upFront.eZine 1,093: Q&A From Onshape's User Conference
(part iii of iii)
The Business of CAD | 26 April 2021
The first Onshape software conference took place online last month, and I transcribed many of the questions asked by users and answered by PTC staff.
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Q: Does Onshape use parallelism in the cloud, and if so, when?
A: This is one of the big promises of the cloud. We use it in some places. Updating lots of parts in an assembly simultaneously causes Onshape to do it on multiple geometry servers. We plan to use parallelism for more things, like engineering design studies.
There are aspects of CAD that are inherently serial. Regeneration itself is inherently serial, for the most part. We cannot regenerate certain features until we have regenerated other features before them. We rent the Amazon machines with the highest single-thread performance.
Q: Might you be able to share how Atlas works with Onshape?
A: A lot of how Onshape data is structured is the foundation of Atlas’s data model. Atlas uses a lot of the same code we do at our end.
There are going to be parts of Atlas that are not currently part of Onshape, to develop an ecosystem of applications that do more than what Onshape currently has. That is where a lot of the effort is currently going in building it out.
Q: What details can you tell us about the future of FeatureScript?
A: FeatureScript is not the only mechanism for automation of Onshape. It is very specifically tailored to Part Studio and in other things it works well. But it is not necessarily the best thing for scripting in all systems.
For that, we have API [application programming interface] capabilities that we are improving, especially in light of Atlas development. The expansion of these API capabilities will make a really convenient system for automating things, like ECAD [electrical design] and rendering simulation.
Q: How do you decide which functions to add to Onshape next?
A: It is a juggling act. On the one had, we have things we think are important to do; on the other hand, we have a finite set of developers.
The most important thing is [to implement] whatever is blocking our existing customers from doing their work. Next priority are functions that will help us get new customers.
While doing that, we have to keep investing in performance, fixing bugs, and code infrastructure. We make sure we leave some room for risk-taking, functions customers are not necessarily asking for. Summer interns let us have more bang-for-the-buck features.
Q: How can I optimize Onshape’s performance?
A: Performance is a really complicated topic [for server-based CAD programs]. For instance, ISPs can route you to a server not closest to you, which increases latency. Some of the factors that the user has control over are their network and hardware:
Onshape can use two discrete GPUs in a computer; check that onshape.com/setup knows this
Follow Onshape’s best practices for modeling, such as avoiding giant assemblies, like a car as one part in Studio; avoid long drive chains.
Q: Does OnShape pull in Solidworks Simulation data?
A: You cannot pull in Solidworks simulation data, unless it comes in the form of video or pictures.
Q: Do direct editing tools work on tessellated geometry?
A: Tessellated data comes in as a bunch of triangles. You can delete triangles, and then use the surfacing tool to smooth over sections.
Q: Any option to bring in PCB data?
A: We would bring in printed circuit board(PCB) data just as solid mechanical geometry [today]. We are working on ECAD with one of our acquisitions.
Q: What other file formats can Onshape import?
A: We can bring in files from Unigraphics [sic], Creo, those standard big-name CAD types. You can also bring in non-CAD data, like images. The help system lists the things you can bring in.
Q: What is the benefit of using Cassini over just doing the import yourself?
A: Custom properties are brought in automatically. Assemblies with many shared components have components brought in just once.
Q. Can I connect Onshape to my PDM [product data management] system, which is connected to Solidworks?
A: No, but it might be possible with Cassini.
Q: Are there any tools to edit DXFs or DWGs?
A: ARES Kudo in Onshape is read-only; to edit, you have to purchase it from the app store.
Q: Is there a best way to get [imported] assemblies into working shape?
A: If no movement is required, the easiest way is highlight the whole thing and use a group mate. In Onshape, all assemblies are considered flexible. If there is some movement [needed], then you have to get into mates.
Q: How can we manage our standard content libraries?
A: Onshape has its own standard content library, but you do not have a lot of ability to customize it: you can put in your own part numbers, descriptions. There is a request to make it more customizable.
For your parts library, make a folder, share it with the whole company, and then put each part in its own document.
Q: Do we have to import our own commercial parts, or do you have parts suppliers?
A: You would have to import them. If you download them, choose a ParaSolid format (like Solidworks), because that is the kernel we are built on.
Q: Do you use Git for change control?
A: We use Git for developing our software, but wrote our own change control for models.
Q: Is simulation being driven by Ansys Discovery Live [used by PTC’s Creo]?
A: No, not Ansys Live. We are not planning on talking about the tech behind our simulation, but we have something that is very efficient and accurate, and will scale well in the cloud.
