Onshape Reviews & Product Details

I’ve been using Onshape for over six years and have logged more than 2,000 hours in the platform—and it still impresses me. The interface is clean and intuitive, and the feature set is powerful enough to handle complex design work without feeling overwhelming.

What really sets Onshape apart is its collaborative workflow. Real-time sharing, version control, and branching make working with others seamless, whether you're in the same room or halfway around the world. One feature I especially appreciate is Follow Mode—being able to follow someone’s cursor as they work through a model makes collaboration and review incredibly efficient. It’s the next best thing to sitting side-by-side. As First Robotics Mentor, this feature allows me to follow my students' work in real-time and recognise where they are struggling to better support them on their way to becoming Onshape masters. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

While I love onshape, it is missing a few features that would be useful and keep me from using for every project. Two that come to mind are 3D sketching and surface tools like patching and scultping. Some projects I have encountered recently have required some surface editing. And having a tool that allows for dimension driven surface editing would be incredibly helpful. I edit lots of files from imports and I would love to use onshape for this but it is a noticable weakpoint. Many of the Loft feature that i use to generate surfaces from sketchs often break with the complex geometry I attemp to create with them. 3D sketches would also be incredibly helpful for bridging curves and completing complex surface boundaries. I would also like be able to add points in a part studio with out needing a sketch plane. Just a point that I can use to pattern parts, or connect lines to certain locations would be helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

OnShape is a modern cloudbased mechanical CAD system from the company PTC. As well as full modelling capabilities, OnShape comes included with full version/change control features and integrates well with Arena (also PTC) for producdute lifecycle management. Our team moved over to OnShape from SolidWorks and found the process of implementing the new CAD system very easy, especially compared with systems like SolidWorks PDM which requires 3rd party resellers to help setup.

Unlike oldschool CAD packages, which at best recieve a few small updates every-year, OnShape improves very quickly, having big updates every 3 weeks or so. As a part modeller, on-shape is easily as good if not better than its competitors like SolidWorks. It takes a different approach to assembly modelling, which is more performant. It is catching up quickly with other CAD packages regarding engineering drawing features. It also features some simulation and rendering capabilities; both produce decent results quickly, but are not the main focus of the software. A huge benefit of Onshape being cloud based is that it is far more stable than locally run CAD systems, it virtually never crashes and I have never lost any data having used this extensively amost everyday for over a year.

Our team vastly prefers OnShapes business model compared to that of SolidWorks. Rather than paying a third-party-reseller licences, set-up, PDM server setup (which is a nightmare to maintain and will need continuous 3rd party support to be functional), separate costs for its various licences, and subscription fees, everything is covered under one cost with OnShape, and you deal with the company directly rather than through third parties. This has worked out as far cheaper for our team, with much less of our engieers time spent on admin. Customer support are very helpful and are easy to access through online chats, forums, or teams calls. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Compared to other CAD packages OnShape is the best, although you may not find all of the specific features that you are used to. The OnShape team add features very frequently though (updates every ~3 weeks) and requests for new features can be made and voted on in the forums. Custom features can also be written and shared if you feel that there is a specific feature missing or something that would be useful to automate for your workflow. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Onshape allows me to be flexible and not tied to one computer with minimum to zero difference in performance. At work I have a CAD workstation, at home I have a 14 year old PC, with Onshape being a cloud based software, the computing is done in the cloud not on my local computer. In the event I have to work from home, I don't have to worry about lugging around my CAD workstation or invest in a new home computer, I simply log on from home and experience relatively the same performance on my old home PC as I would with a newer, more powerful machine. To add to this Onshape also runs on my phone. I have done some quick edits and even complete CAD models on my phone when I don't even have access to a computer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The downside I deal with is that Onshape is still new and lacks some of the functionality more mature CAD software has. This is especially true in the sheet metal side of modeling and documentation. I have experienced this same situation about 20 years ago with traditional CAD software. Back in 2000 when I started using 3D CAD, it seemed sheet metal enhancements were always few and far between. I am optimistic that Onshape, having enhancements added every 3 weeks, will break this trend in the CAD industry. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Often updated with new features without lifting a finger. Everyday it becomes even more valuable. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

In sharing with unlicensed users, have no control over the link. Anyone with the link can get the free access, and no way to take away that access if sharing for a one-time access, or with a vendor, so cannot safely share outside of the business. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Always up to date, never crashes and allows the team to just focus on doing the best design work they can. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

No offline mode, but not a big problem in reality day to day. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love the ease of design control and real time collaboration with Onshape. It provides the best of both worlds for file control and design exploration, all while maintaining revision control and the ability to explore with branches and merge concepts back it. It is easy to install and roll out. The training modules quickly bring ne and experienced CAD users into the new tool. There is no need to maintain multiple version of the software. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It is missing developed CAM options and circuit design, but they are quickly coming up to speed. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I was using other CAD software with bugs, poor PDM but with a lot of tutorials and videos on YouTube

When I checked Onshape, it was amazing how fast I could do things and how well was all my files organized. Simple, fast to learn and very fast to do parts and assemblies. Since then I use only this software! And I recommend it to everyone!

Great support team Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I cannot rename using F2 :)

Some small details can be made faster but they are ipan and listen all my requests ;) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Its cloud bases systems are very good and its ability to support colabertive work. Overall it has everything most engineers need for solid modeling, sheet metal modelling, etc. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Making drawings is the worst part by far. It is extremely laggy and has a delay for everything. It sucks spending 10 minutes making a part and 20 minutes creating a drawing. Overall its the biggest drag with the software. There are other issues with the drawings, such as not being able to make small movement that you would find in any other drawing software.

Its gotten better, but even after working with Onshape support it didnt improve. The issue stems from a large number of entities such no text which seem to slow it down. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

No bulky local installation and no special workstations required

Integrated parts management, which was previously only possible with complicated PDM systems

Mature versioning and branching

Sophisticated configuration functionality for all possible scenarios and features

The ability to model all related parts within a single part studio - thus safe dimensional changes based on a few basic sketches

Simple sharing of designs and intermediate statuses within the team

Integrated rendering capability (albeit somewhat cryptic compared to specialized external apps, but still useful for quick presentations)

Very simple and well thought-out module for creating drawings

Overall, straight forward work with a fun factor and quick results and successes

Good community that actively participates in development in the form of programmed feature scripts for special cases (welding, cable routing, etc.) that can be loaded into the project

Monthly reports on new features and improvements (what's new after login)

I just love it, Onshape makes me addicted! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Still no possibility to place small labels, logos or simple textures on partial surfaces within an assembly (such as stickers in Solidworks). If you want to see something like this, you either have to use the Render Studio or imprint the labeling correctly into the geometry... Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I really like the cloud based approach because I can work on my projects from anywhere with any device, it runs smoothly without any problems. One of the biggest advantages of Onshape is the cloud saving. You never loose any progress if the device is crashing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I haven't found any things about Onshape I didn't like. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.