Onshape

Great software for 3D printers hobbyist

Commentaires : We can find easier tools on the internet like Tinkercad, but Onshape can deliver much more, like a professional and expensive tools can deliver, but you get it for free, you just need to spend a little time learning how to use it, but this time learning is very well paid off.

Avantages :

During this pandemic period I bought a 3D printer and started using it printing mainly already defined and available 3D models on the internet. Then I realized that I could myself produce my own 3D models and I found on Onshape the perfect tool for it. It also has great features that allows you to produce perfect models.

Inconvénients :

At the beginning Onshape seems complicated to use, but it is not, you just need to watch on Youtube some tutorials to start modeling your own 3D models. Anyway I can not complain about this tool, as the free version delivers what I need and much more.

Simply the best 3D manipulation ever

Commentaires : Everything feels really intuitive when working with the 3D models. I've found that OnShape has every format I need whether it be STL or STEP files. Every time I get a file from a customer that I need to adjust, I can import it into OnShape and it imports without an issue. The time it has saved me over the years is immeasurable. I've recommended it to every First Robotics Team over SolidWorks and they have all loved it too. It's just really easy to use!

Avantages :

Being able to push and pull the edges of the 3D CAD model to manipulate it's shape and have the model automatically adjust all the other features accordingly in real time and with a live preview, like how pulling an edge would affect the connecting radius on the 3D CAD model, was and is light years ahead of anything I have ever used before. I also love the ability of the history tree to be able to go back and adjust a dimension from earlier and have it auto calculate everything moving forward makes it so much faster to get modeling done.

Inconvénients :

The 2D drawing selection could be improved when creating sketches. Sometimes I want to select all the outer edges of a part and use it in a sketch, but it only gets it right or works about 50% of the time. The other half of the time I need to select each edge manually, or even once I get them selected, for some reason it doesn't let me use it within the sketch.

Few Issues but great for Free CAD learning experience

Avantages :

I have been using Onshape for a while and for one of my Senior Graduate class project, I sued Onshape to help new CAD students get some experience as well. It is definitely a very popular online CAD program among many Mechanical Engineering students. It definitely cannot beat Solidworks in terms of ease of use but I would recommend it for following reasons - Its FREE to use Why not get your feet wet into the CAD design world with a tool that is free to use. One can easil get the basics of CAD modeling through this software. - Online Cloud based software We all know anything that is online and cloud based means it can be accessed anywhere if you have access to internet. No need to install huge GB of software on your machine instead just get a high speed internet and get on with the modeling. And yes, it doesn't care if you have a Windows are a Mac so that's a plus. - Features Sketch, Extrude, Hole, Mirror, Chafing anything you need to do for CAD, Onshape has it. It is fast and assembly and mating process is intuitive and works really well. For something that is free, cloud based, online and easily accessible this is one of the best CAD programs I have used and I would recommend it to anyone. Onshape has tons of documentation so learning is fun. For a beginner in CAD Onshape is the way to go.

Inconvénients :

This software has some cons which is not a dealbreaker bit definitely something to keep an eye out for, - Crashes During my project and online use it did crash on me multiple times. Refreshing the page helped but sometimes I did have to start a new project. - Almost as good as Solidworks but not quite If i were to compare it I would say it is 70% as good as solidworks - Has it's own terminologies Onshape has it's own features and terminologies which one has to be accustomed to. Onshape does provide online lot of documents and vocabularies so if you have time to spend reading that, it is not that bad.

As advertised, Google Docs for 3D design.

Commentaires : Went to Onshape from Autodesk Inventor out of necessity when school switched to remote learning, probably not going to go back. Onshape does nearly everything students would do in Inventor, but they can now access the program anywhere, whereas we only have one computer lab with Inventor. The only thing Inventor has over Onshape is the interactive tutorials that walk students through basic features within the software. Tutorial videos from OnShape aren't really the same, and ability to work offline would also be nice.

Avantages :

When students share their document with me I can view the document history to make sure it was that student who did all the work or keep track of who did what in a group project. I can help students remotely by making live changes to their document regardless of if it is a part studio or an assembly. We can voice or video chat while we both look live at the same document.

Inconvénients :

There is no way to do contact sets, which can make some assemblies not behave the way I would like. Additional joints can be a work-around in some cases, but not all. A way for parts to interact with each other would be a significant upgrade.

What more could you ask for?

Commentaires : I love Onshape. I now use it exclusively for all my 3D printing projects because of its accessibility. And it's free!

Avantages :

a browser based CAD program? Super convenient! Especially when working on Linux where other software packages are unavailable. I find that Onshape has all the features and functionality I've ever needed, and the best part is I don't have to take up space on my computer with expensive software!

Inconvénients :

Sometimes the features are a bit tricky to find and use. I often have to google and look through forums to figure out how to accomplish a particular design.