a use for 2 different kernels. Licensing Parasolid will cost them money and they will also need to hire programmers to maintain 2 different technologies.

    So...Onshape will most likely disappear in a few years.
  • michał_1michał_1 Member, Developers Posts: 214 ✭✭✭
    edited October 2019
    BS
    Now it's just a matter of time... don't believe me? Read the same announcement but put Autodesk instead of PTC.
    This is the reason why I always was defending Onshape when they were trimming free license.
    Regardless of all that, GREAT JOB ONSHAPE.
    This is the best CAD experience I've ever had.  No other CAD can beat the convenience of working in Onshape.
  • tim_hess427tim_hess427 Member Posts: 648 ✭✭✭✭
    @larry_hawes and @mechanica_de - I think there's a couple of things missing from our analysis of the number of Onshape subscribers in relation to the purchase price. My assumptions may be way off, but here's how I'm thinking about this: 

    1) We know that the average subscription price is likely going to be between $1,500 and $2,100 since. (This is assuming the number of reported subscriptions is only including paid subscriptions. It's possible the average is outside this range due to some accounts being grand-fathered in with lower prices and some people possibly paying more for enterprise.)
    2) The press release also mentioned $5,000 subscribers. What they don't say is the number of USERS. Again, here, the average number of users per subscriber is going to be more than one since Pro and Enterprise subscribers can have more than one paid users. 
    3) We don't know the exact make-up of the $470M. It's likely some combination of cash and PTC stock. Paying out $470M in cash is a lot different than paying $170M in cash along with $300M in stock. 

    So, if we assume the 5,000 subscribers have 5 users on average and spend $1,800 per user - we have $45M, which would increase PTC's revenue by about 3.5%. This would also mean that the valuation of $470M is 10.5 times Onshape's revenue. This still seems a little high (10x valuations aren't common), but we're just guessing at the average $$/user and the number of users per account and the amount of stock used in the transaction could also inflate the reported price. But, to me, it doesn't seem unreasonable for Onshape's revenue to be in the $50M ballpark (and likely growing!). 


  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,470 PRO
    edited October 2019
    My hopes are still high, Onshape owners have now team and enough money to start over as completely independent once they look this card first. If they still see cad business as a good way to spend their money  ;)

    I was too amazed of only 5k subs (in 170+ countries). That would explain a lot of perfect customer care and superior response time and making us all feel like equally important. If you compare to SW: "Today (10/2016), there are over 2.3 million active users at over 234,800 companies in 80 countries, and that number continues to grow.source

    Onshape appears to have ~120 employees so roughly 40 paying customers ($60-85k turnover) per employee. While SW has ~1800 employees / 1280 users per employee.   

    On the other hand as former VAR for Alibre - I know how 'easy' it is to convince someone to exchange their current cad system. :disappointed:  

    About pricing, do you think Ptc going up with price to get more subs?
    I think they could make that highly requested middle tier and put Onshape seriously against F360 in terms of subscribers.
    There is only two things where big companies put their money eyes closed - if there is good chance to make even more money or if their competitor has something they don't. Of course there will be a day when subs base is enough to adjust pricing.

    Onshape deal means roughly 30% of single year revenue for PTC so it's like family buying electric car - of course they do have expectations but might as well just have it standing on drive way for neighbors. 'Usage cost' of Onshape's 120 person crew would be around 2% of total person expenses in PTC. 

    What this all means for existing users only time will tell..
    //rami
  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,470 PRO
    BTW Does anyone know about Fusion subscriber amounts? 
    //rami
  • larry_haweslarry_hawes Member Posts: 478 PRO
    @larry_hawes and @mechanica_de - I think there's a couple of things missing from our analysis of the number of Onshape subscribers in relation to the purchase price. My assumptions may be way off, but here's how I'm thinking about this: 

    1) We know that the average subscription price is likely going to be between $1,500 and $2,100 since. (This is assuming the number of reported subscriptions is only including paid subscriptions. It's possible the average is outside this range due to some accounts being grand-fathered in with lower prices and some people possibly paying more for enterprise.)
    2) The press release also mentioned $5,000 subscribers. What they don't say is the number of USERS. Again, here, the average number of users per subscriber is going to be more than one since Pro and Enterprise subscribers can have more than one paid users. 
    3) We don't know the exact make-up of the $470M. It's likely some combination of cash and PTC stock. Paying out $470M in cash is a lot different than paying $170M in cash along with $300M in stock. 

