Onshape

Onshape launches sheet metal design tools

February 7, 2017 By Leslie Langnau Leave a Comment

Onshape, a leading professional 3D CAD platform for Agile Product Design, introduces sheet metal design capabilities. The cloud-based design tools enable faster creation and refinement of sheet metal parts with simultaneous generation of editable, synchronized flat, folded and tabular views.

“This has been one of the most highly anticipated enhancements requested by our customers,” says Scott Harris, Onshape’s VP of Product Definition and User Experience. “We’re proud to be delivering new tools that you can’t find anywhere else in the CAD industry. Our team has completely rethought and re-engineered the way sheet metal parts are designed and prepared for manufacturing.”

Sheet metal professionals can speed up their design process in the following ways:

Simultaneous Sheet Metal Views: Unlike traditional desktop-installed CAD systems that force users to work in only one mode (flat, folded or tabular) at a time, Onshape shows all representations in one simultaneous view. When designers edit one view, the other two are synchronized automatically using Onshape’s full-cloud database architecture. Seeing the flat and folded views side-by-side lets users visualize errors and interferences immediately, consider alternatives and ultimately, reduce scrap and wasted time.
Editing Sheet Metal From a Bend Table View: The manufacturer can quickly change the parameters of a model in a bend table view – such as the radius or order of individual bends – while preserving the original design intent and seeing the impact immediately on the flat and folded views.

“Onshape’s Simultaneous Sheet Metal Views allow you to create your model easier with more flexibility,” adds Harris. “Part of the beauty here is that you can start down one path and if things aren’t right, you can just change it around without having to start over again. In fact, you can refactor your model by switching around rips and bends.”

“This is going to prevent a lot of headaches between designers and manufacturers, because almost all sheet metal work is done collaboratively. We created the system to allow designers to build in design intent and allow fabricators to adjust the model based on specific tooling, without violating the design intent,” he says.

The new precision sheet metal features, now concluding early visibility testing, will be made available to all Onshape users in a near-term release.

Onshape
onshape.com

FeatureScript amps up power of Onshape

August 1, 2016 By Marisa Martin Leave a Comment

By Bruce Jenkins, President, Ora Research

Full-cloud CAD pioneer Onshape amped up the power and utility of its software with FeatureScript, a new programming language that lets users create new parametric features that look, feel and behave just like Onshape’s built-in features.

FeatureScript Curve Pattern. Source: Onshape

This is the same language used by Onshape itself to develop all of its software’s current features—Extrude, Fillet, Shell, Loft and the like. Now available as an open language, FeatureScript lets users create their own built-in parametric features in Onshape.

Under the open-source MIT License, Onshape is also sharing the FeatureScript source code for all of its own features, allowing customers to copy, modify or adapt them as they see fit. New features can be created, and existing features edited, in Onshape’s new Feature Studio, a user-friendly development environment with an editor, in-line help and documentation.

Putting the user in control of feature enhancements

By making both FeatureScript and the source code behind its own features public, Onshape is offering what it characterizes as the first truly customizable parametric CAD feature set. We agree with the company’s assessment that its software is the first professional CAD solution to offer this level of customization to its users.

FeatureScript Lighten. Source: Onshape

Onshape Director of FeatureScript Ilya Baran explains, “This is the first time that a professional CAD system has made the implementation of its parametric features open and extensible. In the past, the only way to change your feature toolbar would be to submit an enhancement request to your CAD vendor and wait forever. And most of those requests are never fulfilled. FeatureScript swings the pendulum back and puts you in control.”

Beyond macro scripting: FeatureScript features are “first-class citizens”

Baran continues, “In traditional desktop-installed CAD systems, it is possible to write add-on or macro features, but they are never as good as the built-in ones. FeatureScript offers the first opportunity to create features that are first-class citizens—as much a part of the system as the ones the development team wrote themselves.”

Onshape describes a few of the many possible uses for FeatureScript:

Creating new high-level parametric features that perform complex or customized geometric modeling tasks. The benefit of such custom features is to let users design their products faster than they could with traditional off-the-shelf features.
Customizing existing features to suit user preferences for working fast and efficiently—for example, a surface split feature that splits and preserves exactly the pieces that a particular user prefers.
Combining existing features into one, such as a drafted filleted pocket.
Filling in some current gaps in CAD functionality, such as a customized extrude option, or a particular type of 3D spline curve fitted through points or driven by an equation.
Creating surfaces using data from uploaded CSV or other data files.
Building specialized patterns such as sinusoidal or other unusual pattern geometries with unique per-instance behavior.
Building a specialized toolkit for an individual company’s specific application needs—for example, custom gears, enclosures or connectors that are used over and over again in the company’s products.

