What’s New with Onshape?

Onshape is the world’s only fully cloud-based CAD software. Unlike Autodesk Fusion 360, which requires the use of your computer’s hardware, Onshape just requires an account and a web browser—and you can design to your heart’s content.

With Onshape, as opposed to Fusion 360, there’s nothing to install on your computer. Your work is always available to share, and it can be updated by any member of your team on whatever device they are using. Direct editing, drawings and assemblies are immediately available, and they are functional on mobile devices. There are never any updates to install. However, you do have to download the Onshape app to use the system on your mobile device, and it does not run on mobile browsers.

This means that unlike with Fusion 360—which turns out to be a desktop file-based software system that is only partially based on the cloud—everyone on your team is always on the latest version of Onshape. You just open your browser (Safari, Firefox, Chrome) on any system (Linux, Mac, Windows) or on any mobile device (after you download the app), and you’re hooked right in to the latest version of Onshape and the latest version of your project. 

We last covered the company when it announced that a new app called OpenBoM, created by a company called Newman Cloud, was available in the Onshape App store. 

The company’s software engineers are constantly working on practical updates and improvements, and Onshape recently let us know about them.

7 New Things from Onshape

1. Create sheet metal tabs in sheet metal parts.    

   Tabs can now be created on your sheet metal drawings, which means that you can make multiple tabs with one feature. You can also enter the definition of a subtraction scope to subtract tabs from other parts. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)
                           

2. precisely define the size of sheet metal corners and bend reliefs. This was previously limited by a scale factor.
3. Create fillets with variable radii. This new option can be found in the Fillet command.
   
4. Use the Note command with its new expanded scope—you can create a Note with “Leader” as well as a normal Note. These two previously separated commands are now combined.
   
5. Use Section Views, which are now cached. If you’ve had some issues with the load times of drawings with section views, this should provide some relief and increase efficiency.
6. Customize toolbars in three environments: Feature Studio, Assembly and Part Studio.
   
7. Show tangent edges in drawing views as "Phantom" edges, which comes in handy when the “Solid” display of tangent edges has an abundance of detail.