Mastering Precision and Efficiency with Onshape CAD Drawings

CAD Drawings are the backbone of the product development journey, translating ideas into tangible blueprints. They are the language through which designers communicate their vision to the production floor.

Beyond the traditional role of CAD Drawings, Onshape introduces a paradigm shift, offering a set of tools that not only streamline the design process but redefine work with precision and collaboration.

More specifically, Onshape's advantage lies in its revolutionary cloud-native architecture. Compared to traditional CAD systems tethered to local servers, Onshape leaves behind cumbersome copies of files and limitations of local storage, refining the Drawing experience with a versioning system providing up-to-date information and control.

Let’s explore the features of Onshape’s CAD Drawings that enable precise and efficient design – all enabled by the cloud.

CAD Drawings Just a Tab Away

Picture Onshape as the tidy desk of your dreams. Drawings can be found within an Onshape Document as a tab, doing away with the clutter of traditional files and copies buried in computer folders. Users can switch between tabs, making it easy to explore design details quickly.

Searchable CAD Drawings

The search bar at the top of the Documents page brings the power of built-in Product Data Management (PDM) to your search, helping you effortlessly seek the right revision of your Drawings, parts, and assemblies. In an Advanced Search, users can filter for categories, types, descriptions, names, and more, making it easy to find precisely what you’re looking for without ever leaving the browser.  

TECH TIP: Creating Your Own Onshape Search Engine

Quickly Update a CAD Drawing

Onshape creates a seamless connection between your design and the Drawing. When a change happens in a design, a simple click on the "Update" button within the Drawing initiates a rapid synchronization process. This practical feature ensures the Drawing reflects the most recent modifications from the model while keeping references intact. Drawings in Onshape have leveled up, with streamlined version management, controlled updates, and no broken references; your shop floor can receive updates the moment you want them pushed to production.

Mitigating the Pain of Broken References

Broken references are a bane to all CAD designers. In file-based CAD, any change to a design might lead to a snowballing set of broken references. With Onshape, your references are robust – even if you delete a Document, they will not break. In addition, any broken features can be restored with a detailed history of changes while maintaining control over updates. 

CAD Drawing Watermarks

Watermarks provide a quick visual for whether or not a CAD Drawing has been released. In Onshape’s integrated Release Management, Professional or Enterprise plan users can include a Drawing watermark that will automatically refresh to reflect the stage of the Drawing, e.g., in-progress, pending, rejected, or obsolete. This ensures that everyone along the product development line is up-to-date with the state of the Drawing.

TECH TIP: How to Show Watermarks in Onshape Drawings

Customizable CAD Drawing Templates

Designers can opt for ready-made templates (ANSI and ISO) or craft their own. Custom and standard templates can seamlessly pull design metadata into the Drawing. This versatility ensures you can establish a streamlined production process, where updates are managed synchronously, and production requirements are detailed with automated precision. 

In Professional or Enterprise plans, templates can be created and enforced across larger teams to fit the organization's needs. Administrators can update company-wide Drawing templates effortlessly, ensuring standards are maintained across the organization. Compliance becomes second nature, not a headache.

TECH TIP: How to Improve Your Drawing Templates in Onshape

Inspection Item Functionality

Designers can reference the Inspection Item table in a Drawing, gaining insights into defined inspection callouts. Inspection tables can be downloaded into a spreadsheet for downstream manufacturing and quality control utilization, ensuring a simple transition from design to production.

TECH TIP: How to Facilitate First Article Inspection (FAI) with Onshape

Easy Collaboration and CAD Drawings

Onshape’s collaborative approach is altered when engaging in Drawing reviews. Within an active workspace, the procedure changes slightly; only one user is granted the privilege to edit a Drawing at any given time. This intentional restriction ensures that the assigned person can entirely focus on the details of the Drawing without the potential distractions caused by simultaneous edits. However, opening a view-only Drawing with your team is as easy as clicking “Share.” 

Tailored Communication with Publications

Publications in Onshape streamline the distribution of published Parts, Assemblies, and Drawings, eliminating the need to include the entire version history. This process replaces the traditional requirement of exporting packaged copies of files, offering the advantage of direct updates, meaning always current information through Onshape's integrated sharing capabilities.

TECH TIP: Using Publications to Share Design Data

The Quiet Power of Onshape Drawings

From industry-leading standards to simplified collaboration and unwavering precision, Onshape sets a new standard in cloud CAD. 

Dive into the world of smarter design by signing up to use Onshape, where precision meets innovation, and level up your CAD Drawings with Onshape.