In-Context Design Software

Onshape updated its functionality again, introducing a new capability to edit parts within the context of assemblies. Onshape says its speeds up the design process by being full-cloud, but the company is also continuing to redefine how CAD is done.

Designers want the ability to edit parts within the context of an assembly (top-down design) to ensure fit and function by defining relationships between components. According to the company, that traditional approaches to top-down design have demoed well, but have not largely been successful when used in real-world design scenarios.

Here's why: Due to complex relationships being stored in multiple files, traditional CAD users often experience both unpredicted geometry changes and feature corruption when using in-context relationships. Users have no control over how and when these complex relationships update. Sometimes the relationship is recalculated when a part is rebuilt; sometimes when the assembly is updated.

Onshape has solved all these problems. With Onshape's new capabilities:

• Models always update in a predictable, controlled manner.
• Motion does not affect in-context relationships.
• You can use multiple assembly contexts and use them to edit a single or multiple parts.
• You can update the assembly context (the state of the assembly) if needed.