Author Topic: onshape, potentially the first decent freesolid-modelling software  (Read 1382 times)

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Offline damorgue

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https://www.onshape.com

First of, I haven't tried it myself yet, nor am I affiliated with them. What we know is that it is based on solidworks, so it has a decent core. It is apparently easy to get into, and free. Even some large companies are testing it out, which is notable since the fear of data leaving the company is strong among large corporations, as well as the cost of converting their workflow, engineers, pdm systems and current part portfolio.

As far as I am aware, no good free solid-modelling software exists. Autodesk has tried and from what I know not done a good job with their 360 project, and OpenSCAD is pretty terrible. I think it is about time that someone challenged Dassault, PTC, Siemens and Autodesk. The cheapest CATIA license starts at $10.000 and if you want to actually do anything you will probably need another $30.000 in modules, along with $6.000 a year continous fee. This is per license. I find this insane for software that hasn't developed much in the past 10 years.

I figured this might be of interest to some of you who don't want to use "special licenses" nor have access to real licenses.

Offline RoastPotatoes

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Re: onshape, potentially the first decent freesolid-modelling software
« Reply #1 on: Thu, 27 August 2015, 11:41:36 »
Thanks, I just signed up.

Offline jbondeson

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Re: onshape, potentially the first decent freesolid-modelling software
« Reply #2 on: Thu, 27 August 2015, 11:49:59 »
Doesn't look like it has any CAM capabilities, which was one of the niceties of Fusion 360.

Still worth a look though!

Offline OverKill

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Re: onshape, potentially the first decent freesolid-modelling software
« Reply #3 on: Fri, 28 August 2015, 07:14:52 »
I tried this awhile back, and I do not know if  they have updated it by  now but it has no way to make dxf/dwg/2d drawings of any kind from your 3d model like all of the other parametric solid modeling suites. Solidworks starts at $4,995 but considering all that you get with it for that price it isn't that bad. For a professional setting onshape is (or was when i checked) $150 a month per user. I believe it is free for up to XX models or something.. I can't remember it was awhile ago.. tl;dr it works OK but still has a ways to go before it can compete with other professional CAD software.

Offline Oobly

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Re: onshape, potentially the first decent freesolid-modelling software
« Reply #4 on: Fri, 28 August 2015, 08:30:57 »
I read up until "cloud" and then lost interest in using it. I read up more on it, though, and became intrigued.

I think it's interesting, but it's quite limited:
1. You can only store up to 5 private files with a free license. Which is more than I need for most simple assemblies.
2. There is no browser-based rendering technology that I'm aware of that will make this usable (rendering speed-wise) for truly complex parts.
3. Looks like you have to use raytrace / external rendering tools if you want to present a design.
4. Any application that runs through the browser is sacrificing a LOT of performance, and in proper CAD design, every little bit of processing power is beneficial.
5. No CAM capability.
6. No analysis and simulation capability.
7. You can only export part designs to STL format.... this is a biggie. It doesn't keep material or appearance values and translates the model into triangulated elements, so it doesn't retain the procedural / parametric design structure. You can export part studios to Parasolid format (or even SolidWorks, but this is buggy), but it doesn't export the modeling data / history, just the actual solid geometry, so editing a part after export is not easy.
8. Online requirement.

I do like that it's based on SolidWorks as that is the most intuitive 3D design program I've ever used. I'm interested to see how the branch merging works and handles conflicts.

I may give it a try, but point 8 (in combination with 7) may be a deal breaker for me. I can't always have access to a high speed net connection when designing and if I can't export my parts in an editable format they're essentially locked into their system and on their servers only.

And point 7 combined with 3 means you can't just export and render, you need to assign materials, properties, appearances, etc. Sigh... and I can't do FEA, which I want to get into at a later point... it's just too limited for me, but I see the appeal for more casual designers, making a few keyboard parts here and there, etc.

Buying more keycaps,
it really hacks my wallet,
but I must have them.