Departing from the long string of entertainment-focused partnerships released in recent weeks and months, a new, enterprise-focused Magic Leap app has finally emerged in the form of Onshape.
On Wednesday, the Massachusetts-based company officially unveiled its partnership with Magic Leap, delivering an app that allows multiple Magic Leap One users to collaborate on 3D product designs.
"This is far more powerful and impactful than being able to merely view static, already-completed designs. And using our modern CAD system's real-time collaboration tools, even team members based in different parts of the world will instantly see each other's updates," said Jon Hirschtick, Onshape's CEO.
"Offering Onshape's cloud CAD system through the rich, immersive view of Magic Leap will one day seem as natural as designing on laptops, phones and tablets. We're proud to be ahead of the curve by giving engineers access to the latest tools they can't find anywhere else, tools that will help them push their creative limits, and ultimately design better products."
I had a chance to sample the app on Tuesday, and it lives up to the company's promise. In one room, myself and three other users (the company says more than just a few users can be viewing the model at one time) were able to move, flip, and resize a 3D model of a machine part. Additionally, we all could scribble notes and symbols anywhere around the 3D part, with each user's annotation represented by a different color.
When users make changes to a model or add notes, those changes are persistent and the app stores all of them in the cloud for later use.
"Along with our other development partners, Onshape is helping us discover new applications and markets for Magic Leap One," said Rony Abovitz, Magic Leap's CEO. "I look forward to helping them continue to shake up the world of design and manufacturing."
Although the company told me that this is just an early version of the product, with more robust updates to come, it's nevertheless a powerful tool that many industrial design and enterprise customers could benefit from right now. It's also a much-needed entry into the enterprise space that headsets like the HoloLens, and more recently the Meta 2, have gradually been taking over.
While Magic Leap's entertainment-oriented titles are more exciting to the consumer, the company will need to draw in more companies like Onshape and convince enterprise customers (which is where most of the money in AR seems to be lately) that the Magic Leap One is a viable player it the enterprise AR world.
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Cover image via Onshape
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