Onshape Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services Reviews & Insights

Score9.9 out of 10

76 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Onshape are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Cloud-based infrastructure and collaboration capabilities: Many users have expressed their appreciation for Onshape's cloud-based infrastructure, which allows them to access their data from anywhere and on any device without the need for software installation or file management. This feature has been highly praised by reviewers who value the flexibility and convenience it offers.

Clear version control and change tracking: The ability to clearly see versions and change history in Onshape has received positive feedback from users. This feature enables them to track and manage their design progress effectively, ensuring that they are always working with the most up-to-date information.

In-application support and assistance: Users have praised Onshape's in-application support, mentioning that they have received rapid assistance whenever they needed help. They appreciate the ability to share their models with the support team, which greatly aids in getting the necessary help. This responsive support system has been highlighted as a valuable asset by many reviewers.

Onshape Reviews

11 Reviews

Professional, Scientific, and Technical ServicesDesign9Research2

I made my dream of using Onshape a reality!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

December 12, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

At ngen squared we use Onshape for both generic conceptual design/rendering and design-assist for design-build projects in the construction and manufacturing spaces. The problems we faced before are difficult client project coordination, chaotic document management, lack of out-of-the-box intelligent CAD tools, high CAD down-time and high cost with other CAD software. Onshape solves these problems.

Pros

Fast opening and closing of application
Amazing solid and surface extrusion features
Amazing document sharing features
Amazing revision management features

Cons

Dealing with physically larger model (100 meters to 200 meters dimensions)
Replacing identical duplicate part features easily in Assembly tab

Likelihood to Recommend

I would highly recommend Onshape to anyone looking to upgrade to a smooth CAD experience.

Majd Sukkarieh

CAD/CAM Specialist in Manufacturing at ngen squared (Design, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

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Onshape is the best engineering tool I have switched to

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

April 3, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Collaboration and design sharing with outside suppliers around the world is made very easy with Onshape. Being able to access Onshape anywhere anytime so long as you have an internet connection is a huge advantage over other systems out there. The ability to track changes and versions with ease of a google document is extremely useful and time saving.

Pros

Sharing and working with outside companies
Ease of use for no users
Online live collaboration

Cons

Surfacing could have some additional functionality for organic shapes
Converting shapes to engineering manufacturing methods, like flattening basic surfaces
More apps linked to Onshape, apps that perform useful design and engineering functions outside of CAD

Likelihood to Recommend

Out of all the CAD platforms used over the years Onshape combines all the benefits from ease of use to more complex engineering. The two great benefits is no requirements for specific computer hardware besides a good internet connection and access from any computer or workstation including phones.

Verified User

Director in Engineering (Design company, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

Perfect Web-based Design Suite

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

March 3, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use it for 3D printing. It is especially useful as I run a Linux machine and most other CAD software doesn't work on Linux. The web-based nature of onshape makes it very unique and portable. I also like the ability to view and make small edits from my phone.

Pros

Version control
Collaborative
Accessable from various devices

Cons

3D sketches
Assemblies can get very confusing
Working better in mobile app

Likelihood to Recommend

The ability to work on my projects no matter where I am or what computer I have with me makes Onshape incredibly valuable. I love being able to pull up models on my phone to show colleagues and to quickly reference dimensions. The built-in source control makes sure I never lose my work.

Terran Gerratt

Robotisist in Manufacturing at Personal Use (Research, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

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OnShape is industrial-strength CAD that runs in the browser and is great for teams

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

June 13, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use OnShape for rapid development of lab fixtures and enclosures for sensors and microcontrollers. We can go quickly from design to 3D printing using OnShape, thanks to extensive support for import and export of part files. We also take advantage of OnShape's collaboration features and parameterization.

Pros

Collaboration: OnShape's versioning is sophisticated and powerful, yet easy to use.
Browser-based: there's no client to install and thus minimum setup, and it even runs on fairly low-spec laptops
Excellent UI: OnShape looks great! It's pleasing to the eye and has very clear layout of objects and tools.

Cons

More native support for mechanical features like threads and gears (currently requires third-party plugins)
Better support for applying surface textures and text
Quality rendering of parts

Likelihood to Recommend

One ideal scenario for using OnShape is collaborative design by a distributed team: the modest hardware requirements and excellent versioning capabilities are great for shared work on parts and assemblies.

OnShape isn't ideal if you have extensive simulation requirements, it's not built for that.

Jay Kasberger

Senior Software Engineer in Research & Development at CZ Biohub (Research, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

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Onshape is THE tool

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

June 1, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I provide mechanical engineering and product development services to OEMs in medical, aerospace, consumer products, and industrial applications. Onshape has proven to be the only contender for the future of CAD. With the modern era of cloud services, remote work, and dispersed teams, Onshape has completely redefined how I interact with and share 3D data with customers, coworkers, and suppliers.

Historically, CAD data has been siloed to a handful of engineers, yet inputs from a much broader audience are needed. Giving everyone in your company the ability to see and comment on CAD is the first large step in breaking down barriers and getting eyes on the product earlier in development. Onshape empowers all users to interact with the data, and at the same time.

Onshape continues to amaze me in what it can do.

Pros

CAD
Collaboration
Versions

Cons

Features present in other CAD platforms but not in Onshape (yet).

Likelihood to Recommend

Onshape is likely suited for most options. ITAR projects or other high complexity modeling may suffer.

