Onshape-Arena Connection
Accelerate product development with an effortless, online and cloud-native connection between CAD, PDM, and PLM.
Cloud-Native CAD, PDM and PLM
The Onshape-Arena Connection accelerates new product introduction and continuous improvement processes by seamlessly linking CAD, PDM, and PLM in the cloud. With the Connection, you eliminate the complexities, administrative burdens, and exorbitant costs associated with traditional CAD and PLM integrations. Offered by PTC, this Connection offers a hassle-free, scalable, and cost-efficient solution that empowers global engineering and operations teams to implement Agile Product Development principles and accelerate innovation.
By harnessing the power of a shared, unified data source managed by Onshape's built-in PDM, the Connection facilitates instantaneous sharing of design information between engineering and operations teams. This not only enhances transparency but also greatly improves communication throughout the entire design process, thereby fostering greater collaboration and efficiency.
Notably, the Connection is available complimentary to customers who subscribe to Onshape's CAD and PLM enterprise plan in addition to Arena Launch or Scale plans. It’s a game-changing solution poised to revolutionize the way businesses innovate and collaborate in the modern era.
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Key Features
Connected, Simplified Administration
Deploy CAD, PDM and PLM instantly. With two cloud-native solutions, your BOM is always in sync, and your engineers, manufacturers, and suppliers can instantly and securely share product design information.
It’s one connected process. Sign your approvals in one location and track the latest product design, engineering changes (ECO/CO), and quality information throughout a product's lifespan.
Connect Your People
Improve communication by enabling multiple users to access information simultaneously and collaborate in real-time.
With Arena Scribe, an embedded chat tool, you can have formal and informal conversations as you move through your review process.
With Onshape’s Follow Mode, you can interactively screen share for peer-to-peer editing sessions during reviews addressing Comments and Markups as you go.
Connect To Your Data
Keeping product data in sync through the churn of rapid development cycles can be a challenge, but out-of-date information results in time, cost, and quality penalties.
With the Onshape Arena Connection you can make better decisions with all stakeholders always up-to-date, wherever they may be. Share product data (parts assemblies, drawings, bills of materials) and meta-data (categories, attributes, part numbers) accurately, securely, and in real-time.
Connect Your Processes
Keep design, operations, and manufacturing partners in sync with one process, enabling rapid change and innovation with less chaos. Sign off on a change in Arena PLM and your drawings in Onshape are automatically updated with the approved revision.
Move faster with Onshape’s versatile Release Management connected to Arena’s comprehensive Change Management. Sync part numbers and categories from Arena into Onshape and push BOMs and CAD neutral files from Onshape to suppliers in Arena.
Secure, Scalable Access
Eliminate downtime with secure 24/7 access to product data, bills of materials, and engineering change information from any device, anywhere.
User analytics and simplified licensing make managing access to CAD, PDM, and PLM easy, scalable, and cost-effective. With both Onshape and Arena using secure cloud storage, your IP is always safe and backed up, giving your organization full traceability and real-time visibility.
Explore More
Redefine your expectations of productivity with cloud-connected CAD and PLM.
Explore to learn more about making your product development process agile, adaptable and aligned with manufacturing.
See how design for manufacturability reviews can be easy, fast and agile with Onshape.
Read how Onshape customers overcome challenges using Cloud-native CAD.
Take a tour of the capabilities offered by Onshape and Arena.
Got Questions?
For more answers or to ask a question yourself head over to the Onshape Forum.
The connection is freely available as part of both applications, there are no additional costs or required licenses. You do, however, need to be a user of both Onshape Enterprise and Arena Launch or Arena Scale.
No installation is required. The connection is native to both Arena and Onshape and configured in Arena’s and Onshape’s settings. Configuration properties such as the Arena workspace ID and authenticating web token are provided by your Arena sales and support team.
Onshape offers unlimited data storage for design projects. If you are a licensed user of Onshape Enterprise and Arena Scale or Arena Launch there are no Cloud storage fees.
Yes, there is a single button to add or refresh this information in Arena.
Yes, Onshape categories and Arena categories are mapped in the setup of the system, and custom part numbers can then be associated by category. For example, sheet metal parts are all labeled with 300-series with a sequential string after.
Yes, the Onshape Arena connection automatically displays thumbnails. A full 3D view of the Onshape document is visible within Arena as well as a direct link to the Onshape CAD design if you are an authorized user in the Onshape Enterprise.
Yes. With guest and light licensing you can securely add and remove suppliers from your enterprise and share them into your data in real-time without any files, similar to the way that Google Drive and Docs work. If you do need to send files, the Onshape Arena connection automatically generates 2D drawing PDFs and 3D neutral CAD files (STEP) for items on an Arena ECO.
Yes, you will assign Arena part numbers from the Properties dialog in Onshape. Once configured, Arena Part Numbering is transparent to the Onshape user, and part numbers will be based on the category you select for your part or assembly.
Yes, each category's properties can be mapped to the corresponding Arena category attributes. Attributes will be updated when you sync your model with Arena and displayed in the specification tab.
Yes. Ensuring that the correct revision of a CAD design is aligned with the corresponding Arena revision helps prevent errors, reduces confusion, and facilitates effective collaboration among teams. With Arena PLM revisions referencing specific Onshape revisions, design work can continue, creating new branches and updates to the CAD model, with operations and manufacturing partners clear on which revision was released in the PLM.
No, the release process in Onshape is connected to Arena’s Change process. Using Onshape’s out-of-the-box Release workflow, you start with Onshape’s release dialog, select an open Arena Change, and the system takes care of connecting the two into a single, streamlined release process.
Absolutely you can! The systems work together to connect the power and flexibility that you love in Onshape with the rigor of a formal change process in Arena.
"The Onshape-Arena Connection reduces the friction, high costs, and custom software builds that typically occur when trying to connect product data management and product lifecycle management systems. This functionality makes it easier for product data to flow from engineering to the supply chain to manufacturing seamlessly."