Onshape 3D CAD

I’m just a beginner, took a CAD class in college like 10 years ago I haven’t used it since. Downloaded this just as a beginner to see what I could accomplish freehand without watching all the videos and lesson plans in depth to get started. After looking around online this seemed to be the best recommended free option (mobile and available for iPhone). I’m pretty tech savvy so I figured I should be able to get a very basic start on my own and then later watch some lessons eventually to get more familiar with more functions within the app. To start I was just going to try to draw a rectangular box for a pc case mod with the proper dimensions just to get a very basic feel for basic editing and navigating the app. I drew the box but I wasn’t able to get the proper dimensions (aside from the extrusion depth). I poked a round with pretty much every single immediately perceivable option and played around quite a bit just trying to find out how to modify the objects dimensions. Let’s just say after about an hour I gave up. I’ll say the app definitely seems to be very feature rich but don’t expect to be able to go in and to play around freehand…idk if it’s just hard to do simpler things or is just that a lot of the complexity is on the surface…(maybe something the pros like.) With just struggling to edit dimensions I was really hoping to see such key basic functionality more immediately accessible to boot, i may watch the videos to see how far I’ll be willing to go with it but that not so great start has me feeling it’s going to be a little more convoluted in that it isn’t necessarily the best in design (atleast definitely for beginners). Three stars bc it’s clearly very capable but already with my expectations it’s already rubbing me the wrong way.

After I discovered Onshape I basically had no justification to continue using Solidworks. I really like that I can use the same application across all devices and operating systems. I have used basically every other CAD or 3D application on iPadOS and this application is the only one worth using for CAD with the sole exception of Shapr3D. There are a couple other good 3D apps like Sculptura and Nomad but they’re more like Zbrush and have no free tier. Only two things really hold this app back. First, it doesn’t have a dark mode (although that criticism isn’t unique to Onshape, every CAD program I can think of has this issue). This might sound like a subjective personal gripe, but it is an accessibility issue for people like me with light sensitivity and it reduces battery life needlessly on devices with OLED displays. The second problem is that this isn’t fully featured despite the iPad Pro now being more than capable enough to support the entire feature set. With Fusion 360 now having an online version and reviving its free tier I would be mindful of users jumping ship, especially because that app still offers some features that no version of Onshape has, like integrated cloud FEA and PCB design.

I’m not one for writing reviews......but I have a few things to say. First off, watch the tutorials. Maybe learn how to use the app before you rate it? You can design pretty much everything in the iPad app without ever opening the web browser version. I exclusively use the iPad version. I use Solidworks, and Fusion 360, and this app. I’ve also used Alibre, IronCAD and SketchUp. I’m certainly not an expert, but this app is simple and powerful. I like this app because I don’t have to drag around a laptop, just my iPad. I can design whatever I want wherever I want, and export it to Fusion or Solidworks and keep going with the CAM side of things. Use the free version first, draw stuff you don’t care if other people see, then decide. You can draw pretty quick once you get it down. I would like to see key board shortcuts in the iPad app—would save some tapping with the Apple Pencil.