What do you like best about the product?

It is in the cloud
Is is accessible by all team members
A good way of managing versions
Low starting costs
Easy to learn as a starter
(Is my first CAD experience)

What do you dislike about the product?

I find the way to make BOMs complex. Why not start an automatic BOM using part names.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use OnShape for making conceptual designs of equipment or plant, for:
Discussing best solutions
Checking weights, costs
Presenting results
Sharing STP files
I don’t know how to do this without OnShape.



I do not use it yet for production drawings.

Apart from business use, I also use it privately for home renovations, interior design, custom-made furniture.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

If you are working with a team that is all over the place in location and time, OnShape is the way to keep everyone on the same page. No stress.

What do you like best about the product?

1. Version control: allows quick, painless workflows for testing new ideas and keeping track of old designs

2. Cloud-based: I recently found myself in the field and needing to check a design. Luckily I had my phone---and so was able to pull up our CAD directly in the Onshape app. There's also no hassle with changing between computers, operating systems, working from home, etc.

3. Support Team: they're fast and effective. In the event that the issue stems from a software bug, they can make the fix directly and get your document back up and running.

4. Intuitive: My company used to use a different CAD system. I occasionally open it up to run a quick simulation.....and a few hairs turn gray every time. No software is perfect, but Onshape usually just makes sense.

5. Frequent feature updates: approximately every 3 weeks new features are released. There's no upgrade hassle...this happens in the background. Updates are actually a joy (the new features feel like Christmas!), instead of a pain.

What do you dislike about the product?

1. Lack of affordable simulation tools (compared to Autodesk Suite): we still have to use our old software for this functionality

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

We use Onshape to design our micro wind turbine and to configure our solar roof installation. The FeatureScript functionality (ability to write custom features....like "Extrude" or "Revolve", but customized) allowed us to create a tool which semi-automatically configures and fits our modular system to a given roof.

What do you like best about the product?

The built-in version control system is incredible - infinite undo, branching, release control & graphical version comparison. They really do have a philosophy of building the best tools that they can conceive of, not just cloning the functionality from other systems. The version control, configuration system, exploded views and support are primary examples of this.

The support system is one of the best of any product or service I have used either professionally or personally. They actually always respond, promptly. They are also helpful, willing to address individual design issues as well as actual bugs - eg 'I want to achieve a feature something like this, but can't work out the best approach to achieve it with your tools, help'.

What do you dislike about the product?

There are some features that are still weak or missing but these are now reduced to irritations rather than problems. For me, personally, I would like more manual / freehand tools within drawings. The entry to use is low as the system requirements are minimal, there is still a free plan available for casual public use, and the UI is intuitive. However, the radial architecture of the system and the willingness to produce unique tools and approaches mean that using Onshape to the best advantage does require training/experience/support. Fortunately this is all freely available, and of good quality.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Onshape is our primary mechanical CAD system. We moved away from SolidWorks several years ago in order to break the painful hardware / version upgrade cycle and because we didn't like the way that, as a small company, SolidWorks' VAR treated us. When we started actively looking at the CAD market, we soon realised how bloated and stagnant our legacy CAD had become. Onshape was a revelation for us. The freedom to run anywhere, on any system (as long as you have a good internet connection) has been immense - not only from an IT management perspective but also opening up new use. We've also been able to give free read only access to our design interfaces on our own website to support our customers.

Onshape has grown a lot since we first stated using it, there are automatic updates every three weeks and it's always great to see new tools and toys become available.

What do you like best about the product?

The most powerful feature is cloud based. I can worl from everywhere, forget about file magement and have full integration of different components.

What do you dislike about the product?

The tool has been updated through the years and has always cover any small weakness it could have. Also the Support is incredible. You always have a solution.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I have the versions very well controlled and I have forget about save the files and take care of the archives.

What do you like best about the product?

Mate tools for positionning features on assembly .

What do you dislike about the product?

i dislike nothing, just we need to get an external ap for rendering .

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

integrated external 3D board design with altium in a box.

What do you like best about the product?

Powerful system to implement without requiring expensive computer resources.

What do you dislike about the product?

