Why Onshape Customers Should Embrace Arena PLM for Product Success

Onshape customers are at the forefront of innovation, using a modern, cloud-native computer-aided design (CAD) and product data management (PDM) platform that sets new standards for mechanical design and collaboration. Their forward-thinking mindset makes the Arena by PTC product lifecycle management (PLM) system a natural next step in enhancing competitiveness. By extending Onshape’s collaborative design environment with Arena’s comprehensive PLM capabilities, teams can seamlessly manage the entire product record—from concept through production—enabling faster development cycles, improved cross-functional collaboration, and simplified compliance, which is why Arena is an ideal fit for Onshape users seeking greater product success.

What Is Arena and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)?

Today’s product development practices require all teams—from engineering and quality to manufacturing and customer service—to interact in real time and avoid costly delays in getting quality products to market. That’s where product lifecycle management comes in. PLM software is the backbone of modern product development. It helps manage a product from concept to production by connecting people, processes, and information in a centralized system to reduce manual work and improve collaboration.

Arena is the leading cloud-native PLM solution for high-tech and regulated companies. More than 1,450 customers use Arena to design, produce, and deliver products efficiently by bringing mechanical, electrical, and software designs into one shared platform. This enables dispersed teams to collaborate on the entire design before passing the released product to downstream systems. With Arena, companies can speed up new product development (NPD), eliminate design confusion, and ensure regulatory compliance.

Why Arena Is a Natural Fit for Onshape Users

Like Onshape, Arena is cloud-native, user-friendly, and doesn’t require IT infrastructure, offering a quick time to value (TTV). Arena empowers teams to accelerate product development with early design for supply chain reviews, supply chain intelligence (SCI), and a large ecosystem of proven technology integrations. This leads to:

• Fewer part cost and availability surprises
• Higher yields, reduced scrap and rework
• Faster time to market
• Simplified regulatory compliance

From Design to Production: How Onshape + Arena Support Product Success

The Onshape-Arena Connection links CAD, PDM, and PLM systems in a fully cloud-native environment that doesn’t require middleware or installs. Customers benefit from a fast and seamless integration that provides:

• One-click synchronization of parts and BOMs from Onshape to Arena
• Real-time collaboration across engineering, operations, and suppliers
• Reliable information with no version confusion or manual data entry errors

How Does Onshape and Arena Integration Streamline Product Development?

By connecting Onshape with Arena, organizations accelerate new product introduction (NPI), eliminate silos between PDM and PLM, and provide every stakeholder with access to the latest information. The connection streamlines change management, supports rapid design iteration, and keeps projects moving forward by providing a single source of truth for design and product information.

Which Onshape Customers Should Consider Arena?

Onshape customers who design products that combine electrical, mechanical, and software components, manage many product changes, and outsource some or all of their production, will find Arena valuable. Onshape customers who align with the profiles below should prioritize adopting Arena PLM, as they can realize almost immediate benefits to address their unique challenges.

1. Companies in Regulated Industries

Arena embeds quality and regulatory processes into every stage of product development. Companies in medical devices, aerospace and defense (A&D), and automotive sectors significantly benefit from Arena’s traceable workflows, compliance support, and secure sharing of high-fidelity CAD models. For these regulated industries, Arena’s ability to automatically generate 2D PDFs and 3D CAD files for engineering change orders (ECOs) is a game-changer.

For medical device companies: Arena’s product-centric quality management system (QMS) supports quality management system requirements for the FDA, EU MDR, ISO, and other regulatory bodies. By connecting quality records directly to the product design in a single system, Arena helps document and track closed-loop quality processes for device master records (DMRs), design history files (DHFs), training records, and corrective and preventive actions (CAPAs).

The Onshape-Arena Connection simplifies audits further by providing a fully traceable product and change history thread. Every design revision, BOM update, and ECO is automatically logged and linked to the correct documentation. This ensures auditors have instant access to a single, consistent source of truth, reducing manual reconciliation and compliance risks.

For aerospace and defense companies: Arena PLM for AWS GovCloud addresses stringent government requirements for A&D companies, enabling them to meet ITAR, EAR, and other export control mandates, as well as cybersecurity frameworks such as NIST SP 800-171 and CMMC, while accelerating NPI. With a seamless connection to Onshape Government, A&D companies can extend secure, cloud-native product development workflows across engineering, operations, and quality teams. This ensures every stakeholder works with the latest, fully traceable design and compliance information, empowering teams to innovate confidently within a protected and regulatory-ready environment.

For automotive industry companies: Arena PLM empowers transportation electronics and electric vehicle manufacturers to stay ahead of stringent compliance requirements, from meeting IATF 16949 and ISO 15118 guidelines to environmental regulations such as RoHS, REACH, and conflict minerals. Arena manages compliance evidence and delivers full traceability across BOMs, design changes, and supplier workflows. In addition, the Onshape-Arena Connection enables secure, real-time sharing of CAD data and design updates, ensuring engineering changes are fully traceable and aligned with compliance requirements—driving innovation without compromising safety or quality.

2. Scaling Startups and Growth-Stage Companies

Startups use Arena to lay a solid data foundation to scale their business quickly. Implementing Arena early on costs less and eliminates the inherent issues associated with managing product information in spreadsheets and siloed systems. While beneficial to all companies, Arena’s cloud-native platform requires no costly IT infrastructure, enables rapid deployment, and offers quick time to value (TTV) making it ideal for startups.

Stealth mode startup Atomic Machines had a goal to be ‘built for scale from day one’, with a strong digital foundation using Onshape and Arena. With this approach, Atomic Machines avoided the common startup pitfall of relying on spreadsheets and email until an expensive mistake forces a change. “With the Onshape-Arena Connection, everything runs smoother now. Buying is better, timelines are clearer, and the system gives us confidence in what we’re building,” stated Micheal Hill, CAD/PLM Administrator, Atomic Machines.

3. High-Tech Product Companies

High-tech electronics product companies face the following unique challenges:

• Sharing product information between internal and external teams
• Providing accurate and timely electronic part sourcing information during new product development (NPD)
• Managing many product changes
• Including contract manufacturers (CMs) in design for manufacturing (DfM) reviews
• Developing geo-specific product and packaging configurations

High-tech companies use Arena to streamline complex product development and launch processes. They use Arena’s single source of truth, secure collaboration, and supply chain intelligence (SCI) to address these challenges where spreadsheets fall short.

4. Joint Onshape-Arena Customers

Companies like 4AG Robotics, Dufour Aerospace, Kindred Motorworks, and Culture Biosciences have adopted Arena and Onshape for connected PLM, PDM, and CAD solutions. Customers have reported numerous advantages, such as having a single reliable source of information for both engineering and operations, reduced rework, faster engineering change processes, and simplified compliance efforts, among other benefits.

Nick Lester, Mechanical Engineer, Hardware R&D Team at Culture Biosciences noted, “Having the Onshape-Arena Connection enforces process discipline and saves us from so many mistakes. We’re dealing with BOMs that include hundreds of components—pressing a button to sync changes has been a massive improvement.”

Onshape and Arena: Unlock the Full Potential of Your Engineering Workflow

In today’s fast-paced engineering landscape, using Arena and Onshape together provides a transformative advantage for teams seeking agility, accuracy, and collaboration. Onshape customers will realize the benefits of Arena for their NPI processes. Plus, the Arena-Onshape Connection eliminates costly disconnects, accelerates change management, and help maintain full control over product data—all while supporting global collaboration and compliance.