OnShape (The modern day Solidworks?)

[willysnowman 0]

I've been use Solidworks since '97. I watched it go from "what do you need, we will see if we can do that" to "blah blah blah, we moved some buttons around, now give us your money".

The original guys are back! It needs a lot of work, but this is pretty bad ass!

http://www.onshape.com/

 

[nick-foley 5]

I saw the founder at a manufacturing conference a year or so ago. They have a strong pedigree, and a lot of enthusiasm. At the time, it was pretty clear that they didn't really even know what their true product direction was, and they definitely hadn't built anything.

Hope they make something awesome though. Use SW daily and share your feeling. Fusion 360 is an interesting thing to check out. It already has at lot of cloud/collaborative/distributed features on top of a SW-familiar interface.

 

[willysnowman 0]

Interesting. I kinda think they hit on something, but I can't say I fully understand it yet.

I looked at Fusion360 (have not tried it). It seems more geared towards Industrial Designers than MEs. +It's Autodesk. They will make it into a BMW. I want a Miata with the seats ripped out and a rollbar. My goal is to lap the fat pigs.

I would be interested in getting some feedback on shared projects here. The software is free for now. It is an incredible way to share source files. You can quickly have ten versions of a design. The only issue is no STL, but I am sure they can add it if there are enough requests.

 

[IRobertI 520]

Maybe I'm going blind but I can't really find much information at all on their webpage? Not even screenshots.

 

[woofy 12]

They do say they are not there yet, so no product to show.

However just spend some time looking at the "team" page: They have a solid works background, a clean slate and massive infusion of new blood. This is one to watch.

 

[IRobertI 520]

Ah, I think I misunderstood willysnowman's post, it sounded like he was talking about OnShape when I first read it.

 

[Daid 306]

Note that the spaceclaim guys also claim that they where the original guys behind solidworks... (and they actually have a product, that works)

 

[willysnowman 0]

You have to sign up to use it. Click on sign up link in upper right.

Onshape and 3DFusion are different breeds than Spaceclaim which I consider good software. In Onshape and Fusion, I can share/edit my data real time with anyone in the world with internet access. I don't have to worry about ram, processor speed, video card, network connections, PDM, etc etc etc.

Now let's walk back to 1995. Solidworks just started shipping seats. Autodesk announced Mechanical Desktop. After using Autodesk AME (anybody remember this?), I was all over Solidworks like a fly on shit. The program was considered featureless, but it quickly developed. It was one of the best moves of my career.

Now they are back!! And they have broken away from Windows!!!

I just need to figure out if it works before diving in. That's what you guys are for.

 

[Labern 774]

They do have STL. I find it very good so far and easy to use. Similar to when I started using Solidworks many years ago.

With Some nice added features that make things a bit simpler and easier.

 

[willysnowman 0]

I have the Ultimaker II up there in public document. Just do a search. Anybody can make a copy or I think work on the actual one? I have not really figured out how the versioning works yet? Feel free to have at it.

 

[willysnowman 0]

To get into the forum you have to register with a different name. Most Likely because someone already has your name?? I could not get in bc someone already had "Bill".

This is what they sent me:

This is a known bug. Steps to fix this:

* Log into Onshape

* Click on Manage account (upper right) Type in a unique Nickname

* Click save on your profile

* Click on the ? menu

* Select Forums

* Click on your Nickname by the Sign in with Onshape button

 

 

 

[henri 3]

I have been trying it out for them on my iPad while on vacation and had a Google hangout with one of their developers. This is the first ipad cad app I have managed to do anything with. I have great hopes that this will be the solution for the hobbyist who is ignored by Solidworks.

It will take some time, but I have confidence in their approach.

[zumfab 3]

This looked interesting, right up to the point where it mentioned being a cloud service. I don't do that, I think everything being pushed to the cloud is an abhorrent development.

I feel kind of sad, a fresh look at Solidworks style designing could be very valuable.

 

[Labern 774]

Well if you are patient then they are working on off line support. How that will work I'm not sure. But I totally agree. I'm not into cloud stuff either.

[willysnowman 0]

This looked interesting, right up to the point where it mentioned being a cloud service. I don't do that, I think everything being pushed to the cloud is an abhorrent development.

I feel kind of sad, a fresh look at Solidworks style designing could be very valuable.

 

I used to hate the cloud. Cloud, however, is a BS marketing term.

I think of it as paying for secure server space. IMHO It is far cheaper to pay someone than do it myself. I mean, I can hack something together, which I have with a Windows Server. But it is a pita. We then VPN in. I have to set up a VPN for each user. Security? I followed what was recommended. To me it makes sense to let professionals handle it.

I just started to use GrabCad Workbench with SW. I don't care if they do call it cloud. I like it.

 

[zumfab 3]

I used to hate the cloud. Cloud, however, is a BS marketing term.

