Bricscad review plus#

Bricsys has utilised machine learning to start the process of turning these models into BIM. Bricsys has harnessed the ACIS solid modelling kernel to enable designers to create incredibly complex shapes, using booleans, workplanes, chamfers, surfaces, complex wireframe manipulation вЂ“ the usual gamut of modelling tools.Дesigners can create anything they can envision in geometry. At its core, you have a DWG compatible, and very capable, drawing platform. While the concept is the same, the capability and ease of use really blew us away. From seeing the initial BIM development work to what was presented on the stage in London was really quite a marked difference.

Hexagon was perhaps the biggest thirdparty developer to realise that it could use the familiar APIs that AutoCAD has, to port its existing applications to BricsCAD and offer to save its customers money on their AutoCAD subscriptions. Bricsys works out a lot cheaper than Autodesk Subscription for AutoCAD. Bricsys also offers subscription at $312 per year, if thatвЂ™s what you would prefer. The entry-level BricsCAD is $825 forever AutoCAD is $1,575 per year, LT is $390 per year. Bricsys pricing is based on a perpetual licence and works on Windows, macOS and Linux. Hexagon previously ported its AutoCAD-based plant application, CADWorx Plant Design Suite, to Bricsys as an alternative for its customers to paying for AutodeskвЂ™s AutoCAD on subscription. Hexagon also has a reputation of leaving the brands it buys alone to carry on developing semi-autonomously.

Bricscad review plus#

While Bricsys had annual revenues of ВЈ13 million, now it is under the Hexagon umbrella it will have all the resources it could ever need, plus access to markets as a mature, trusted CAD platform. It owns Leica, Intergraph, MSC Software, Z/I Imaging and many others. For those unfamiliar with Hexagon, it is a global giant of a firm, that operates in construction, engineering, mining, automotive and plant and has annual revenues in excess of ВЈ1.2 billion. A new ownerДЄt last monthвЂ™s Bricsys conference in London, the first big news was that the company had been acquired by Hexagon for an undisclosed sum.

As things stood 18 months ago, however, the BIM functionality seemed all rather basic and there was evidently a long way to go.

Bricsys thinks that those who have not yet made the move to Revit, may have more 2D processes and be happier doing their BIM modelling in a familiar environment, with the added advantage of it being cheaper. This was all happening on top of BricsCAD, which is a DWG drawing and modelling tool which offers LISP, ARX and all the familiar AutoCAD functions you would expect. The benefit of this approach was that the conceptual phase didnвЂ™t require the architects to worry about object definitions, just define the forms.

This turns products like Revit on their heads, as instead of using a palette of predefined and customisable objects to model with, like Lego, BricsCAD BIM was model first, then define. The demonstration showed rectilinear ACIS solids being used to model a building and then the user applying IFC definitions post modelling. The company also develops tools for the manufacturing market with powerful parametric solid modelling (based on ACIS) and sheet metal applications.ДЄEC Magazine saw the companyвЂ™s formative new BIM tools 18 months ago. The firm recently developed a SketchUp work-alike BricsCAD Shape. It developed TriForma which Bentley Systems sold as its core BIM application in the 1990s and then its own tool called Architecturals in the 2000s. Although the company is dedicated to maintaining compatibility with DWG and AutoCAD, it wants to be perceived as a CAD developer in its own right and from what we saw at the firmвЂ™s recent London event, there is good reason.Д«ricsys is not new to AEC or BIM. Since then it has gone beyond AutoCAD and developed all sorts of original functionality to its base platform application. The company started out developing an AutoCAD clone called BricsCAD and did a great job at creating a low-cost alternative to AutoCAD. ItвЂ™s been 18 months since we last saw BricsCAD, from Ghent-based developer, Bricsys.