    So, if we assume the 5,000 subscribers have 5 users on average and spend $1,800 per user - we have $45M, which would increase PTC's revenue by about 3.5%. This would also mean that the valuation of $470M is 10.5 times Onshape's revenue. This still seems a little high (10x valuations aren't common), but we're just guessing at the average $$/user and the number of users per account and the amount of stock used in the transaction could also inflate the reported price. But, to me, it doesn't seem unreasonable for Onshape's revenue to be in the $50M ballpark (and likely growing!). 


    The point I would like to stress is why are we having this conversation in this forum? Why would PTC publish the number of subscribers (users whatever)? Why would they open themselves up to this kind of scrutiny and amateur, uninformed analysis?

    Sure, they do a billion blah blah blah, and Onshape will only get better blah blah blah, but the number of subscribers HAS to be one of the most guarded secrets a company can have, isn't it? Until the number gets really large, and a company can convince non-users to jump ship because that number is so large, it seems the actual number of subscribers, especially if it is very small which 5,000 certainly is, would be held closely. Again, where is the logic in publishing that specific number?

    I'm simply missing something here.
  • larry_haweslarry_hawes Member Posts: 478 PRO
    3dcad said:
    BTW Does anyone know about Fusion subscriber amounts? 
    I would be surprised if any company would divulge that kind of information, unless it's a huge number worth bragging about. Again, I am surely missing something, and no one at Onshape is going to care about these questions or theories which is fine, but my curiosity has the better of me - for now.
  • michael3424michael3424 Member Posts: 674 ✭✭✭✭
    3dcad said:
    I think they could make that highly requested middle tier and put Onshape seriously against F360 in terms of subscribers.

    From your lips to PTCs ears.  I'm not holding my breath, though.
  • NikNYCNikNYC Member Posts: 68 ✭✭
    edited October 2019
    Wild coincidence that I personally don’t need Onshape any more like I did the last year since Rhino lacks sheet metal and my employer uses only Inventor for that which is a massive pain for me to use such that I refuse to adopt it. But their sheet metal expert was nearly fired at his other job for moonlighting. So serious sheet metal assemblies from Inventor dropped into my lap a week ago. Bringing them into Onshape simply failed since dozens of parts then lacked parametric history and lacked glitch free conversion to sheet metal too.

    So I used Grasshopper in Rhino with some Rhinocommon/Python help to completely solve sheet metal unfolding in Rhino where it’s so easy to “direct edit” existing non-parametric models. I did this using pure geometry, namely using the measured bend reduction to calculate the neutral axis depth into the sheet and using Rhino’s ability to unwrap developable surfaces mathematically. Simply polysurface offsetting from the folded 3D model outer surface, with a appropriate bend radius fillets included in the model already, gives a perfect unwrapped flat pattern based on our physically measured bend reduction.

    However, I still very much want flat pattern sheet metal in the iPhone version, so I can play around casually with ideas. I also still use Onshape mobile as a shop floor tool surrounded by fabricator questions. I use it personally at home exclusively on mobile, for serious design work. Eventually I would’ve learned FeautureScript but since my boss is very unlikely to subscribe to Onshape now, after my Rhino sheetmetal breakthrough, it’s just a casual toy and shop floor convenience I export assembly models to from Rhino. At best I might upgrade them from Inventor to Fusion. Onshape mobile is extremely useful overall. I even run it on mobile browsers to peek at sheet metal flat patterns and my recent interest in Featurescript was to indeed extract real flat pattern files on mobile.

