Cloud and mobile CAD is the latest development that promises to bring about a revolutionary change in the way products are designed. John McEleney, Co-Founder & CEO, Onshape elaborates on what this technology implies.

Onshape is the only company in the world 100% focused on cloud and mobile CAD, offering the first professional 3D CAD system that lets everyone on a design team work together using any web browser, phone, or tablet. Onshape was built from scratch for the way today’s engineers, designers and manufacturers really work, giving them secure and simultaneous access to a single master version of their CAD data without the hassles of software licenses or copying files. Based in Massachusetts, USA, Onshape includes key members of the original SolidWorks team plus elite engineers from the cloud, data security and mobile industries. Breaking away from the traditional model of desktop-installed CAD, Onshape has data management and collaboration built in at its core.

For the first time, the CAD system and CAD data live in one place in the cloud, and are never copied anywhere. Everyone on a design team sees and works on the same master CAD data at all times, avoiding confusing checkouts, file copies, and overwriting each other’s work. Full-cloud Onshape also eliminates the hassles of installations, license codes and servers, service packs, and add-on PDM systems. Every Onshape user always works with the same version of Onshape – the latest version. Several companies worldwide now rely on Onshape to speed up the design of consumer electronics, mechanical machinery, medical devices, machine parts, industrial equipment, and many other products. Onshape’s Free Plan also makes it an ideal CAD choice for students and educators to collaborate inside and outside the classroom. Excerpts from the interview:

Onshape is claimed to be the first and only full-cloud 3D CAD system that lets everyone on a design team work together using any web browser, phone, or tablet. Tell us more about this and also about its collaborative orientation.

With traditional CAD, you are tied down to one licensed workstation – and it needs to be an expensive, powerful computer able to handle the compute-intensive and graphics-heavy requirements of installed CAD software. With Onshape, your CAD system is always with you. If you work remotely, you can call up your model on your laptop or tablet. You can make a quick edit on your phone while waiting at the airport. Our mobile apps for iPhone and Android give you full-CAD functionality – it’s not just a viewer. Onshape is the first professional 3D CAD system specifically created for teams. Multiple people can work on the same model at the same time, seeing each other’s changes as they happen – and they can go back to any stage in the design’s history anytime. Teams no longer need to deal with the headaches of checking in and checking out files (and working only one person at a time) or worse, overwriting each other’s work.

The Onshape 3D design service was in beta testing for a fairly long period. How many people used it during that time and how was the response?

Onshape’s beta version was launched last March and our commercial release was last December. In those nine months, we logged 4,00,000 design hours by users in more than 150 countries. In that same period, more than 40,00,000 modeling features were created. We don’t release our customer numbers to the public, but the point of the beta phase was to prove that full-cloud CAD works. This was non-ventured territory and many industry experts were skeptical it was possible to run CAD smoothly over the internet. The real proof came from our customers. Several of the products featured on our ‘Customer Stories’ page were designed while Onshape was still in beta. That’s the ultimate vote of confidence.

Were there any users from India and how did the beta testing help you to improve the service?

We have thousands of Onshape users in India – as well as a development office in Pune. The beauty of full-cloud CAD is that it enables us to quickly respond to the needs and suggestions of our customers. During the beta phase alone, we released 14 major product updates, adding over 125 features and improvements. Compare this to the once-a-year upgrades from traditional desktop-installed CAD. Those customers can sometimes wait years to get their requests answered, but are most often ignored. Onshape users enjoy automatic upgrades every few weeks, just by refreshing their browsers.

In one of your recent interviews, you have mentioned that your objective is to bring a ‘shift in how things are made’. Can you elaborate on this?

The design and manufacturing world has dramatically changed. More often than not, teams are distributed across the country or even the world. Teams are also in constant change. Vendors and suppliers change. New team members are added and dropped based on the demands of a project. Because Onshape runs in a browser and requires no IT support – no installs, no downloads and automatic upgrades in the cloud – new team members and partners can be up and running in minutes. Everyone is always on the latest version of Onshape, so there are never any software compatibility issues. Our customers don’t waste time managing files or dealing with computer crashes, leaving more time for what they are paid to do in the first place: designing products. And they tell us they are designing them faster and better by taking more creative risks.

Small & medium enterprises (SMEs) will obviously be your key target now that you have leveled the playing field for them. Isn’t it?

We are proud that Onshape is democratizing CAD, making it available to entrepreneurs who otherwise could not afford to spend USD 5,000 or more per seat of CAD, plus annual upgrade fees, IT services and the cost of expensive hardware. On a tight budget, Onshape’s USD 100 monthly Professional Plan allows startups and early-stage companies to devote their resources to other areas needed for growth. However, the competitive advantages of full-cloud CAD extend far beyond the obvious upfront costs. The time-saving and security benefits of Onshape are appealing to companies of all sizes: from startups to multinational enterprises.

But does it mean that large enterprises will not touch your product? How do you perceive this aspect?

Successful enterprises stay successful by keeping ahead of the curve with new technologies. Onshape has an Enterprise Plan for large-scale deployments and is working with a number of companies right now on pilot programs. With design and manufacturing teams spread across the world, enterprises have the most to gain from Onshape’s simultaneous collaboration. Our built-in data management has also made costly and cumbersome PDM systems obsolete. And lastly, because Onshape does not use files – your data and CAD system live in one central place in the cloud – there are no loose uncontrolled copies of your IP floating around. You can grant and withdraw access to your CAD models at anytime.

What more can we expect from Onshape in the time to come?

Every few weeks, Onshape users enjoy new features and enhancements – automatically upgraded in the cloud. You can keep track of all the latest improvements by subscribing to our ‘What’s New?’ blog posts. This is also an especially exciting time for Onshape. We are about to release FeatureScript, a new programming language that enables you to create new built-in Onshape features or modify existing ones. This is the same language our developers use to build Onshape and we are looking forward to seeing you help shape the future of full-cloud CAD.

– HUNED CONTRACTOR