Today, we are announcing that History-Based Parametric Modeling is coming to Shapr3D.
At Shapr3D, we’ve always held grand ambitions. Our goal is still to build the best CAD system in the world. But the path to achieving this has not been straightforward. In the early years, we focused on conceptual design, sketching, and prototyping. However, as our product matured, our customers started to express a desire to do more of their work in Shapr3D. After some time, they indicated they would like to use Shapr3D not only on their iPads but also on their Macs, Windows PCs, and tablets. In response, we developed Shapr3D for Mac and Windows. Then, our customers wanted to create beautiful presentations in Shapr3D, prompting us to add real-time Visualization. When they expressed a need to generate manufacturing documentation in Shapr3D, we introduced 2D Drawings and have continued to expand this feature set ever since.
Then, last year, we started hearing a common refrain from our customer base, ranging from SMBs to Fortune 500 companies. They wanted to do even more with Shapr3D, beyond just conceptual design and prototyping. They wished to use our product for more complex engineering and manufacturing workflows. Our customers loved the user experience of Shapr3D – the ability to seamlessly switch between tablets and desktop computers, or design next to their CNC machine or on a plane using their mobile devices. However, for many of their more complex workflows, they needed History-Based Parametric Modeling.
So we listened. Today, we are announcing our biggest improvement yet: History-Based Parametric Modeling is coming to Shapr3D.
You can learn more about History-Based Parametric Modeling, and subscribe to the beta here.
That said, I am a bit surprised and maybe even worried about the choice of priorities. If you want a mature CAD for „more complex engineering and manufacturing workflows“, I would expect some elementary issues worked out first (like work organization - folders/projects/assemblies), and only then play around with advanced modelling approaches.
But I have had similar reservations before and Shapr3D proved me wrong.
Istvan I watched your videos on the up an coming improvements and I this will be ground breaking for Shapr3d because you now will have a Cad software that will be able to compete with the other big Cad softwares out there. I can’t wait for the updates to come out just want to say great job and hope to see some more major updates to the drawing side of Shapr3d also.
Thank you all, really looking forward to this, and the folder organization in particular.
I’ve been using shapr3d quite a while now, so it can’t come soon enough.
One of the things I really like about this program is the regular updates, in addition to the personal involvement of Istvan and the team. It’s really much appreciated.
I have one question about the history based approach, will it use much ram? I work mostly on an M1 iPad, and complex models containing screws and gears can really slow down the program. I have an M1 MBP too, but I like the pencil so much that I’ve been putting off learning how to use it. I suppose a larger iPad might be the solution to my problem…
This is a concern of mine as well (RAM use/file size). I just moved up to an M2 16GB iPad from an M1 8GB because of performance and stability issues with the size of the designs I work on (10,000+ bodies).
Now performance and stability are great again…but I can’t get any higher spec iPad in case History slows down or bloats anything, so I will be watching anxiously!
I do look forward to having the benefits that Parametric will bring. If anyone can make strong direct modeling and Parametric coexist…It’s the Shapr3D team!
I have a question. So what will make Shapr stand out against all the other History based parametric modelers? I hate most of them, the reason I found Shapr and almost bought an iPad because of it?
I totally understand your concerns and this is top of our minds. We are investing a lot in optimizing the performance of Shapr3D and ensuring it keeps running well even on mobile devices – after all, that’s one of our core differentiators.
Our goal is to make sure that the same workflows (eg. designing the same things) don’t require more computing capacity even as we improve the app. Of course, additional functionality means that you can do more, and that might require more powerful hardware — updating foundational parameters in a complex parametric model will inevitably require more calculation than adjusting a single geometry in direct modeling.
As we are in the middle of the development with many performance optimizations still ahead of us, it’s hard to tell what exact hardware will be required for what kind of models. We’ll publish information about that is we get closer to the public release.
To your particular case: one of the optimizations we’re working on is improving how we deal with large number of items, especially identical copies, as this will become much more useful and frequent in a parametric workflow, so I actually expect performance there to improve. Of course, adjusting a foundational history step that affects all 10,000 bodies still won’t be fast, but we are also working on a UI that makes these long-running calculations manageable.
Today, we are announcing that 
History-Based Parametric Modeling 
