The Onshape ecosystem is growing. As much as we all need parts, assemblies and drawings, we know that they are not the only tools you care about. You need CAM, analysis, rendering and many other applications to get great products designed and manufactured.

That’s why we’re pleased to announce the Onshape App Store, the first “try and buy” app store for the CAD world. It’s a modern marketplace where you shop for solutions you need, try them for free and then buy what you like and discard what you don’t.

Onshape is now your complete engineering solution.

Find it. Try It. Buy It. All in one place! This is how you already buy your other apps on iTunes or Google Play. It’s how you expect technology to be. Why should the CAD world be any exception? No more sifting through volumes of information and endlessly bouncing between vendor websites to find exactly what you need.

Here’s what differentiates the Onshape App Store from how traditional CAD companies sell engineering apps today:

Freedom of Choice - You can try and compare multiple products from multiple vendors instead of being locked into pre-selected solutions favored by your reseller.

- You can try and compare multiple products from multiple vendors instead of being locked into pre-selected solutions favored by your reseller. Affordability - All of our partners endorse Onshape’s business model and have some kind of free offering. Many partners offer flexible pay-per-use or monthly payment plans for their premium products.

- All of our partners endorse Onshape’s business model and have some kind of free offering. Many partners offer flexible pay-per-use or monthly payment plans for their premium products. One-Stop Shopping - All apps are available in one place, with no need to search multiple websites to find what you need or if an app is compatible with your software. For most apps, purchases are automatically charged to your Onshape account.

- All apps are available in one place, with no need to search multiple websites to find what you need or if an app is compatible with your software. For most apps, purchases are automatically charged to your Onshape account. Accessibility - You can directly access best-in-class apps on demand without the hassles of negotiating with your reseller.

We’ve partnered with 27 app developers who have made their products available to every Onshape user – free and professional. You can even use a paid professional app with the Onshape Free Plan – create a rendering, for example, without having to buy Onshape Professional. You just pay for the tools you need right now.

The Onshape App Store is available to every Onshape user with just one click from the Onshape Documents page:

Or from within any Onshape Document on the + menu:

Three Styles Of App Integration

To give you the maximum amount of app choices possible, we support three styles of application integration, all of which directly link to Onshape via Onshape’s API:

Integrated Cloud Apps: Cloud apps that run in their own Tab directly inside Onshape. Connected Cloud Apps: Cloud apps that run in their own separate browser windows. Connected Desktop Apps: Traditional installed software apps that run on Windows and/or Mac OSX.

With a few clicks, Integrated Cloud Apps work completely within Onshape. You need not worry about software compatibility issues. We’ve been closely working with our partners for months to make sure your experience is as seamless as possible. Just like you’re always on the latest version of Onshape, your integrated apps automatically update in the cloud and require no download or installs either. Simply refresh your browser.

Integrated Cloud Apps run in their own Tab directly inside Onshape.

Connected Desktop Apps and Connected Cloud Apps run outside the Onshape window, but connect directly to Onshape to exchange data via the Onshape API. They provide a connection to the world of existing production-proven applications. Our philosophy is to provide our users with the widest array of apps possible, and let them make the decision of what level of integration and which application pricing and capabilities are right for them.

In addition, Connected Cloud and Connected Desktop Apps can store their associative application data in Onshape Documents and take advantage of Onshape’s versioning and infinite Change History for free – no file management required.

Convenient, Hassle-Free Shopping

Scroll to the bottom of this post and take a look at the list of our initial partners and their expertise. There are five different visualization apps so far, five different analysis apps, etc. We don’t have a personal stake in which ones you ultimately choose. But you clearly do, so try lots of different apps and see what works best for you. You’ll be able to share your experiences with the Onshape community through product ratings and reviews.

The Onshape App Store is launching with 27 developer partners with more to come.

Traditional CAD vendors and resellers deliberately restrict your choices. If the vendor provides a visualization app, they will do their best to make sure that is the app you buy. If they don’t, then your VAR will steer you toward the one app they carry. In the Onshape App Store, we want you to be able to compare every available option that makes sense. We want you to pursue what’s best for you rather than what’s best for the vendor or reseller.

Whether you are pushing a shopping cart around a physical store or scrolling through an e-commerce site, you probably share my expectations of what the experience should be. Customers want to choose from a wide selection of quality products, they want an easy way to pay, and a fast method of delivery.

We designed the Onshape App Store to be as convenient as iTunes or Google Play. No more bouncing between websites, needing to go to one site to learn about a product and other sites to pay and deal with app registration and licensing. Most app stores in traditional CAD today are just directories that link to developers’ sites. The whole process feels like a scavenger hunt.

As with any other business, an open marketplace greatly benefits CAD users. Our technology partners include familiar players in the CAD industry as well as exciting new startups which will be launching their products in the Onshape App Store. When more innovation is welcomed – not locked out – your products will inevitably benefit, too.

New App Developers & Onshape’s API

To our application developer partners, our message is: Let the best apps win!

With traditional CAD partner programs, it’s a lot of work for partners to reach customers via the CAD vendor or resellers. You need an enormous and expensive sales and marketing effort to get visibility.

The Onshape App Store makes it easy for application partners to reach all Onshape users. Every partner is displayed in the App Store and it can even take care of the whole purchasing and payment process.

Simulation capabilities can be instantly accessed without installing any software.

Onshape welcomes more developers to showcase their talents for our shared customers. No one company can provide everything that designers, engineers and manufacturers need. It’s far better to provide an open platform where developers with specific expertise can potentially deliver beyond our expectations. Engineers get inspired by each other’s work. Let’s bring more to the party.

In the near future, Onshape plans to make the rich API used by these partners available to all of our customers as well.

Your choices at the Onshape App Store will continue to grow. We have many more potential partners in the pipeline for 2016 and expect to be adding some soon.

As Onshape founder Jon Hirschtick puts it, “We’ve made it fundamentally easier than ever for users to find apps and for apps to find users.”

ONSHAPE APP STORE PRODUCTS AND PARTNERS

ANALYSIS

SimLab Composer by Simulation Lab Software

by Simulation Lab Software SIMSOLID by SIMSOLID Corporation

by SIMSOLID Corporation simulationHUB by Centre for Computational Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

by Centre for Computational Technologies Pvt. Ltd. SimScale by SimScale GmbH

by SimScale GmbH SimForDesign by Fidesys

CAM

Onshape Connect for Mastercam X9 by CNC Software, Inc.

by CNC Software, Inc. VisualIMPORT for Onshape by MecSoft Corporation

by MecSoft Corporation GRID.SPACE Slicer by GRID.SPACE

by GRID.SPACE CAMWorks Desktop by Geometric

CONTENT

3DX Certified Models by TraceParts, Inc.

by TraceParts, Inc. SolidParts by SolidPartners

VISUALIZATION/RENDERING

Clara.io Visualizer by Exocortex

by Exocortex OneRender by Prefixa

by Prefixa RealityServer by migenius

by migenius KeyShot Connection by Luxion Inc.

by Luxion Inc. Maxwell for Onshape by Next Limit Technologies

MANUFACTURING

3DPrintCloud Print Preparation by Materialise NV

by Materialise NV ExactFlat Online Publisher by Tri-D Techologies Inc.

by Tri-D Techologies Inc. PrintNow by CloudDDM

DATA MANAGEMENT

Onshape BOM for Google Sheets by Lou Gallo

by Lou Gallo Onshape BOM Sample by Brian Harrison

DESIGN

Power Surfacing by nPower Software

UTILITIES

Timecards by Rusty Shed

IMPORT/EXPORT