OnShape is claiming to be the first, of a sorts, to do CAD fully in the cloud. If you are a CAD user, or just curious, you can read all the details here, but I’ll summarize them in a nutshell. Well, based on Carl Bass’ blog post on In the Fold, there were factual inaccuracies emitting from OnShape’s marketing and media attention, inaccuracies requiring quick redress. Which begs the question. Why was it so necessary (for Bass) to acknowledge OnShape this quickly? OnShape-a Threat to Autodesk? It’s just-right now-OnShape isn’t one of them. Autodesk may be as big as the Empire in the vast Star Wars universe, compared to many of its key CAD competitors, but in the MCAD universe Autodesk also plays in, the company has formidable and large foes. In this story, nobody is the good guy and the bad guy. If OnShape is a young Luke Skywalker than that would make Autodesk’s new-ish and quite innovative ‘you-know-who’ and that simply isn’t fair. Well, that’s probably as far as the reference really wants to go. Meet OnShape-the “new hope,” if you will, expected to help bring order into the CAD universe.
#Onshape vs fusion 360 software
To complete the reference: An old CAD software Jedi master retreats into the dusty canyons of software vets, only to re-emerge a few years later with a very young and promising new apprentice. Not to over-stretch an enduring Star Wars reference, but Autodesk CEO’s Carl Bass has effectively uttered an analogical reference of sorts…with his riposte this week regarding major cloud-based startup-OnShape.¹