Custom features yield up to 30X productivity gains

Onshape founder Jon Hirschtick observes, “For 30 years, feature-based modeling has relied on a limited set of off-the-shelf features. With FeatureScript, we are ushering in a new era of custom parametrics. Our early adopters have proven that with the ability to use custom features that they write or have others write for them, they’re able to significantly speed up their design process.” Early adopters report that FeatureScript features provide as much as 30-fold productivity gains, according to Onshape.

Pointing to still more potential leverage from the new technology, Hirschtick adds, “Customers who develop new features in FeatureScript are free to do with them as they please. Some may wish to sell them or share them with the community. Others might choose to keep their FeatureScript features proprietary as a competitive advantage.”

Ora Research
oraresearch.com

CAD-in-the-cloud moves closer to real-time sharing

April 8, 2016 By Jean Thilmany Leave a Comment

by Jean Thilmany, Contributing Editor

“The roughly $9 billion CAD market remains very fragmented and stuck in the old desktop paradigm,” said Jon Hirschtick, Onshape founder and chairman of the board. (Hirschtick and fellow Onshape founder John McEleney started CAD company SolidWorks in the early 1990s.)

Other companies, notably Autodesk, Dassault Systemes, and PTC, include CAD-in-the-cloud offerings and also make desktop software. Onshape differs from these in that its software exists fully in the cloud and can be used by multiple users in real time.

“With our cloud approach, engineers don’t pull CAD files from a cloud-based server as exists in other methods,” said Hirschtick. “The other cloud CAD services are copy-based, meaning that the software and files are on the cloud and the engineer copies them from the cloud to the desktop.

Onshape-Laptop-and-Phone — Onshape offers software that exists fully in the cloud and can be used by multiple users in real time. In addition, this software can be used by authorized engineers working on any device with Internet access.

“When you copy and install the software off the cloud server, hopefully it’s the same software. But what if it was upgraded?” continued Hirschtick. “With most CAD-in-the-cloud systems, multiple people can take a copy out of the cloud vault and move it to their local computer and work on it. But if I work on a copy of the same model at the same time as you, and I make a change and put it back, my changes can overwrite your changes, and your changes are gone. I can lock it in, but then I need to indicate to you to stop working on it while I work on it.”

Version control is an issue with many CAD software programs. It is too easy for various versions of a file to exist on multiple engineers’ desktops. A drawback is that this often slows design efforts as engineers must constantly check and recheck files. “That method of operating is at odds with the need to move faster in the global market,” added Hirschtick. Onshape, though, offers an alternative.

Real-time sharing
The Onshape programs are structured like business database applications such as accounting systems. CAD application functions don’t automatically override engineer changes.

“Versioning” is built in. File changes are tracked in a central database. Because any engineer with permission can access the software from any device with Internet connection, engineers in different places can work together on a design, such as a power supply for example. There’s only one power supply file; Onshape doesn’t copy it.

“If multiple engineers happen to be working on that file at the same time, there’s no problem. If one engineer rounded a corner and another one drilled a hole, both changes get captured,” said Hirschtick. “If we’re both rounding a corner at the same time, you would see my hand there in real time—at the same table—and a box around the corner would indicate that another engineer is editing that right now.”

Hosted or on-premises?
The many CAD-cloud systems operate differently as far as subscription services. “Onshape’s pricing model is a disruptive component of its strategy to make CAD more accessible,” noted Bruce Jenkins, founder of Ora Research, which provides business research on new technologies.

V-Twin-Engine-Piston-II — Comparing hosted and on-premise applications is not an apples-to-apples comparison, which makes it difficult to arrive at a bottom-line savings.

The professional version of Onshape’s CAD software costs $100 per month and runs on any web browser with Internet access. There’s also a free version. Both plans allow access to all Onshape’s functions, but the free plan has data storage limits and restricts the number of private documents a user can access at any time. The professional subscription requires no commitment beyond the one-month term.

Though pricing is accessible, companies looking to bring in cloud-based CAD software will still need to investigate pricing pros and cons, say experts versed in cloud-based software, which is also known as “software as a service” or “hosted software.”

According to market research firm IDC, sales of cloud-based software are expected to surpass $100B by 2018, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 21.3%. The company predicts the subscription-based software-as-a-service delivery model will significantly outpace traditional software product delivery, growing nearly 5x faster than the entire software market and accounting for $1 of every $5 spent on software by 2018.