Lacking some of the power resources like automatic pipe routing. The standard insert parts in the assembly plane should include standard pipe fittings. Also, It does not calculate cross sectional moments of inertia. Mass moments are important, but not the only needed geometric information.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I am designing powerful water treatment equipment used in a wide spectrum of industry from Oil & Gas Production to Municipal Wastewater. As a hobby, I use OnShape to design and plan my racing sailboat, for home construction.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

For most solid modeling applications, I solidly recommend OnShape. It is a complete package for the design and production of real products.

What do you like best about the product?

I appreciate the most the strong user feedback and support.

What do you dislike about the product?

There is always room for improved features. Some examples would be a flattening tool for plat patterns or the ability to integrate management tools like zoom, powerpoint, or google apps.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use onshape to create models for prototype and manufacturing. I am especially impressed with the drawing and BOM tools.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

Watch a couple of the tutorials, try the free version, make something, and share it with others. It pretty much sells itself.

What do you like best about the product?

It always work, on any platform, support J's outstanding and new features are added Ona monthly basis.

What do you dislike about the product?

Cost is a little steep for very small companies who need this kind of tool only a few days a year.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I create objects ranging from cabinets to wearable, but also construction project, share the models with suppliers and clients that can easily validate or built right from the 3d.

I was able to streamline my process and cut back on 90% of drafting.

What do you like best about the product?

Cloud based, real time collaboration, integrated release management, in context design, and a clean and fresh look make Onshape a pleasure to use.

What do you dislike about the product?

Changing CAD systems is always hard and migrating in legacy data structures correctly requires careful thought and attention. This isn't an Onshape specific flaw, but something encountered whenever switching CAD systems.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

We switched to Onshape about a year before the Corona virus hit. Now that we are in the age of Covid-19 and working remotely, this was a very timely decision. We were able to continue working from home with zero disruption. Before, working remotely with Solidworks, PDM, and VPN's always caused us headaches. Solidworks/PDM was too slow over the VPN, and working "offline" has numerous drawbacks. None of which exist in Onshape.

The amount of design time is per project is less in Onshape than Solidworks. The concept of "in context" modeling actually works in Onshape and saves a significant amount of time. We've found that especially for early conceptual development tasks, Onshape significantly reduces the design time. If you are considering Onshape, take a good look at the "in context" abilities Onshape has to offer. In Solidworks, we generally avoided in context design because it would always fail somewhere, and we'd constantly be fighting broken mates. It flows much more smoothly in Onshape. For assemblies where parts are highly related to each other, the design gets done easily in half the time.

A similar time saver in Onshape is that you can work concurrently on the same part or assembly. I don't have to wait for my colleague to check back in the assembly so I can work on it, for example. We can both be working on the same thing at the same time and see each others progress in real time. It is not possible to overwrite each others work. This is a huge deal when under a time crunch - you can easily throw more resources at a particular design to get it done faster.

Release management in Onshape is actually baked into the product and not an afterthought like PDM. I felt like I was always fighting Solidworks PDM, never just using it. Making sure people check there stuff in, uploading files generated offline correctly, updating both the server and client software, etc. was just a hassle and waste of time. All of those issues are gone with Onshape.

Software management is essentially nonexistent in Onshape. No more service packs, upgrades, version conflicts etc. It all just works and is always current. I don't ever have to think about managing the CAD or PDM software anymore.

Lastly, Onshape support is excellent. Their responses are fast and they actually know what they are talking about. How many times in Solidworks have you contacted your reseller with an issue and they responded with something like, "yeah that's a known bug, we'll add you to the ticket and you'll be notified when it's fixed". And, did it ever get fixed? I can't think of any for me that were. Onshape on the other hand, pushes out new releases every few weeks (transparently). The few bugs I've come across were all fixed after I reported them, some as quickly as the same day. That level of support is really nice, especially if you've never experienced it before from a software company.

What do you like best about the product?

I love the stability with referencing and the control parts don't get repeated. The fact that it's constantly updating and getting better on a weekly or monthly basis is one of the absolute best things, especially that the updates are based on user feedback.

What do you dislike about the product?

The only downside I've found so far is that some important features are still missing, so there is still a little bit of limited functionality, however, with the updates, these limitations are removed frequently, and it's constantly getting better.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Onshape is helping us collaborate and share our engineering files better, and I'm finding that my projects are getting to prototype stage much faster. The fact that we don't have to manually reference files to eachother anymore is a big time saver.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

Keep experimenting and learning more. Always reach out to the excellent team when you have a problem!