    What other iPhone app lets me find dimensions on a shop floor? And isolate a part in ghosted context? Only Onshape so far.
  • philip_thomasphilip_thomas Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,381
    @michael3424 - Onshape is very different to any offering from Autodesk. There are no other full-cloud pro grade SAAS offerings period. The value proposition of Onshape includes Release Management, part numbering, custom workflows, role based access controls, built in 2 factor, SSO security and SOC2 type 2 security compliance, real time company metrics and reports, task lists and ECO process control. Our pro users are escapees (mostly) from Enovia, PDMpro (EPDM), Smart Team, TeamCenter (and yes) WindChill - Autodesk has no Enterprise Grade PDM+/PLM system for us to compete against. Why am I talking about PDM/PLM and not some fancy CAD capability - look what our Pro Users are asking for! They have driven us here - we are a zero IT footprint, fileless PDM+/PLM company (and we cost less :)). Yes we have CAD - of course, and yes that CAD competes with Inventor (and everyone else), but not through the lens of PDM (not a fair fight). There simply isn't another paying customer base that Autodesk has that we want - we have a free plan and they have a free plan, users have free choice as to which product they use, there is nothing for us to compete against.  This isn't a 'better than thou' speech, this is just transparency and open insight into our market positioning.
    Philip Thomas - Onshape
  • NikNYCNikNYC Member Posts: 68 ✭✭
    The END of Onshape? Does he have any good points?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v0USh10jmg
    He failed to discover that Onshape allows you to tweak the display mesh fineness so he ridicules the toy like nature of the default display that turns circles into polylines. I honestly hadn’t even noticed this display glitch until I zoomed in after seeing his video. Two minutes later I had perfect circles since Onshape settings are not hidden.
  • larry_haweslarry_hawes Member Posts: 478 PRO
    The END of Onshape? Does he have any good points?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v0USh10jmg
    He failed to discover that Onshape allows you to tweak the display mesh fineness so he ridicules the toy like nature of the default display that turns circles into polylines. I honestly hadn’t even noticed this display glitch until I zoomed in after seeing his video. Two minutes later I had perfect circles since Onshape settings are not hidden.
    I think the linked video, and this thread, refers more to the purchase of Onshape by PTC than mesh fineness but I might have missed that point. Did you view the video? I don't have any allegiance to any of his points, again regarding the purchase of Onshape by PTC, and of course as principals in the company many posters here cannot allow themselves to agree with any of his points, but what about customers? Does he have any good points Onshape customers should consider? Curious...
  • larry_haweslarry_hawes Member Posts: 478 PRO
    @michael3424 - Onshape is very different to any offering from Autodesk. There are no other full-cloud pro grade SAAS offerings period. The value proposition of Onshape includes Release Management, part numbering, custom workflows, role based access controls, built in 2 factor, SSO security and SOC2 type 2 security compliance, real time company metrics and reports, task lists and ECO process control. Our pro users are escapees (mostly) from Enovia, PDMpro (EPDM), Smart Team, TeamCenter (and yes) WindChill - Autodesk has no Enterprise Grade PDM+/PLM system for us to compete against. Why am I talking about PDM/PLM and not some fancy CAD capability - look what our Pro Users are asking for! They have driven us here - we are a zero IT footprint, fileless PDM+/PLM company (and we cost less :)). Yes we have CAD - of course, and yes that CAD competes with Inventor (and everyone else), but not through the lens of PDM (not a fair fight). There simply isn't another paying customer base that Autodesk has that we want - we have a free plan and they have a free plan, users have free choice as to which product they use, there is nothing for us to compete against.  This isn't a 'better than thou' speech, this is just transparency and open insight into our market positioning.
    Yes indeed, rah rah for Onshape, and I agree with your assessment and love Onshape but this thread seems to be a bit more about Onshape being purchased by PTC for 470 million dollars than the great features of Onshape. Does that purchase figure not even give the principals of the company pause to question the amount and decision?

    And what about the real future of Onshape? Not from the unique and biased position as a principal in the company but from the position of a current customer? What should we really think about Onshape's future? How should we really plan on our future CAD needs? Why should we believe that PTC will continue to grow Onshape, not raise prices, and not orphan its user base as the world according to PTC changes and the business realities where an investment of $470,000,000 has to be recouped in some fashion?

    Still love Onshape and as I've previously stated I've never had a better experience with any company ever, but it's now a different company and can only measure future satisfaction as the future unfolds. I will keep my hopes high and my expectations low and continue to use Onshape as always.
  • emagdalenaC2iemagdalenaC2i Member, Developers, Channel partner Posts: 858 ✭✭✭✭✭
    ...And then for 45 minutes we analyzed and cheered and asked questions about demos of things we were all working hard on for 1.05 and beyond 
    @philip_thomas Have you been talking "45 minutes" about that //top-secret hole feature performance improvements// that @Jake_Rosenfeld mentioned?

