Onshape vs PolyWorks|Modeler

Onshape is a browser-accessible 3D CAD platform for parametric modeling of solids, surfaces and sheet metal, with iOS and Android apps also available. It supports assembly design, rendering, simulation, CAM and 3D-print export. Simulation covers linear static and modal analysis for stress, deformation and natural frequencies; CAM supports machining from 2.5-axis through 5-axis machines. Collaboration includes multi-user editing, instant sharing, real-time communication and access controls. Built-in product data management includes edit history, version control, release management, search and design-data sharing. The Free Plan is for non-commercial use, with publicly accessible documents and unlimited public storage. Standard costs $1,500/user/yr; Professional costs $2,500 per year. Qualified professionals may be eligible for a Professional trial of up to six months without a credit card. Enterprise uses custom pricing. Onshape says updates arrive every three weeks without installations or downtime. Listed integrations include Slack, Arena PLM, Altium Designer, FeatureScript, REST API and the App Store.

PolyWorks|Modeler is Windows desktop software that extracts CAD entities from polygonal models of digitized parts. It creates polygonal models from point clouds in real time and repairs geometry by filling holes, smoothing surfaces, cleaning boundaries, recovering sharp edges, and making surfaces watertight. Editing includes boundary extrusion, surface offsetting, fillet reconstruction, and Boolean operations with CAD models. A NURBS workflow combines interactive curve creation with automatic surfacing to produce editable CAD-friendly models. Users can create constrained parametric 2D sketches with arcs, lines, circles, and splines, then use listed import add-ins for CATIA V5-6, NX, Creo, Inventor, and SolidWorks. Supported polygonal formats include POL, PQK, JT, Nastran NAS, OBJ, PLY, STL, and VRML 2.0; CAD formats include IGES and STEP. NURBS surfaces export to IGES, JT, and STEP, while sketches export to PWSF or IGES. Windows 10 Pro or 11 Pro 64-bit is required, with an x64 quad-core CPU, 8 GB RAM, and a professional OpenGL card with 1 GB memory. Pricing is on request; a free demo is available by request.