Cloud-based "In-Context Editing" helps designers avoid broken 3D models common in traditional file-based CAD

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 25, 2017 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Onshape, the leading professional 3D CAD platform for Agile Product Design, has introduced a new feature to edit parts within the context of assemblies. The latest feature, "In-Context Editing," eliminates problems frequently experienced by CAD users whenever a part is changed or deleted.

"Designers want the ability to edit parts within the context of an assembly to ensure fit and function," says Darren Henry, Onshape's Vice President of Product Marketing. "We believe that the top-down design tools in traditional CAD work well in demos with simplistic models, but often fail when used in real-world design scenarios with larger and more complex assemblies. We're excited to give full-cloud CAD users a bulletproof approach."

"In-context references can now be your friend and not your enemy," adds Scott Harris, Onshape's VP of Product Definition and User Experience. "We've removed all the nightmares of file-based reference management thanks to Onshape's unique database architecture."

In a typical workflow, a designer will add in-context relationships between parts so their CAD system will know how modifying one part should affect another. Unfortunately, when updating parts in large assemblies, traditional CAD systems will often erroneously change other parts in unpredictable ways. This occurs because:

1. Multiple relationships are stored in separate files and it is difficult to manually keep track of how they are all interrelated; and
2. Motion adds to an assembly's complexity. Even a simple movement of a mechanism can cause relationships to recalculate in unanticipated ways.

Many companies outright ban the use of in-context relationships because of this unpredictability – some CAD tools even include a user-defined setting that will prevent their creation. Designers have zero control over how and when these complex relationships update – sometimes they recalculate when a part is rebuilt, sometimes when the assembly is updated.

With its unique database architecture, full-cloud Onshape has solved all these problems. With Onshape's new capabilities:

• Models always update in a predictable, controlled manner.
• Motion does not affect in-context relationships.
• You can use multiple assembly contexts to edit single or multiple parts.
• You can update the assembly context (the state of the assembly) if needed.
• Updating large designs become much more efficient.

When Onshape users right-click a part in an assembly and select "edit in-context," a snapshot of the assembly (a "Context") is created at that moment and stored in the database forever. The part's Part Studio is opened and all the other parts that were visible in the assembly are shown ghosted.

"Even though bottom-up design (editing parts in isolation) is cumbersome, people still do it because top-down design (editing parts inside assemblies) has been too complex to manage even with a heavy PDM system," Henry adds. "Now, combined with the power of Part Studios, built-in version control and the ability to restore your model back to any point in time, Onshape has made top-down design much more efficient. We're opening up workflows that just weren't possible before."

For more information on Onshape's In-Context Editing, watch this video. For a private briefing, images or video embed codes, please contact Email Contact.

About Onshape

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.

As the leading CAD platform for Agile Product Design, Onshape helps companies design better products and bring them to market faster, offering real-time deployment, real-time data management and real-time analytics and controls. Using full-cloud CAD, engineers, designers and manufacturers get secure and simultaneous access to a single master version of their designs without the hassles of software licenses or copying files.

Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Onshape includes key members of the original SOLIDWORKS team plus elite engineers from the cloud, data security and mobile industries. For more information, visit Onshape.com/press-room.

Media Contact: Darren Henry, Onshape, 844-667-4273, Email Contact

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SOURCE Onshape