    Or we should expect some important new functionality like the ones mentioned in @MBartlett21 spoiler?
    Un saludo,

    Eduardo Magdalena                         C2i Change 2 improve                         ☑ ¿Por qué no organizamos una reunión online?  
                                                                         Partner de PTC - Onshape                                     Averigua a quién conocemos en común
  • philip_thomasphilip_thomas Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,381
    @emagdalenaC2i - Eduardo, some of the stuff that Morgan (MBartlett21) found AND some other cool (secret) stuff that's coming. Jakes stuff is a little further out (it's a big project) :)
    Philip Thomas - Onshape
  • michael3424michael3424 Member Posts: 674 ✭✭✭✭
    @michael3424 - Onshape is very different to any offering from Autodesk. There are no other full-cloud pro grade SAAS offerings period. The value proposition of Onshape includes Release Management, part numbering, custom workflows, role based access controls, built in 2 factor, SSO security and SOC2 type 2 security compliance, real time company metrics and reports, task lists and ECO process control. Our pro users are escapees (mostly) from Enovia, PDMpro (EPDM), Smart Team, TeamCenter (and yes) WindChill - Autodesk has no Enterprise Grade PDM+/PLM system for us to compete against. Why am I talking about PDM/PLM and not some fancy CAD capability - look what our Pro Users are asking for! They have driven us here - we are a zero IT footprint, fileless PDM+/PLM company (and we cost less :)). Yes we have CAD - of course, and yes that CAD competes with Inventor (and everyone else), but not through the lens of PDM (not a fair fight). There simply isn't another paying customer base that Autodesk has that we want - we have a free plan and they have a free plan, users have free choice as to which product they use, there is nothing for us to compete against.  This isn't a 'better than thou' speech, this is just transparency and open insight into our market positioning.
    No argument from me on any of those points.  For some context, I've used Alibre Expert dating back to their Version 6 and still use it for paying work.  I also have a paid annual subscription to F360 to hold the subscription price at a fairly low level (hopefully) in the event that it ever evolves into a CAD program that I *want* to use and for the CAM features which I will need for a future PocketNC 5-axis purchase.  I use the free Onshape version for hobby work, mostly one-off machine fixtures/parts and for 3D printing doodads.  I much prefer working in Onshape though and would happily throw the $400+ annual maintenance fee for that (plus some) into a middle-tier Onshape version.  Just trying to make a case here for a middle tier and I understand why Onshape (and especially PTC) would not care to pursue that market.  One can dream, and perhaps that's why I feel a bit like Quixote.

    No offense intended but I will be surprised if the free version is retained in its present state much after PTC takes over.  One of the principles promised years ago that all users in a certain class (including me) would get $150/year maintenance for life.  When new management too over, that fee went to $400/year and when 3DS took over, Alibre development stopped for a few years alltogether, though the maintenance fees didn't.  That sort of progression is just a fact of life in most cases.  Here's hoping Onshape will be more idealistic.

    I do still appreciate how my questions here are answered thoroughly and professionally despite not paying anything for the privilege.

  • philip_thomasphilip_thomas Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,381
    edited October 2019
    @michael3424 - No offense is taken and this is one of the better discussions on this thread and so I am happy to take the time to talk some of these issues through.
    I am sorry about your experience with Alibre - not the first time I have heard that story. One of the things you won't see from any company offering a SaaS solution (as far as I know) is 'lifetime' anything because it creates an accounting nightmare where that obligation sits on the books forever. It is also unrealistic to say 'the price will never change' - never is a long time. All we can honestly tell you is what our intentions are. We have no plans to; change the pricing, get rid of the free plan, change the kernel or mess with people in any way. Re Fusion, it's crown jewel is HSMWorks (I used to work there) and I happily recommend it to users looking for a CAM solution, but I find it highly unlikely that a company is going to use it for an Engineering platform at scale - it simply doesn't have the PDM+/PLM features needed.
    When people calm down and look at this rationally, they will see that there is a lot of upside for them :)

    Philip Thomas - Onshape
  • Michael_CoffeeMichael_Coffee Member Posts: 90 ✭✭✭
    Thank you guys for your responses. It's awesome that the Onshape staff is still on board with everything, so I hope we will see more updates down the line =D

    That said, I want to comment about some assumptions being made, and unfortunately, there isn't any method of proving them one way or another. However, I've tried doing some research and maybe this will give people some additional perspective. I didn't know some of this stuff until I started looking for it >.>

    According to macrotrends.net, PTC's revenue is $1.256 billion as of the past year from September 2018 to September 2019 and according to their LinkedIn page, they have a customer base of 28,000. Now, I'm assuming a "customer" refers to a business, so a company of ten people or a company of a hundred is still one customer.

    According to crunchbase.com, Onshape's revenue is $10.5 million and as we already know, a subscriber base of 5,000. Thinking back on it, I have to assume "subscribers" refer to customers the same way that PTC reports their customers, where one subscriber is a business, not an individual license. If this isn't the case, please correct me.