Though the popularity of delivering applications with the cloud is growing, … “the decision to move pertinent applications to the cloud isn’t a no-brainer,” said R. Andrew Sroka, CEO at Fischer International Systems, which helps companies manage identities for on-premise and cloud-based applications.

Comparing hosted and on-premise applications is not an apples-to-apples comparison, which makes it difficult to arrive at a bottom-line savings.

To determine whether cloud-based or on-premise software is the better choice, users need to evaluate what is most valuable to the enterprise—whether its flexibility or risk-management or the possible benefits of housing a solution on-site—and determine which method will meet engineering needs.

With cloud-based systems, issues of total cost of ownership and return on investment are generally murky because companies want to see how cloud applications compare to traditional on-site infrastructure.

“But there are so many intangibles wrapped up in the cloud that it makes it hard to put calculations on it,” added Sroka.

Pros and cons
The simplest measure is to compare up-front costs, including costs to buy versus recurring subscription fees. Cloud subscription options are considered easily scalable. Adding or subtracting subscriptions can generally be handled with a phone call to the cloud provider. So, which is better for your needs—a monthly fee or paying for the whole software usage up front?

Most cloud service providers automatically update their programs. Thus, IT staff can focus on other tasks and engineers know they are working with the latest version of the applications.

“But with capital expenses, licensing and physical hardware, costs are not the whole story,” said Sroka. “It’s important to factor in expenses like utility costs and power requirements.”

Ipad-Bracket-Live-Action — Forecasters predict sales of cloud-based software to surpass $100 billion by 2018. The subscription-based software-as-a-service delivery model will significantly outpace traditional software product delivery, growing nearly five times faster than the entire software market and accounting for $1 of every $5 spent on software by 2018.

Also be sure to consider intangible costs and concerns, such as the pitfalls and benefits of on-site administration. “A cloud model removes many administration tasks that employees needed to handle,” continued Sroka, “so a lot of vendors will say that a cloud option lets you take X number of fulltime employees out of the picture. Or you can look at it as now you have more people to devote to other tasks needed by your company. You have to look at the value of what else they can do for your business after they are removed from the infrastructure administration tasks.”

Don’t forget to consider the costs of periodic infrastructure upgrades by some offerings, these will add to the total costs.

Security
One aspect of comparison worth considering is how the cloud service handles the security of your information, whether in the cloud or on engineers’ desktops. Experts don’t offer clear advice here, coming down on both sides of the which-is-more-secure debate.

“Cloud-based tools, if not secured, can be hacked,” said Donald Hasson, product engineer at Bomgar, which makes remote support software.

But Gil Zimmermann, CEO at CloudLock, a cloud data-security provider, counters that—at many enterprises—user access is the biggest threat to enterprise security. “With the best intentions, users might take home information on a USB drive or email it to someone outside the company,” he said. “Cloud applications are quite well protected because their vendors stake their businesses on security.”

Whichever choice you make, as Jenkins noted, engineers will be designing in the cloud in the coming years.

Reprint info >>

Onshape
www.onshape.com

Onshape: Future of CAD—or future of PLM?

June 16, 2015 By Paul Heney Leave a Comment

By Bruce Jenkins, President, Ora Research LLC

“Is Onshape intending to develop PLM eventually, or are they going to go the route of partners to provide that?” Thus posted a user in Onshape’s online discussion forum, continuing: “I ask because Onshape is a database system with the correct platform to seemingly handle this functionality.”

Lou Gallo, a member of Onshape’s User Experience, Product Definition & Support team, posted this reply: “Time will tell but our focus is CAD and rethinking that tool and the close necessities for CAD to be successful and efficient. PLM, as you already know, is its own animal and talking to those systems seems to be the more near term solution. Still very early days…”

The first part of his post notwithstanding, Gallo’s suggestive closing words reminded us that many of Onshape’s renowned leadership team have made clear they intend to devote the rest of their professional lives to making Onshape the capstone of their careers. It’s hard not to suspect these visionaries have substantially more far-reaching plans than just moving parametric detail design to the cloud.

Indeed, Steve Hess, another member of Onshape’s UX/PD team, followed up Gallo by posting: “As you know Onshape was built with data management in mind. The data management features of Onshape are at the core of the product and will become more exposed as Onshape matures.”

“In time, Onshape will be the system of record for all types of data & meta-data (data about the data) allowing you to run analysis and simulations…without having [to] copy or reproduce the information in another system. The data stored in Onshape will be visible and accessible to your other enterprise systems.”

