First Look: Onshape Enterprise

The latest tier of Onshape adds advanced analytics, permission schemes, and more.

Screenshot of an example activity feed in Onshape Enterprise. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

Screenshot of an example activity feed in Onshape Enterprise. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

A few months ago, Onshape introduced a suite of new features aimed at removing design data gridlock. At the same time, the company launched Onshape Professional, a new tier of the CAD platform with exclusive access to some of these new features. This new tier was a first for the company, which had previously divided Onshape into a free version and a paid version. For paying users, Onshape split further into Onshape Standard and Onshape Professional.

Now, Onshape has added yet another level to their portfolio: Onshape Enterprise.

Onshape Enterprise

The newest, highest tier of Onshape goes beyond Standard and Professional in both visibility and control of the CAD workflow. Onshape Enterprise is, unsurprisingly, aimed at enterprise users–organizations that need a scalable, robust, and transparent CAD solution. To meet this goal, Onshape has introduced features to augment their core CAD platform with enterprise-level functionality.

Onshape Enterprise adds additional control and visibility for users. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

Onshape Enterprise adds additional control and visibility for users. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

The first feature Enterprise users will notice is the provision of a custom domain address. For example, users from a company called Midwest Machine Tech would log into Onshape through midwestmachinetech.onshape.com.

Onshape Enterprise offers custom domain addresses. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

Onshape Enterprise offers custom domain addresses. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

Logging in through the custom domain brings users to an activity feed for that organization, embedded with links allowing users to go to specific drawings, assemblies, user profiles, and more. Users can also leave comments in this feed.

Onshape Enterprise activity feed. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

Onshape Enterprise activity feed. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

To access the more familiar Onshape landing page, users can navigate to the Documents tab. There are some differences to this page; for example, there’s no public feed, and documents are organized into project folders.

(Image courtesy of Onshape.)

(Image courtesy of Onshape.)

The other tab you’ll notice brings you to the new Analytics feature. From here, users can see a wealth of data pertaining to project activity and company statistics.

The new analytics tab in Onshape Enterprise. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

The new analytics tab in Onshape Enterprise. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

For example, users can access dashboards for specific projects that reveal which users have worked on it, when, where, for how long, what type of files the project includes, a history of feature activity, and much more.

Example project dashboard in Onshape Enterprise. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

Example project dashboard in Onshape Enterprise. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

Another important feature for Enterprise users is fine grain control over which users have access to what data, and at what level. Enterprise offers the ability to define user roles and permission schemes, making this control a lot easier to manage.

It’s also very simple to invite users to collaborate on Enterprise projects. As long as they have an Onshape account, you can give them access to a project at whatever level you want.

Adding members to a project. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

Adding members to a project. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

Onshape Enterprise also offers an API for integration with PLM, ERP, and more, and is single sign-on ready.

Integration with SAP PLM. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

Integration with SAP PLM. (Image courtesy of Onshape.)

Full users of Onshape Enterprise—that is, users with full modeling needs—will have to pay $3000/year for the service. Light users—those that need access to data but won’t be actively modeling—will be billed $300/year. The minimum configuration for an Enterprise account is $20,000/year, meaning: (number of full users)*$3000 + (number of light users)*$300 >= $20,000. In contrast, Onshape Professional is $2100/year, and Onshape Standard is $1500.

Written by

Michael Alba

Michael is a senior editor at engineering.com. He covers computer hardware, design software, electronics, and more. Michael holds a degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Alberta.