What Ralph Grabowski Thinks
PTC is betting its future on Atlas, something the company has admitted in another venue that might take as long as a decade to complete, while costing customers 2x higher subscription fees.
Here’s the But: the design side of CAD isn’t moving wholesale to the cloud, as some players in the CAD industry seem to be finding. Not only is it really hard to put it there, but customers aren’t even particularly keen on the concept. Cloud is useful primarily for ancillary operations like collaboration, PLM, and many-cored calculations.
We could suppose that PTC bought Onshape for the technology, not the MCAD. Onshape will, in my opinion, stay at the low-end, paving the way for Creo to become sufficiently cloud-enabled, by which point PTC may even lost interest in Onshape, given that Creo and Onshape use incompatible kernels.
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Looking back to part i: Update on Onshape; PTC Visualizes the Gig Economy; Jon Hirschtick’s Keynote; How Onshape Works
Last week in part ii: Onshape for Solidworks Users; The Future of Onshape
To watch the archive of the online conference, register at events1.social27.com/onshapelive21/home.
And in Other News
IMSI Design celebrates its upcoming 30th year with the release of TurboCAD 2021:
Constraint animations show ranges of motion issues
2D-edit mode turns off 3D objects and related tools
Apply to Pattern applies solid operations to all elements in a pattern (array)
Imprints can use 2D contours from inserted blocks
TurboCAD is available with permanent and subscription licenses starting at $70. Download the 15-day trial version from turbocad.com/content/free-trials.
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Nemetschek ALLPLAN 2021 automates recurring processes, such as converting cutouts to voids, applying rules to rebars, and placing PythonParts from Allplan Bridge accurately.
Get more details at allplan.com/products/allplan-2021/features.
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CIMdata holds a free educational “2021: PLM Status & Trends” Webinar on 13 May at 11:00 a.m. EDT to report on results from its recent global PLM Status & Trends research. Learn more about the Webinar contents and register through cimdata.com/en/education/educational-webinars/webinar-2021-plm-status-trends.
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Vectorworks revealed that the native Apple M1 version of Vectorworks software will be ready in September, but it may lack some ancillary items, such as SketchUp import because it requires SketchUp to also run on M1.
No Vectorworks app is planned for iPad or other iOS devices due to the huge difference in platform capabilities. For more on Vectorworks’ future plans, see forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/77760-2021-public-roadmap.
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Plex-Earth ports its aerial and satellite imagery from AutoCAD to BricsCAD ($299/year and up). Place CAD models in maps like Google Earth, or place maps in CAD drawings.
Recent, historical, and high-quality imagery and terrain data are accessed from Maxar, Airbus, Nearmap, Hexagon, and Google. Free trial for either CAD package from plexearth.com/free-trial.
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Here is one of the posts that appeared recently on my WorldCAD Access blog:
Overview of a book review: Optimizing the news for a '“we want it free” culture
You can subscribe to the WorldCAD Access blog’s RSS feed through Feed Burner at feeds.feedburner.com/WorldcadAccess.
Letters to the Editor
If you’ve already seen the new Solidworks forum you can quit reading this email. If you haven’t seen it check out the latest way Dassault Systemes has antagonized Solidworks users.
I clicked on a Solidworks Google search and got nothing but one forum post with a little Coming Soon tag. I signed up for the new board (you can’t view the site without signing up) and still couldn’t find an answer, because only 2020 forum posts have been moved to the new system. They’re working on 2019 and older but it takes time. They should’ve done that before they moved to the new system. I need to find a different forum.
Here is background on a forum user focus group meeting with Dassault: cadforum.net/viewtopic.php?p=3760. You should be able to view it without logging in.
I enjoy reading the weekly eZine. Keep up the good work.
- Andrew
Re: More Notes from OnShape's First User Conference
I wonder how many failed startups would exist if no “free money” was available to them via banking and investors? Nothing like a rigged game filled with dreamers who produce little to nothing of value for the world!
Excellent Notable Quotable!
- Chris Cadman
The editor replies: There is so much cash sloshing around these days, and so with interest rates below 1%, investors are desperate to invest for better returns somewhere, anywhere. Hence the crazy prices in houses, the too-high stock market, and the billions ploughed by venture capital funds into firms with any idea: the long lists of new investments posted by techcrunch.com each day is unimaginable!
Notable Quotable
“Don’t be fooled by fashionable subjects. Do whatever you like, if it’s really what you want to do.”
- Isamu Akasaki, winner, Nobel prize for inventing the “impossible” blue LED
Thank You, Readers
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