All Systems Go — BricsCAD V22 Family of CAD Programs Release

The release of new versions of all the Bricsys products together with the company’s Digital Summit offers in-depth information about the company and its new products.

Software developer Bricsys (www.bricsys.com), a part of Hexagon, recently announced the availability of new versions of its CAD products: BricsCAD Lite, BricsCAD Pro, BricsCAD Mechanical, BricsCAD BIM, and BricsCAD Ultimate, which combines all the products together. Now in V22, the BricsCAD family of products is according to the company, “optimized to improve design, construction, and manufacturing workflows.”

At the same time, the company announced its new products, Bricsys held its 2021 Digital Summit to share detailed information about the updated programs, and to offer more in-depth information on a variety of topics, such as best practices when working through migration from another CAD product, learning about new tools, and how BricsCAD fits into the Hexagon group.

All CAD, All Together

In one of the opening keynotes, Cathi Hayes, VP Bricsys Portfolio Strategy & Enablement at Hexagon PPM, explained more about the vision the company has for BricsCAD. The focus is on the company’s “one platform” approach to design. All of the company’s products work together from BricsCAD BIM to BricsCAD Mechanical as they are all based on the same CAD platform.

From concept (above) to a full rendering (below) in BricsCAD BIM V22. Image source: Bricsys.

BricsCAD BIM V22 with full rendering tools. Image source: Bricsys.

Users can switch between Bricsys’ 2D, 3D, BIM, and Mechanical products all within one DWG-based, multi-purpose CAD platform. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) enable hundreds of developer partners to create applications that span a spectrum of design disciplines. Integrations with other applications help users across multiple disciples and industries work better together.

One of the main strengths the company discussed is that from within BricsCAD Pro, users can shift between 2D and 3D, making it easier for users to visualize a design. As a design evolves, then users can add parameters. Updates in the 3D model are parametric and update the 2D documentation as well.         

Continuing this conversation about how products work seamlessly together, Gavin England, Lead Product Marketing Manager, and Don Strimbu, BricsCAD Core Product Manager, discussed the future of 2D and 3D design and how BricsCAD Lite and Pro fit together. Gavin reiterated that while we know that 2D is not going away anytime soon, the company is also developing ways to help those who work in 3D keep their 2D data sheets up to date, and, vice-versa. Rahul Kejriwal, Head of Bricsys summed it up clearly, stating, “The BricsCAD product family enables continuous and efficient workflows from conceptual to detailed design, so our customers can spend more time doing what they love best — designing great things.”

BricsCAD Lite V22 is the company’s 2D-focused program. Image source: Bricsys.

The 5-Pronged Approach for V22  

Bricsys states that its fundamental purpose is to help designers easily and effectively solve design problems faster. They also state they are driven to continue to be innovative, but “in a stable and reliable way.” Gavin shared the five key areas of improvement that Bricsys focused on with V22:

1. Strengthen the core foundation of BricsCAD, including new development approach, having a strong Beta program, refining the core code, and increasing the performance and stability of LISP, .NET, and BRX APIs for better customization of partner programs.

2. Enhance performance and improving speed and efficiency by utilizing multithread technology. Also, commands are now consistent across programs, so going back and forth is easier, plus users will see improved performance in the text editor, especially when working in complex drawings.

3. Key enhancements to compatibility including updated handling of DWG-based legacy data, plus there are three new Express features to improve productivity, enhancedcompatibility with MLeader entities including Frametypes, the new Maptrim tool, the Arrange feature to help organize entities, plus more. CAD managers will be interested in learning more about the new Standards Checking Toolkit.

4. Improved data optimization with a focus on utilizing AI features to automate tasks and allow for the reuse of data whenever possible to save time and energy. V22 has more built-in use of automated machine learning, which helps clean up duplicate geometry and includes the newly launched Parametric Block workflow, so you can reuse data.

5. Increased openness with the core Bricsys engine and use of the BLADE LISP programming environment. 

In addition to these overall improvements, Bricsys continues to invest in additional capabilities in Civil Engineering, point cloud processing, and visualization areas.

BricsCAD Mechanical V22 is a fully parametric modeller. Image source: Bricsys.

Freedom to Design

Bricsys wants to inspire drafters, engineers, architects, surveyors and designers by making sure its products offer designers the freedom to design the way users want. Offering flexible licensing, the ability to easily switch from 2D and 3D while designing, and offering the adaptable approach to 3D modeling so you can focus on your design before being too concerned about specifics. Add that to the numerous add-on programs that work with Bricsys.

Find out more about BricsCAD V22 and also watch the Digital Summit archives available online. Users have a variety of ways to purchase Bricsys, you can review choices here. A popular choice is the perpetual license with the optional BricsCAD Maintenance plan. This starts with a one-time larger fee, and then follows each year with a lower annual fee so you get the most up-to-date version available.