A further clue to the scope and scale of Onshape’s larger ambitions was revealed several weeks ago when the company became the first engineering design software developer to declare itself “all-in” on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud platform for ISVs. “An ‘all-in’ commitment,” Amazon notes, “is a strategic declaration from the executive team at the APN [Amazon Partner Network] Partner’s firm. They have declared that AWS is their strategic cloud platform. This means that AWS is the core infrastructure powering their SaaS offerings.”

Onshape CEO John McEleney explained, “Onshape relies on AWS’s high-bandwidth networks to allow secure, real-time collaboration between our users. The global placement of Amazon’s Regions allowed us to easily distribute our compute instances worldwide to minimize latency to our users. The performance, reliability and flexibility of AWS’s services shortened Onshape’s time to market and gave us a huge technological advantage in the highly competitive CAD market.”

Key is that Onshape was “built from scratch on AWS,” the company says. Using a “unique computational architecture on AWS,” Onshape gives users secure and simultaneous access to a single master version of their data without software licenses or copying files.

These aspects of its technology, its “all-in” AWS commitment, and the many hints coming from its executives and technologists all suggest that, beyond the revolution it is bringing to CAD and 3D modeling, Onshape’s ambition is not just to liberate engineers from the chains of PDM. The company’s fundamental goal, we’re convinced, is to evolve a new engineering-platform paradigm that will free both individual engineers and product development organizations from many of the overhead burdens imposed by today’s PLM systems.

In short—how long before Onshape openly declares what we think is already emerging as its ultimate value proposition:

Who’s “all-in” for a post-PLM world?

Onshape Cloud-Based CAD Opens to Public Beta

March 9, 2015 By Barb Schmitz Leave a Comment

Amid a great amount of excitement and speculation, Onshape finally makes its first public appearance when the cloud-based CAD product opens today for public beta testing. Now everyone can see for themselves what all the hubbub has been about.

The company behind the product is backed by multiple ex-SolidWorks employees and is spearheaded by SolidWorks founder, Jon Hirschtick, now founder of Onshape. The talented team behind the product is part of the reason why the product is getting so much attention and sparking considerable curiosity among the user community.

The other “part” is that it’s the industry’s fist fully fledged, cloud-based CAD product. No downloading of software involved. No renewal of licenses required. No IT support needed. You can run it on a tablet or smartphone; no expensive souped-up workstation required. And, the biggie: it’s free. Yes, you heard right, but more on that later.

Over the last six months, over a thousand users in 52 countries have put Onshape through its paces in pre-production testing, many of which are now shipping products that were designed with Onshape.

Cloud-based Onshape CAD software makes its highly anticipated public beta debut. Click below to watch Onshape videos.

What is Onshape?

OnShape is the first full-cloud 3D CAD system that can run on most web browsers on any device (tablet, smartphone, computer). Regardless of what platform you’re running Onshape on, the performance will be the same since you are utilizing cloud-based computing resources with thousands of cores available; not on-board computing. In addition to device independence, this ability also means that all users will always be working on the same version of the software, eliminating the often encountered issue of incompatibility.

With former SolidWorks developers behind the wheel at Onshape, users need not worry about the interface; it’s intuitive and browser-based so even first-time users should be able to pick it up relatively easily. The system uses familiar parametric and direct modeling techniques and file version control is inherent in the system. Just as Google Docs constantly save, so does Onshape. Being cloud-based, Onshape will constantly be improved upon and users will instantly have access to all updates.

Easier Collaboration, anyone?

To me, one of the coolest things about Onshape is the way it handles data management. Teams can access the same documents simultaneously while directly working on the same part or assembly. All design participants can make–or watch others make–design changes in real-time directly on their own computers, tablets or phones. To differentiate between users, simple visuals indicate who is who during design collaboration sessions.

Once updates are made, team members can choose to merge these “branches” of the design and save only the designs selected as the best, though all previous versions are also saved for future reference.

Is it really free?

Short answer is yes, but you will be limited to 5 GB of data. Upgrade to the Professional subscription model for $100/month, which enables users or teams to go over the 5 GB of data storage on their Onshape Cloud account. Curious? Give it a test drive yourself by signing up for the beta version here.

Read more about the reasons Jon Hirshtick believes the industry is ready to move beyond file-based CAD systems in our two-part Q&A: Jon Hirschtick on the Future of CAD and Jon Hirschtick on the Future of CAD: Part II.

Barb Schmitz