Onshape Inc made a next step in the development of cloud CAD system with the announcement of commercial release and private Beta for Onshape App Store and API. Onshape made virtual press conference. The presenters Jon Hirschtick (Chairman and co-founder), David Corcoran (VP of Development) and Joe Dunne (Director of Partnerships) shared news and information about Onshape Beta results, Onshape App store and answered questions.
Onshape Beta Summary
Here are few data points and statistic about Onshape usage during the public beta.
- 400,000 hours of user usage
- Over 10,000 users
- Over 150 countries
- 4,000,000 features created
- 390,000 CAD files imported/exported
- 325,000 STL Files created
Onshape cloud technology and reliability
An interesting perspective on Onshape multi-tenant cloud technology. 99.9% uptime and practically zero crashes with no lost work. According to Jon Hirschtick Onshape is running on multiple cloud servers located over the world. As a result, Onshape cannot crash in a traditional way desktop CAD application can crash. If one server is crashing, you should refresh browser and continue working. No data lost.
App Store and API
Onshape is introducing private beta of App Store and API. Initially 24 applications will be available. More to come. According to David Cocoran, Onshape will be testing application and provide commercial infrastructure such as payment.
From the architecture and technology standpoint, you can think about 3 types of applications – connected desktop, connected cloud and integrated cloud apps. You will be able to run integrated applications from Onshape user interface.
An example below is fully integrated 3D Part Catalog – 3DX TraceParts integrated into Onshape.
The idea of integrated cloud applications is interesting. Joe Dunne demonstrated few integrated cloud applications. These applications run in the browser integrated into Onshape environment, requires no install and download and activate on all your devices.
How Onshape is different?
Cloud is overused marketing buzzword these days. Therefore, I wanted to give you my take on how Onshape is different in today’s landscape of design and engineering applications.
The combination of following characteristics and functional capabilities make Onshape stand out of all other available applications.
- Professional 3D MCAD
- Multi-tenant cloud system, distributed geographically
- No install, runs in browser
- Simultaneous editing of CAD models by multiple users
- Editing of CAD models on mobile devices
The following slide from Onshape presentation is a snapshot of what Jon Hirschtick said “mission impossible”.
What is my conclusion? In my view, Onshape is pushing the limits of what cloud and browser technologies can deliver today. But technology alone will not make Onshape successful. It will come as a combination of things – technology, community, partners’ applications and ultimately customers developing real product using Onshape. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
Pictures credit Onshape virtual press conference.
