Is it Possible to Have CAD Version Control Issues With Only One Product Designer?

One of the biggest myths in the product development world is that version control problems only happen when large teams are collaborating on a complex design project. Certainly, the risk of engineers accidentally overwriting each other’s work or inadvertently editing an older version of a CAD model does become more likely once multiple colleagues are involved. But working alone is no guarantee that data management problems will leave you alone.

“With version control, we used to have problems even with one engineer because human error always comes into play,” says Vaibhav Boricha, Director of VIKASO, an England-based robotics and industrial automation startup.

“The biggest pitfall is not being able to go back to previous versions quickly. And secondly, there’s the problem of somehow forgetting what you did in which version. We (used to) have no ability to record notes for individual versions. We would name a file V3, but what was V3 about? What changed from V2 to V3?”

VIKASO integrates collaborative robots (“cobots”) into manufacturers’ existing production lines to automate repetitive tasks. Their customers include companies of all sizes, ranging from fellow startups to iconic global brands such as Rolls-Royce, BMW and MINI.

Eliminating the Hassles of Manual Data Management

Onshape, a cloud-native product design platform, provides CAD and built-in PDM for roughly the same cost as competitors charge for CAD alone.

In 2020, when VIKASO needed to expand its design team from one mechanical engineer to four, Boricha began exploring alternative CAD and data management platforms to find a better solution to their version control issues. He notes that his team’s previous approach of manually keeping track of the latest design versions through a file-naming convention – naming files V1, V2, V3, etc. – was a system prone to mistakes.

One of the biggest reasons VIKASO decided to switch from their old file-based CAD platform to cloud-native Onshape was its automatic version control. Onshape’s built-in Product Data Management (PDM) system, included in the cost of a yearly subscription, doesn’t require engineers to check in and check out designs from a vault. Multiple users can simultaneously edit the same document, seeing each other’s updates in real time with no risk of overwriting each other’s work.

El exhaustivo historial de edición de Onshape también registra qué ingeniero hizo qué cambio de diseño y cuándo, lo que permite al equipo volver instantáneamente a cualquier iteración anterior con un clic del ratón.

“Transparency is very important to us,” Boricha says. “Onshape’s Comments feature lets us easily record why we’ve done what we’ve done – so we can still work at a rapid pace while taking on some really risky, innovative and disruptive projects.”

Cloud-Native CAD Saves Money on Hardware Costs

Cuando VIKASO cuadruplicó su equipo de ingeniería, la adopción de Onshape, nativo de la nube, supuso un ahorro inmediato del 50 por ciento en los costos de hardware. Como Onshape funciona en cualquier ordenador o dispositivo móvil (iOS o Android), ya no era necesario comprar estaciones de trabajo dedicadas de alto rendimiento únicamente para ejecutar CAD.

Dadas las limitaciones presupuestarias de la empresa como empresa emergente, Boricha buscaba una plataforma de diseño de productos de software como servicio (SaaS) que ofreciera una suscripción anual en lugar de tener que comprar costosas licencias CAD locales por adelantado.

«Simplemente no teníamos una cantidad increíble de dinero disponible para comprar más licencias perpetuas. Descubrimos Onshape por primera vez cuando buscábamos un modelo de suscripción, y el resto del valor añadido (no tener que gestionar los servidores ni el mantenimiento, proteger y hacer copias de seguridad de nuestros datos) fue la guinda del pastel», recuerda. «Un modelo SaaS nos da un respiro. La idea de comprar licencias perpetuas no es algo que queramos perseguir en esta etapa de la empresa».

«Incluso en el futuro, nunca elegiría una licencia perpetua porque no nos da ninguna flexibilidad», añade Boricha. «Si hay una tecnología mejor que salga dentro de dos años, ¿qué haremos? Nos quedaríamos con esas licencias en las que invertimos entre 20 000 y 50 000 dólares. Más allá del modelo de suscripción, Onshape nos ahorra dinero de otras maneras, como el tiempo que ahorramos al compartir información con nuestros clientes y solo en todo el proceso de desarrollo».

To learn more about how VIKASO relies on cloud-native CAD and PDM to improve its agile methodologies, watch the video below: