Linking Artifact to Onshape

What you'll learn

• What the Artifact ↔ Onshape integration syncs in each direction
• How to generate Onshape API credentials with the right permissions
• How to set up the 3D CAD Bridge for a specific harness
• How to preview, Initiate, and Sync harness wire data with Onshape
• How routed lengths flow back from Onshape into your Artifact harness segments

Prerequisites

• Complete Tutorial 6: Harness Editor — you need an existing harness in a diagram version to link.
• Active Onshape account with permission to create API keys on the document you'll sync.
• An Onshape document open in your browser so you can copy its URL.

Steps

1Understand what the integration does

The Artifact ↔ Onshape integration is harness-scoped and uses Onshape's Wire and Cable tool. The data flow:

• Artifact → Onshape — your harness's pinouts (Wire ID, From Ref / Pin, To Ref / Pin, Diameter, Gauge, Color) are pushed into Onshape as a wire table blob.
• Onshape → Artifact — once you route wires in Onshape, Sync pulls the resulting routed lengths back into Artifact and updates the per-wire Routed Length on the harness segments.

The setup modal sums it up: "Connect with Onshape to sync harness pinouts and lengths. Onshape will update lengths in Artifact, and Artifact will update the pinouts, color, and gauge in Onshape."

Two operations:

• Initiate — first upload from Artifact to Onshape (no length pull yet).
• Sync — subsequent runs upload pinouts + pull lengths.

The integration does not import parts or assemblies from Onshape into your Artifact library; it is wire-table + length-sync only.

2Open the 3D CAD Bridge

The 3D CAD Bridge section is only available in the harness editor, not the diagram editor.

1. Open the harness editor for the harness you want to link (see Tutorial 6: Harness Editor).
2. Click empty canvas or deselect everything so the right pane shows Harness Properties.
3. Expand the 3D CAD Bridge section (the chevron state is remembered between sessions).
4. From the platform dropdown, select Onshape. (NX is also listed as active; SolidWorks and CATIA appear disabled.)

Screenshot

3Open the setup modal

With Onshape selected, click the Setup link in the 3D CAD Bridge section. The Onshape Integration modal opens.

You'll provide three things:

1. The Onshape Document URL for the assembly that will hold your harness.
2. An API Key generated in Onshape.
3. The matching API Secret.

4Copy the Onshape document URL

In Onshape, open the document where the harness will live. Copy the URL from your browser address bar. It should look like:

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/{did}/w/{wid}/e/{eid}

1. Paste the URL into Onshape Document URL in the Artifact setup modal (placeholder Paste your Onshape document URL).

5Generate API credentials in Onshape

You need API credentials so Artifact can read and write the document.

1. In the setup modal, click Create API Key in Onshape (external link). This takes you to Onshape's developer portal.
2. Create a new API key. Grant at least these scopes (listed in the Artifact modal):
   • Application can read your documents
   • Application can write to your documents
3. Copy the API Key and API Secret Onshape generates. The secret is shown once — keep it safe.
4. Paste both values back into Artifact's Onshape Integration modal.
5. Save the setup. Credentials are stored in your local browser storage.

Screenshot

6Choose what to include

Back in the 3D CAD Bridge section of Harness Properties, set the export options before pushing data:

• Include shield connections — include shield conductors in the wire table.
• Include devices — include devices in related exports.

7Preview the export

Click View Export to open the Onshape Table modal. This shows exactly what will be pushed to Onshape:

Columns: Wire ID, From Ref, From Pin, To Ref, To Pin, Diameter, Gauge, Color.

Use this to sanity-check the data before any sync. You can also click Export CSV in this modal to download the wire table as {diagramName}_onshape_table.csv for your own records.

Screenshot

8Initiate the first sync

The first time you push to Onshape, click Initiate (ArrowPathIcon).

1. Artifact uploads the wire table as a CSV blob attached to your Onshape document.
2. A toast confirms progress: Syncing... Uploading data to Onshape → Successfully synced with Onshape.
3. At this point Onshape has the wire data but Artifact has not pulled any lengths back yet — there are no lengths to pull until you route the wires in Onshape.

9Route the harness in Onshape

Switch to Onshape's Wire and Cable feature and route the wires you just imported. Use the Wire ID column from the Artifact export to identify each conductor.

When routing is complete, the harness feature table in Onshape contains the routed length for every wire.

10Sync to pull lengths back

Return to the Artifact harness editor.

1. 3D CAD Bridge → Sync (the Initiate button changes to Sync after the first push).
2. Artifact uploads any pinout/color/gauge updates and then pulls routed lengths from Onshape into the matching harness segments.
3. The Routed Length field on each affected wire updates in Artifact, and the wire's length is now flagged as defined in the harness.
4. Diagram wires that derive their length from harness segments inherit the new values automatically (see the ↗ link on the Routed Length row in the diagram editor's Properties pane).

Screenshot

11Re-sync after changes

Either side can change first; Sync is non-destructive in both directions:

• If you add or remove wires in Artifact (e.g. you assigned more wires to the harness on the diagram), the next Sync uploads the updated table to Onshape.
• If routing changes in Onshape (re-routing produces new lengths), the next Sync pulls those new lengths back.

Run View Export before each Sync if you want to confirm exactly what is about to leave Artifact.

Summary

You linked an Artifact harness to an Onshape document using API key credentials, previewed the wire table that gets pushed, ran Initiate to upload the harness pinouts, routed the wires in Onshape, and ran Sync to pull routed lengths back into Artifact. Lengths populated in Onshape now flow into your Artifact harness segments — and from there into the diagram, BOM, Connections Table, and Cut List you produced in the previous tutorials.

What's next

• → Tutorial 12: Linking Artifact to NX — the equivalent flow for Siemens NX Routing, this time via offline file exchange rather than a live API.
• → Tutorial 13: Collaboration — once your data is flowing into CAD, bring teammates into the loop with comments, presence, and shareable links.