Exploring NVIDIA Omniverse Library Integration within Onshape’s Cloud-Native Design Workflow

Product development tools are becoming more efficient as handoffs that once required exports and rebuilds are giving way to better-connected systems. Driven by developments in AI, engineering workflows are set to become ever more streamlined and smooth.

This shift puts cloud‑native, database-driven design at the center.

Onshape, PTC’s cloud-native CAD and PDM system, is a prime fit for new developments connecting the product design ecosystem.

With ovrtx – an NVIDIA Omniverse library – the Onshape Render Studio team is exploring how OpenUSD and NVIDIA RTX can connect cloud-native CAD and PDM workflows with physical simulation, helping bring validation and testing closer to where products are designed.

Rendering Closer to the Design

Rendering has traditionally lived outside the design tool. Moving from CAD to a photoreal image usually means leaving the application, translating scene data, and rebuilding context that already existed upstream.

Onshape Render Studio changes this workflow by offering physically grounded rendering and sensor simulation right within Onshape’s cloud-native experience. Powered by AWS, Onshape Render Studio makes photorealistic rendering accessible to anyone, regardless of their local hardware, by offloading the compute burden to the cloud.

ovrtx brings design and rendering even closer together. Built on OpenUSD, ovrtx works directly from the same scene data used across design, simulation, and validation workflows so data is preserved as work moves between teams and tools, without rebuilding assets each time it moves to a new tool.

The Future of Cloud-Native Rendering is Connected

The early results are encouraging. ovrtx is a library, not an application framework, enabling developers to add NVIDIA RTX capabilities into existing application workflows. Because it can render OpenUSD scene data, teams can work with visualization in a scene language increasingly used across simulation, digital twins, and robotics.

“ovrtx gives us a lower‑level API path for bringing NVIDIA Omniverse RTX rendering into cloud‑native design tools while keeping the application architecture and product experience in our control,” said Brendan Hack, PTC’s Onshape Senior Director of Software Development.

Zoom out and this workflow sits inside a much larger story. Design and engineering workflows are starting to connect more directly with robotics, digital twins, and other AI‑driven systems. Using shared 3D data interoperability standards like OpenUSD and NVIDIA Omniverse libraries, such as ovrtx, can help preserve context as those workflows move across tools.

That direction is already showing up with PTC’s work with NVIDIA. The Onshape‑to‑NVIDIA Isaac Sim workflow, through the Omniverse Publisher, explores the robotics simulation side of it. Onshape users are invited to explore the CAD-to-simulation workflow through Onshape Labs, an early-access program.

As AI reshapes how engineering tools connect, cloud‑native design is where the convergence belongs.