Onshape Labs: AI in CAD Guided by Designers, Driven by Innovation

AI is opening up new possibilities in product development. With “fearless design” – the unofficial Onshape motto, setting the tone for the next era of design tools – we’re ready to discover new functionalities.

Exactly how AI will change the way designers use CAD software is still being developed. But for AI in CAD to go from hype to something engineers actually trust and reach for every day, the human element comes first.

Introducing Onshape Labs

Onshape Labs is our new early-access program built to give participating teams hands-on time with AI and emerging technologies.

These burgeoning functionalities get room to stretch, adapt, and morph into something genuinely useful, developed by direct feedback from real designers doing real work, not bolted on or force-fed to users.

“With Onshape Labs, we’re putting these capabilities directly in customers’ hands early, learning from how they use them, and turning that feedback into meaningful product value,” said David Katzman, EVP and General Manager of Onshape and Arena at PTC, in a press release. “Our goal is to move from AI assisting engineers to AI actively participating in the engineering process.”

Right now, Onshape Labs is open to a select group of participating teams. In the near future, Onshape users will be able to opt in and get early access to developing features.

Onshape Labs Experimental Features

Two Onshape Labs features are live today for participating teams:

AI Quick Render

AI Quick Render turns whatever is in your viewport, be it a part, an assembly, or a sketch, into a photorealistic render right in a side panel without leaving Onshape. The result saves to your document in one click, or downloads locally, and follow-up prompts allow you to keep refining lighting, materials, and composition.

It works the way you’d expect from a tool like ChatGPT or Gemini, minus the time spent between switching tools. Since the model runs on Onshape’s own servers, design data never leaves the Onshape-controlled environment.

Éditeur NVIDIA Omniverse

The NVIDIA Omniverse Publisher links Onshape CAD directly to compatible Omniverse platforms, including Isaac Sim, so robotics teams can move from design to physics-based simulation without the usual export-and-rebuild cycle. Mechanical relationships such as joints, actuators, and other physical details, get defined in Onshape and carry straight into Isaac Sim. So when the design changes, the simulation updates automatically, keeping design and simulation in sync throughout development.

Next Up for Onshape Labs

This is only the beginning. The Onshape Labs roadmap is packed with upcoming features, including:

• FeatureScript MCP Server that will bring FeatureScript’s power into agentic and text-to-CAD workflows.
• AI Agents and Automation, which let agents handle the repetitive parts of your workflow so you can focus on the design decisions that actually need a human.
• Drawing Checker, which will catch drawing errors and inconsistencies automatically, before they cost you a manufacturing run.

Why Onshape Labs

There’s no shortage of tools racing to bring AI into CAD right now. What sets Onshape Labs apart is the platform it’s built on – cloud-native from day one, secure by default, and able to ship new functionalities, fast. The benefits of this program are many.

Built cloud-native, from day one. Onshape was never a desktop tool with cloud features bolted on later, but built in the cloud from the start. That same architecture is what makes Labs possible. New AI capabilities get tested, refined, and delivered to participating teams instantly, with no installs, no version conflicts, and no wondering which build you’re even on.

Your IP stays yours. Standalone text-to-CAD tools are popping up everywhere, but none of them come with the trust and security backbone that Onshape already provides. Every model in Onshape Labs runs within Onshape’s controlled environment, so your data stays protected.

FeatureScript unlocked. FeatureScript has always been one of Onshape’s most powerful and most underrated tools. Now it’s doing more than scripting. It’s soon to become a core part of how AI capabilities work under the hood.

Onshape Labs is at the forefront of every new AI capability we build. If you want to see where product design is headed, and help decide what “useful” actually looks like, this is the place to do it.

Join Onshape Labs

What does it take to get AI in CAD right? Designers, involved from day one. That’s the idea behind Onshape Labs.