Christian Petty

Principal Consultant and Founder in Engineering at Radian R&D Ltd. (Design, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

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Onshape is built for the User, Manager and the Admin!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

January 1, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Onshape as our primary CAD system and converted over from another major CAD system just in time for the COVID lockdowns. Very glad we did due to the ability to work remotely with other team members. I haven't looked back. I've used CAD systems for 20 years and Onshape is by far my favorite of the past 20 years. I've admin'd other CAD systems in the past which has always been a headache, whether it's managing the files, shared hardware, user controls, revision, ... All of it is better in Onshape.

Pros

Remote Work Enabled
Multi-User Design
Administration

Cons

Revision Control
Search Function

Likelihood to Recommend

COVID lockdowns hit and you need to work from home ASAP. With ONshape you already have cloud-based computing straight from your work computer; you can easily do this at home with your home computer, or just take your work laptop home and work on that. To go from "in office" to "at home" work takes near-zero time. Other CAD systems require lengthy installs or moving desktops around or ensuring you have VPN access to a work server. None of that is needed. Administration of this across the users is incredibly simple.

John Jolly

Principal Engineer in Research & Development at Novilux (Design, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Onshape from a sheet metal manufacturing point of view

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

December 23, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Onshape to take customer designs and convert and break them down into manufacturable components. Most are sheet metal components that are placed into sheet metal templates [that] contain the bend calculations specific to our press brakes that generate the correct flat pattern to meet the formed dimensions specified by the customer.

Pros

Multibody single part environment
Don’t need to worry about hitting the save button, because there is none. All design elements are automatically stored and can be recovered at any time.
Design on any device , even my phone.
One mate relationships in assembly.
Convert designs into sheet metal
Cloud computing

Cons

Some sheet metal functionality such as lofts
Sketch in the drawing environment
Formed sheet metal features such as louvers

Likelihood to Recommend

Onshape has a great multi-body part environment. If you have an assembly that is mostly static and does not have motion you can create it in its entirety in one part environment. This single environment approach allows you to easily fit components together without interferences.

Bryan Lagrange

CAD Manager in Manufacturing at Mezco Fabrication, LLC (Design, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

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Cloud CAD for the WIN

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

February 26, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Onshape to engineer/reverse engineer and build concept parts in the marine industry. We build parts for boat companies.

Pros

Importing files. Whether it's STEP, IGES, etc... Onshape does it very well versus some other software I've used.
Constraints in sketches and assemblies are great. Adjustments can be made very easily with an early sketch in your model tree. Changing everything that falls under that particular sketch just by changing the sketch can make things so much easier and faster.
Sheet metal is great which is something we do a lot here. The sheet metal tools have grown since I've started using Onshape and none have been disappointing. The only thing I can think of that is missing is being able to sketch bend a flat model.
Cloud CAD! Being able to work, collaborate, and show projects on the go is by far my favorite feature.

Cons

Sketch being in sheet metal models.
Showing countersinks and counterbores in sheet metal flats.
3D sketching... this can be done by creating planes in areas where you can use constraints points to connect multiple sketches. If there were a 3D sketch mode, however, things would be a lot quicker and easier to make 3D sketches for things like loft extrudes.

Likelihood to Recommend

Configurations of a certain part assembly are very well thought out and integrated into Onshape. I haven't had much of a chance to use it, but this is only because in the two years I've used Onshape configurations, some features are fairly new and I just haven't had a chance to integrate this into our multiple builds of different part assemblies.

Aubrey Cousin

Metal Manufacture Engineer, CNC Programmer in Engineering at Metal Moulding Corporation (Design, 51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

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Onshape: great for product design teams working everywhere

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 23, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Onshape for the opto-mechanical design of optical systems. I import optical components or create native geometry based on the optical prescription and add custom mechanical features or components to the system to create a sub-system for my customers. I also use OnShape extensively to design and create fun promotional 3D printed products I give to my customers. I love the cloud and collaboration features of Onshape and also use the multi-CAD import as my customers use many different modeling tools.

Pros

Cloud: always available.
Collaborative: I have sub-contractors and we can work on the design together.
PLM: easy vault, archive and rev control built-in.

Cons

For my workflow, not much.
Direct integration with my Ultimaker 3D printer would save a few steps...not essential but convenient.

Likelihood to Recommend

Well-suited to:

remote teams where collaboration is essential.
product design/engineering firms where the client base is wide and varied.

Less appropriate for:

aerospace/defense where they must have on-premise software for 'black' site work.
very large organizations where SolidWorks / Creo / nX / others are so entrenched...I attended SWW and asked around about Onshape and this was a common theme from the engineers, resellers, and Solidworks employees (of course).

Bob Householder

Director of Engineering in Engineering at Zemax, LLC (Design, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

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revolutionary product!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

May 17, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use OnShape for designing mechanisms and parts that can be 3d printed on my own 3d printer, or by a 3rd party through 3dHubs. I use OnShape to design desks and shelving before building them for myself. I also use OnShape to design small plastic parts and trinkets that can be 3d printed.

Pros

Online support
A large array of Functions
Terrific import export features
Ability to create scripts and functions

Cons

Performance, difficult to determine if performance issues are server-side or bandwidth/latency related
New Parts do not contain selectable x,y,z axis.
No virtual reality features

Likelihood to Recommend

OnShape is well suited for any design project that calls for Collaboration. OnShape is not well suited for companies that already have large part databases using another CAD software.

Christopher DeAngelis

Engineer in Research & Development at California Closets (Design, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

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