Future-Proof Engineering Education with Model-Based Definition in Onshape

A top priority for educators is ensuring their curriculum stays up to date and prepares students to succeed in an ever-changing modern world. This is particularly challenging in courses where software plays an integral role in learning activities.

Using Onshape in the classroom is one of the most powerful tools educators have for future-proofing their curriculum. Computer-aided design (CAD) has been around for decades, and many CAD platforms are starting to show their age. Students born in the 21st century are ready to move beyond legacy file-based CAD programs, big, expensive workstations, cumbersome PDM systems, and clunky software add-ons. They want the convenience, reliability, and flexibility of cloud-based platforms along with the power of professional CAD features, like Model-Based Definition.

Today’s most innovative and agile companies have already figured this out. Well-known brands such as Trek, Sonos, and Garmin are moving their engineering design processes into the cloud with Onshape. With Onshape’s built-in PDM, seamless real-time collaboration, and robust version control, working with any other system unnecessarily invites errors and inefficiencies.

Why Model-Based Definition Matters

One of the key ways that Onshape is leading the charge into the future of engineering design is through Model-Based Definition, or MBD. For decades, regardless of whether engineers worked on paper, in 2D CAD, or in 3D, their designs ultimately had to be converted into 2D drawings for manufacturing. These drawings have traditionally been the standard for communicating vital product manufacturing information, or PMI, such as dimensional tolerances, material specifications, surface finishes, and other annotations.

Converting 3D models into 2D drawings for manufacturing is both time-intensive and error-prone. Printed drawings or PDFs also break the link between the most current design definition and the documents on the shop floor.

MBD solves this problem by embedding all necessary PMI right into the 3D model, and no one does MBD better than Onshape. Onshape’s implementation of MBD is deeply integrated into the part creation process, so adding tolerances and annotations is not an afterthought. Manufacturing-relevant notes are clearly presented directly within Onshape parts, ensuring clarity and consistency throughout the design lifecycle.

What Students Learn About the Digital Thread

As more schools build makerspaces and introduce advanced manufacturing tools and processes into their curriculum, MBD is more important than ever. If your students are creating CAD models intended to be manufactured, fit together, or connect to the real world, then they should be mindful of tolerancing, and more specifically, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T), and how this data is stored and communicated. This is where MBD comes in.

With MBD, Onshape presents clear annotations attached directly to associated faces and keeps track of tolerant dimensions in a live inspection table. Tolerancing standards can be applied easily, and users can even create their own standards libraries. When it’s time to manufacture, Onshape models can be exported to STEP AP242, the ISO standard for model-based manufacturing. Tolerancing data stays with the document and can be used for inspection, especially when working with coordinate measuring machines, or CMMs.

This matters because manufacturing is becoming increasingly digital. The concept of the “digital thread” – a continuous flow of data from design through manufacturing to inspection – is no longer futuristic; it's how modern companies operate.

When students learn MBD, they learn how to participate in that digital thread. They understand that the tolerance applied in CAD is the same tolerance that a CMM will measure against, without anyone transcribing numbers from a PDF.

Historically, there have been significant barriers in the way of teaching MBD, as older CAD platforms are often difficult to use and require expensive add-ons, which is one reason GD&T is often omitted from introductory engineering courses. Onshape removes these barriers. MBD is built right into the product and is as natural and intuitive to use as the rest of Onshape. There's no separate PDM system to configure, no add-on software to license for viewing annotated models, and no file management headaches to maintain consistency between design and manufacturing documentation.

This makes introducing GD&T easier for educators and students and removes barriers to teaching concepts such as:

• Reading and applying GD&T symbols: Understanding what flatness, perpendicularity, and position callouts actually mean and when to use them
• Thinking about manufacturability early: Considering how a part will be made and inspected during the design process, not afterward
• Understanding datum references: Learning how to establish consistent measurement references that manufacturing and quality teams will use
• Working with tolerance chains: Recognizing how tolerances stack up in assemblies and affect fit and function
• Preparing for digital inspection workflows: Understanding how tolerance data flows from design to coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and inspection reports

MBD in Action

Consider a student designing a mounting bracket that interfaces with an existing assembly. In a traditional workflow, the student would model the part, create a separate 2D drawing, manually place dimensions, add tolerance callouts, and hope everything stays synchronized as the design evolves.

With Onshape MBD, the workflow is fundamentally different; the student seamlessly adds relevant manufacturing information as they work through their design. For example, they can apply a flatness tolerance directly to the mating surface as soon as it is created and easily add a position tolerance to the mounting holes. These tolerances live right on the relevant 3D geometry.

Later, if a teammate modifies the bracket and inadvertently changes a referenced face, Onshape flags the affected annotation. There’s no delay, no mismatch between model and drawing, and no ambiguity. The feedback is instantaneous, and everyone always has the most up-to-date information.

The Future is Model-Centric

MBD is ideal for teaching students about real-world modern manufacturing processes, fast-iteration development cycles, and cloud-based workflows. As industries continue shifting from drawing-centric to model-centric approaches, Onshape stands out as the best tool for teaching this fundamental change. And as design, manufacturing, and inspection processes become increasingly digital and automated, MBD becomes an essential part of that future.

Importantly, using MBD in Onshape is not an “either/or” decision. MBD data can easily be brought into 2D drawings. Traditional 2D drawings aren't disappearing overnight. Some industries and customers still require them for contractual or regulatory reasons. But the direction is clear: Students who graduate knowing only drawing-based workflows will find themselves playing catch-up, while those trained in MBD will be ready to contribute immediately to modern engineering teams.