    With these numbers in mind, Onshape made bank on this deal of $470 million, we already know this, but what we don't know is how PTC is paying that out. It is over a third of PTC's revenue, so cash outright isn't how it's being done. My best guess, it's a combination of cash, stocks, board positions, and/or yearly checks. I address this because I'm seeing comments of "how PTC will make their money back?", "how is this a good business deal?", etc. Note that $470 million is not the biggest value of an acquisition. To my knowledge, because PTC is a public company, they are subjected to Federal law with how they report their finances. They don't have a choice in the matter. Because they are buying another company, it has to be reported. If PTC was private, they wouldn't have to say anything, but as they are public, they have to report it. Now, how are they making back their money? It will be over a period of time for the next few years, which makes the hit to their bank a bit less, and as they pay the buyout expense, they will be generating income from Onshape as they drive more and more customers to using it.

    Now, why would PTC acquire Onshape? Simple: they need a foot through the door into the SaaS world. PTC, while yes they have their own kernel for Creo and their PTC Cloud, do not have the same capacity as Onshape right now in the cloud environment. Over the past ten or so years, more and more non-CAD businesses have been going toward cloud services with their programs. You can see this with Netflix, Xbox, HBO, Hulu, Amazon, etc. You can see how well they work. It helps to eliminate piracy (sort-of), they have more control over the service itself, but it forces competition to be more transparent. If one service does something better than another, people will talk.

    Take Creo and Windchill. While yes, they have said they will continue to develop their programs, but for how long? Onshape is completely in the Cloud and will only grow to replace their cloud capabilities. Not to mention it replaces your computer's hardware requirements, being able to be run on just about any smart phone and computer. Given enough time, cloud for Creo and Windchill will become obsolete, not because they are no longer relevant, but because Onshape, with funding from PTC, will completely eclipse them in efficiency and management, both as a CAD program and replacing their PLM program. Why? Because if they don't, someone else will. The advantages of using a cloud CAD program versus a traditional program on your computer is too good to pass up. Both Dassault and Autodesk recognized this and have already developed services around this idea. Die-hard users of traditional CAD will still refuse to go to the cloud, but is that good for the long run?

    Someone I talked to asked "who at PTC would want Onshape?" Short answer: quite a few actually. Take for example Volvo.


    Onshape, right now, could solve quite a few of Volvo's problems from what I'm seeing in this article. Sure, it's not that simple, but it is an example of what Onshape could tackle.

    I'm saying all of this because businesses are still run by people. As long as we keep talking about what we think when it comes to Onshape, someone will listen. Whether anything happens is another story, but I'm optimistic =)
  • michael3424michael3424 Member Posts: 674 ✭✭✭✭
    @michael3424 - No offense is taken and this is one of the better discussions on this thread and so I am happy to take the time to talk some of these issues through.

    Thanks for comprehending my poorly worded/phrased comments.  I do appreciate Onshape's intent to follow through on the aforementioned commitments and would be less concerned were PTC (or any other big, public company) not involved.  Time will tell and I will just hope that I can continue to affordably use Onshape.  I really do like it a lot more than any other CAD product that I've tried and feel a lot more productive with it.

    In any case, best wishes on a successful transition for the Onshape team - from my perspective you guys really deserve it.

    Mike
  • ilya_baranilya_baran Onshape Employees, Developers, HDM Posts: 1,173
    @steve_shubin
    I admit, I got warm fuzzies reading your post.  Thanks!  :)
    Ilya Baran \ VP, Architecture and FeatureScript \ Onshape Inc
  • Jake_RosenfeldJake_Rosenfeld Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,646
    ...And then for 45 minutes we analyzed and cheered and asked questions about demos of things we were all working hard on for 1.05 and beyond 
    @philip_thomas Have you been talking "45 minutes" about that //top-secret hole feature performance improvements// that @Jake_Rosenfeld mentioned?

    Or we should expect some important new functionality like the ones mentioned in @MBartlett21 spoiler?
    @emagdalenaC2i I personally spent my 45 minutes talking to @ilya_baran and @kevin_o_toole_1 about one of the functionalities that @MBartlett21 teased, and how it ties in with all the other parts of the system.  Some very cool stuff coming soon :+1: (a lot cooler than just making the hole feature faster)

    Jake Rosenfeld - Modeling Team
  • BMcGaffeyBMcGaffey Member Posts: 29 ✭✭
    Congratulations to all at Onshape. Relatively new user here, looking forward to all the cool stuff the future has to offer! 

    Cheers, 
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