Although engineers tend to be early adopters of new technologies in their personal lives, some of their most critical professional tools have remained stuck in the last century. While most industries moved from installed software to more efficient and collaborative cloud solutions years ago, CAD software has been trapped on individual engineers’ desktops. If you’re a product designer or manufacturer, why are you still tolerating work interruptions and obstacles that now should be consigned to the history books?

Installing applications on a single desktop is very manageable for personal use – it makes sense that individuals still rely on locally installed apps to do household finances or undertake a small mail merge. But the problems of scaling up local installs multiply exponentially. Having a whole design department use desktop-installed CAD software, for example, forces even modest-sized companies to find extra funds for additional IT support.

Incompatible software versions, system crashes caused by OS updates or patches, and license management can all create major headaches – and when multiplied across a larger enterprise, it quickly becomes a serious business cost. This scenario is nothing new to most enterprises, who are moving wholesale to the cloud, especially toward the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. But until very recently, CAD users who wanted to move there, too, had no available options.

Onshape now provides a professional CAD system for the modern enterprise, delivering the latest 3D modeling tools and built-in data management in a central and secure cloud workspace. The new approach to CAD especially stands out for collaborative project management. Geographically dispersed workgroups or individual contributors from different organizations can seamlessly work together on even the most complex projects. Onshape is device agnostic, also allowing users to create or edit CAD data on a phone or tablet (iOS or Android). It doesn’t matter where one works from: when an Onshape user makes an edit anywhere, everyone on the team can instantly see it.

Founded by some of the early developers of SOLIDWORKS (including SOLIDWORKS founder Jon Hirschtick), Onshape was created with the mission of eliminating “design gridlock”, the constant waiting, distractions and hassles that slow down the design and manufacturing process. Onshape aims to reduce work delays that result from CAD crashes, software incompatibility, confusion over the latest version of design file, and overall poor communication between parties working offline.

Based on a unique database architecture, Onshape has improved many of the core CAD features that engineers depend on every day. Its “Parametric Modeling 2.0” approach has made multipart design easier and more productive. Unlike with file-based CAD systems, Onshape users can design multiple interrelated parts together at the same time – without having to save separate files for each and every part.

In addition to providing powerful modern CAD, the Onshape ecosystem includes a full slate of cloud-based engineering apps (simulation, CAM, rendering, etc.) integrated into the product. When engineers test the integrity of their Onshape designs, they take advantage of the same fast and efficient cloud platform.

To find out how your design team can say goodbye to gridlock and experience the immediate benefits of modern CAD, request a free Onshape Professional Trial today.