Autodesk Fusion 360 Reviews & Product Details

Upchain is clearly focused on simplifying complex PLM processes. Recently, we conducting a review of several major PLM platforms, and Upchain was the only one that our users were excited about. They were able to pick up on the platform with very little training, and felt like it would allow them to do their day-to-day job better. The Solidworks integration for Upchain is a differentiator. They've done a really good job bringing the major capabilities of the system into the plugin, and it does a really good job blurring the lines between "PLM Data" to "CAD Data". From an IT perspective, their Cloud approach makes it much easier to quickly get started with the platform. Their "Partner Enablement" team (Upchain terms for sales & support) has also been helpful in getting us on-boarded and trained.

Upchain does not have all of the functionality of a traditional, major PLM. This has been changing pretty rapidly, and they've been very receptive to our feedback in terms of priority.

We're primarily using Upchain for its Design Collaboration features, including CAD Management, Bill of Materials Management, and Change Control (ECO) . We're also using some of the document management and requirements management tools. As we, and the platform, mature, we intent to use it to manage the service & maintenance of our products.

Plug in for Solidworks is well integrated and simple enough to pick up and use for day to day tasks The development/support team are good to work with, very responsive and helpful. The majority of issues and feature requests we come across are already in the pipeline to be fixed in upcoming releases. Updates happen frequently and are quick and simple to carry out. Online Upchain academy is good for getting an overview of all parts of the system. I liked the format of the the live "Connect the Chain" video training, with each short session dedicated to a single topic.

Some extra features would be useful to aid day to day useability, things like a collapse all option for the tree or clearer visualisation of the different levels of the BOM Migration process seemed to be very manual with the potential to miss files that are not in the top level assemblies. Some significant issues were encountered with the hybrid vault solution (Upchain interface with the data on a local server), but due to be fixed in upcoming releases.

As any PDM system, Upchain has allowed better control of files and revision management. The benefits of Upchain in particular is its strong plugin integration into multiple CAD packages and easy access to the software anywhere with the internet.

Cross platform compatibility. Not limited to using one software within an organisation. Easy to share and view CAD data without the need to have a CAD package installed on your machine. Good customer support, and very quick response times on issues.

Its not easy to understand until training is complete. Some naming and layouts are not logical and take some getting used to. The integration process requires a lot of time and planning. Metadata importing from existing sources could be made more user friendly. Mapping metadata from a database proved more difficult than expected (very specific data formatting required for Upchain's plugin to read the data properly. Part numbering rules limited in term of the format and delimiter types. On some new releases the layout changes and throws the user off.

Upchain is used as a PLM & PDM system in our organisation. It has helped loads in the current situation in the world with allowing us to seamlessly transition into working from home and not have project or design downtime.

We found the Software very valuable when it came to streamlining our engineers and production teams. Before Upchain our teams were constantly using old cad files or misplacing new files. This software has helped minimize and abolish any of these human errors.

We enjoy the new features and functionality constantly being given, however that requires our users to redo the Upchain academy courses, to best utilize the platform.

Upchain is helping solve a variety of problems, ranging from human error to our other software bugs. We have begun to cut costs and mistakes by removing some variables and making sure all of our teams are up to date on the latest drawings.

This software helped bring all aspects of the business together to collaborate on projects. It is great for assigning certain tasks to individuals. We also love the low monthly costs. For a small business, keeping costs low is important for us.

I would like to see more controls in place that protect documents and also some improvements on integrating the software.

Our business is constantly changing to adapt to our customers needs and this platform is great for managing that change.

Upchain provides a central location for all our product specifications, allowing great collaboration for CAD (Solidworks), and online CAD viewer! The user interface is very slick and web-enabled which is a must these days. Communications of changes is very well done also through emails ahead of time. The visualization tool for changes, and just in general CAD viewing is great as not everyone in our company has solid works or a viewer, so this makes things much easier. There are lots of columns that can be customized, and the multiple preset views allows for quick changes to the data displayed, which we do all the time.

We know it's in the pipeline, but documentation management would be great to allow us to have a full suite of design inputs (all the documentation) along with the design outputs (all the data), to round-out the development tracking side of things. Can't wait to see what the team releases! The BOM tool could be a little better as you navigate up/down the chain.

data management, collaboration with CAD users, central repo for viewing changes, BOM management

Simple, minimalist looking graphical user interface in the solid works add in environment, aesthetically it is very pleasing and easy to use.

The learning curve/ number of training sessions required, both in the form of online classes and teleconferenced sessions.

We require a more robust PLM system, our current system is PDM only, the native solid works add in, and is very buggy, slow, and crash prone.

User friendly software that helps engineers with keeping track of design changes. The version updates allow other users to be aware of changes. Integration with Solidworks program works relatively well in comparison to the native PDM software Solidworks provides.

Checking in parts can be confusing for those who have not used a PDM software before. I suggest getting familiar though usage before giving an overall impression.

No problems yet, very similar to Solidworks PDM

Previously our company had many rogue engineering processes such as engineering change requests, engineering change notice, non conformance reviews, engineering deviations, and many more. Managing all these processes got messy very quickly but Upchain has helped formalize these processes and brought them all under the same roof. With the Upchain features it is very simple to review the engineering documents and kick off a process or assign work.

I wish there was a better feature to track productivity. Such as, the total number of ECR's completed in the past month sorted by the departments that did the work. A feature for tracking these statistics would help provide managers with a high level of what is going on and equip them with the information they would like to see from a brief glance. Another feature that took some time to work with is the way Upchain segments by project. If your company does not already split work out by project it takes a little bit to get used to. The project approach also makes it difficult to manage sustaining efforts.

Upchain is helping to reduce many uncertainties within the company related to parts and the latest revisions. In some instances the files associated with a particular part number is not always clear. Without any organizational logic in the drawing/schematic directories it becomes very difficult for purchasing, manufacturing, or other department to distinguish which revision is actively being used. between the different revisions. Upchain helps eliminate that uncertainty while allowing for red lines and comments to be applied and tracked directly within Upchain.

Compared to major Relational Database Management Systems requiring major infrastructure resources, Upchain is a web-based application that remotely provides an equivalent yet let burdensome Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform. The administrative tools are straightforward to use, and workflow development and tailoring are a breeze. The visibility of project activity and the history of every project artifacts are provided in the primary levels of the application rather than requiring skilled expertise in tunneling down into a project. Users can easily collaborate on a product, and in an organized fashion within the corporate-designed constraints of the PLM system.

I have not been able to find a way to assess the maturity of an Engineering Change Request (ECR) and it's present state within the ECR workflow. It would be good to know where it has been and where it's going next in order to periodically report ECR status to stakeholders in the release of the pending change.

We are challenged with a legacy engineering culture focused on prototype development that has long needed but overlooked the necessity of controlling a product baseline, regardless of a product's deemed suitability for manufacturing. With the PLM tools afforded in Upchain, traceability of the product performance to its design requirements will be established and officially available for validation and verification. Lessons learned in preliminary development will be available as a permanent record and repeatable best practices can be achieved. The intricate and accurate assembly and sub-level details captured and controlled within the Upchain tool provides a basis for positive control of product artifacts in a Product Data Management (PDM) regime, supporting the shift from a prototype to a mature, manufacturing culture.