I think of it as paying for secure server space. IMHO It is far cheaper to pay someone than do it myself. I mean, I can hack something together, which I have with a Windows Server. But it is a pita. We then VPN in. I have to set up a VPN for each user. Security? I followed what was recommended. To me it makes sense to let professionals handle it.

I just started to use GrabCad Workbench with SW. I don't care if they do call it cloud. I like it.

 

I understand the confusion, as the cloud seems to be a buzzword indeed. It's almost as if calling it the cloud means those servers are not in a datacentre somewhere. However, it does not make a difference for me at all. I do not see any value in being tied into a network for things that can and should be done offline. Other people see sharing, I see security risks and loss of control over your own data and workflow. For instance, what happends when these guys go out of business? Is all your project data gone? There are so many unknowns and risks that the benefits sound very meagre in return.

We'll see how this offline version pans out. The online version could be the best editor in the world, as long as my work is uploaded to some unknown server I am afraid I will have to pass.

 

[willysnowman 0]

Here are the main benefits for me:

1. No Cad Station Needed (Onshape)

2. No Network Needed (Onshape & GrabCad)

3. No PDM Needed

4. No Cad Skill needed for my Customers/Vendor to view/measure

5. Pointer to only one single model (Onshape)

#1-3 mean big cost savings to me + NO WINDOWS!!!. #4 is important since I am miles away from my customers and vendors. #5 (wishful thinking) means I can get metadata such as price and delivery from the vendor thru the model.

I can't say I have it worked out. I can say I am moving in that direction. My server moving more and more to being just a backup.

My bank account is online. My email correspondence is online. Why not CAD?

 

[david-sohlstrom 0]

Hello all. I have been using Onshape from the 10th. I own a seat of Alibre/Geomagic that I have to pay $300 a year if I want to stay up to date with the program. I am a model engineer and don't do real large projects so 5 active projects and 5mb of storage is not a problem for me. When my current maintenance expires I do not think I will renew. That will save me $300 that can go to tooling or materials.

With the amount of traffic there is on Onshapes forum there are a lot of folks using it. The program is in Beta and will be there until the people at Onshape feel that it is ready for everyone.

If anyone on the thread has not tried it have a look. Read what they are saying about data security. I believe that this is going to change the face of CAD and be around for ever.

Dave

 

[zumfab 3]

If anyone on the thread has not tried it have a look. Read what they are saying about data security. I believe that this is going to change the face of CAD and be around for ever.

 

I cannot seem to find what you are referencing, could you perhaps post a link? I am curious to see what they think about data security. Anything that is continually sending data back and forth will need to have a good story

 

[david-sohlstrom 0]

Zumfab

I have read so much about Onshape over the last few days I am not sure where I read information about security. I did find 1 article that is interesting.

Dave

https://www.onshape.com/cad-blog/avoiding-the-blue-screen-of-death-welcome-to-a-new-generation-of-cad-reliability

 

[david-sohlstrom 0]

Zumfab

Here is a link to Onshape FAQs Read what they have to say about security. I think you will find it interesting.

Dave

https://www.onshape.com/faqs

 

[willysnowman 0]

I'm not sure about Onshape. I have not started to use it professionally as of yet. You basically send keyboard strokes and they send back graphics data. I wouldn't think that would be super hard to encrypt.

Here is what Grabcad has to say:

http://help.grabcad.com/article/79-grabcad-security-whitepaper

The difference between the two is Grabcad sends the files to be processed locally.

 

[gr5 2,167]

My bank account is online. My email correspondence is online. Why not CAD?

 

What if your bank said - oh "we are going out of business and there's no way to convert your money into something that other banks will accept. So you better buy everything now that you plan to ever buy - you have one month".

That's what cloud companies do pretty much every week.

What if your bank said "You now need a subscription service to be able to access your money and, no, you can't transfer your money to one of our competitors".

My email is all stored on my own computer and backed up. I own the domain. Every company in my email path can go out of business and I will still be able to send and receive emails and I still will be able to read my old emails - going back into the 1990s (vaxmail). It's true I don't read emails from the 1990s very often - but when I need something from back then it's wonderful to have it all easily searchable in seconds. Back then it was all text only (no pictures) so all my emails from a decade can fit in just a few megabytes.

 

[gr5 2,167]

I guess the basic problem with CAD in cloud is that unlike word and excel there is no CAD standard that you can store you cad files into. Sure there's STL for example but it doesn't store it in the format needed to have the ability to edit like you do in solidworks. Plus it doesn't have layers or colors or materials or all kinds of other properties (fixed, movable, transparent).

So using google docs is fine in the cloud - it's wonderful - and I can always save to a word, excel, powerpoint format file and open it using openOffice or many other utilities. But how I do that with CAD designs?

Combine that with how amazingly fast internet companies are bought and sold and are born and die and suddenly change their price structure (e.g. subscriptions) and this seems like a very dangerous place to put anything valuable.

 

[anon4321 16]

Actually STEP is an ISO standard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_10303-21