Onshape is free for the Boston-based robotics startup hub.

According to the World Economic Forum, there will be a massive shift from human workers to robots by 2025. While this is expected to displace 85 million jobs, estimates suggest that 97 million new jobs will be created. After the pandemic, the robotics industry is booming worldwide as companies move toward automation to address supply chain issues and labor shortages.
The U.S. has made significant progress in recent years. In 2020, it was already the most automated country with robotics in North America but only ranked number seven worldwide after Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Germany, Sweden and Hong Kong. Then in 2021, the U.S. jumped to third place in the number of annual installations of industrial robots after China and Japan.
While the use of robotics in the U.S. is concentrated in five states in the manufacturing sector of five midwestern states (Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin), the major robotics hubs are in Boston, Silicon Valley, Pittsburgh, Austin, Denver and Detroit, as ranked by various industry magazines like All about Circuits and Robotics Business Review.
Massachusetts is already a major robotics research hub, with 59 robotics companies in Boston alone. However, in the current climate of increasing funding for robotics startups—mainly driven by governments in Asia, Europe, and the U.S., there is a need for solutions to improve robotics design and development to achieve faster time to market, lower business risks, reduce costs, improve communication, and increase design flexibility.
MassRobotics, a targeted innovation hub in Massachusetts aimed at scaling the next generation of robotics startups, has joined forces with PTC, a Boston-based provider of software for digital transformation and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). PTC will provide MassRobotics with Onshape, a cloud-based CAD application for product design, to accelerate the design process for robotics startups.
Flexibility has become an important trend in the post-COVID business landscape. More companies are adopting remote or hybrid working models that require highly flexible and collaborative work environments. This trend is especially prominent in incubator spaces.
During the MassRobotics/PTC partnership, MassRobotics will provide physical space and tools for entrepreneurs to collaborate, while PTC will provide a free license of Onshape to MassRobotics residents.
According to Onshape, MassRobotics’s CAD users can now avail themselves of the benefits of cloud-based CAD as follows:
- They can work together simultaneously on complex assemblies from different browsers in various locations, enabling them to design without worrying about the stalls, crashes or losses that can occur with desktop-based CAD software.
- They can see the edits or changes in real time. In addition, the data are continuously backed up, and the system is automatically updated to eliminate downtime and increase speed to market.
Overall, the workflow will become more agile and flexible in a remote or hybrid work model, and the companies can gain a competitive edge in today’s fast-paced economy.
Onshape will play a pivotal role in helping the Massachusetts robotics community innovate within its local ecosystem while staying connected to the global supply chain.
“We are thrilled to provide Onshape to the innovative startups at MassRobotics as they help revolutionize the market,” said David Katzman, SVP of General Operations at Onshape.
“Our team at MassRobotics is very excited to collaborate with PTC and the amazing Onshape team to utilize the innovative capabilities of Onshape to better scale the next generation of successful robotics startups,” said Fady Saad, cofounder & VP of strategic partnerships at MassRobotics.