I would be very interested to hear from any of you who have adopted Bricscad (either partially or fully replacing AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT in your organisation), or at least seriously investigated using the product. This post is aimed at users and CAD managers rather than third party developers, who I expect to cover in future posts.
Why did you investigate changing over? How far have you gone? What are your experiences? What are the pros and cons? How is performance? Reliability? Bugs? Ease of use? Familiarity? Support and other aspects of customer service? Total cost of ownership? Are you experiencing interoperability problems when exchanging drawings with Autodesk software users? How did you go with incorporating in-house customisation and third party tools?
Please add a comment, or if you prefer, email me using my contact form.
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I have moved the staff computers (2) to Bricscad. My production machine will follow as soon as they fix the grread issue with the arrow keys. I will be keeping one seat of Autocad on subscription for the Export Layout to Model capability and to assure I can work with the MEP files I get from other consultants.
Cost to buy Bricscad Pro was about the same as the annual subscription for Autocad, so we will save in the long run. Differences are minimal. I had to rework a few of my lisp routines due to a vl- function that was not available in BC when we began the transition, but that was less than I have to do for a typical annual update of AC. I miss Owen W’s add-ons in BC, but they will be ported soon. We turn off a lot of stuff in BC, but the same is true for AC. No complaints on interoperability. I really like that BC is updated frequently and that the programmers keep up with and respond in their forums.
There were several factors that led to the transition. I’ve been looking at alternate programs for years, and BC is the first that has reached a point of being usable. The annual upgrades of AC are a merry-go-round I want off of — too much of my time wasted each year to test and update my customizations, too much change for the sake of change, and too little “improvement” each year that has any value for my office. AC is getting slower and slower, which means productivity goes down. Autodesk seems to be totally out of touch with their real customers. Autodesk seems to have little interest in fixing bugs.
I need a cad program that I can count on and a vendor that cares how their program works. I see that with BC but not with AC.
I went with BC over AC because of the approx. $3500.00 difference in cost (I have BC pro). Best of all, the LandFX software works with BC, with only inconsequential differences between that and the AC version. I’ve no problems so far with trading files between myself and AC users. The forum and frequent updates and bug fixes are great!
We have switch five copies of AC to BC for our engineering department. For us, the biggest incentive is the cost saving to enable us to read the newer CAD format and we have surveyed various AC compatible before settling to BC. It is the only program we found that will run our customization programs written in AutoLisp and VBA after some modifications. Overall you get a decent performing CAD software without the latest bell and whistle of AutoCAD functions(such as dynamic blocks). The functions relating 3D screen zoom and orbit also a tad slower than AutoCAD. It is still perfectly usable and we can live with those minor inconvience. The only thing really bother us is that when you try to copy CAD graphic object from Bricscad and pasting to other programs (such as MathCAD) resulting to degrading graphic resolution when resized for printing. We have filed this bug to service request to BC last year and now at version 10.4.11 and still no fix. That is why we still keep a copy of AutoCAD 2002 for this purpose.
I wonder how people deal with compiled lisps (.vlx).
Bricscad does not provide a vlide.
I’m waiting for a .net API to move to BricsCAD.
Supprised by all of these comments. We are working on BC. Would like to know if there are any support in South Africa, as we do not hear anything from Cape Town’s office. We get errors like out of memory (I am working on a 64 bit 8Gig machine) which is imposibble to go out of memory. I had bigger drawings working on AC with no problems.
We also get drawings when we zoom into the layout, then the layout multiply by the amount of turns we scroll the mouse. The program hangs up and sometimes it just go out without any message to tell the problem.
I am thinking of moving back to AC if we don’t get any support soon.
Kind regards
Tanja
Tanja,
Are you on the latest release of Bricscad? They seem to have fixed some major problems with release 10.4.18-1. You can download the update at http://www.bricsys.com.
The best support seems to be in the forums at their website. Bricscad is a 32 bit program, so it will be limited in the memory it can use just like any 32 bit program.
Martin
Switching to BricsCAD nowadays gives you freedom from expensive 2d softwares. well, if you only need common commands and its advanced functions with customizable cui’s (not cuix), loading lisps and other supports will do the edge. though, CAD drafting should not be expensive for delivery purposes, its really a good competition of AutoCAD “without burning your pocket”.
you’ll me much surprised when acad support tools can be loaded too in this program.
this program is edgy enough to create as much drawing as bentley microstation – talking about the file size.
I worked at Rader Canada for many years. When I discovered Briscscad I started using it at work on my thumbdrive. For me its a much better program than Autocad, because the keyboard is 100% proggramable.
I was the fastest draftsman there because of Bricscad. When they discovered I was using that program I was almost shown the door. They would try to blame that cad for all kind of problems, which were discovered to be all false. Its fully compatible with Autocad, better and much much cheaper and esy to install and use. Guess what! Rader Canada is now using Briscscad Instead of Aitocad and everyone loves it. It can really incresae an office production, due to the fact that its such a user friendly progra. A very smart choice for a Cad system which will not cost you a fortune and actually out perform Autocad. I’m sold.
I have been using the various versions of Acad for twenty years
and have found that ACad is becoming too complicated and expensive.
I like Bricscad because it’s faster and cheaper. We have had a
few problems which have had to over come but it’s worth
the trouble to migrate over to Bricscad.
I am a 16 year veteran AC user. I switched to Bricscad because it is easier to use than AC, it is geared for human use, very solid, lots of nice enhancements, can be used with leica disto d8 bluetooth for on site drawings, very fast support response via email ususally with good answers. I was able to start drawing immediately (within 4 hours – most time was for customizing settings, importing, fonts, plot styles, and drivers) since the environment was built for AC users. Five stars for Bricscad.
Since I posted here in July, I had to drop Bricscad for the full Autocad 2011. I use (and used with Bricscad) an add-on called LandFX. I had too many problems swapping files with clients. LandFX tech support began to get very nervous when I sent them files, since most of them ended up loaded with REGAPPS and other problems that got missed by AUDIT, in spite of my my best efforts to clean them up before sending them in.
BC is a good program, and the price is certainly right–it just didn’t work out for me. The folks at Bricsys, once I explained my issues and that I am now an owner of Autocad, agreed to let me sell my license.
Any takers, by the way? Bricscad Pro All-in.
Tom
I have used acad professionally for about 5 years. I have not had a problem with bcad at all. I am not saying it is perfect but at least as good as acad if not better. I must say that I am have no affiliation with bcad other than a user. Auto$cad is so overpriced and under supported. I am so glad to put Auto cad behind me
I miss nothing about it especially the arrogant “support” and sales people.
I used AC for 18 years. AC is a elegant stable CAD program. The switch to BricsCAD required answers to several priority issues. First, interoperability between AC and other CAD programs that used dxf of dwg; Second does it function like AC; Third could I use the standardized company set ups from outside sources (pac and go of plot styles, configurations); fourth stability, and fifth cost.
BricsCAD is very stable and well-engineered. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the BricsCAD Platinum program. I can open old AC drawing (retaining all configurations as long as I set the settings correctly in BricsCAD). BricsCAD support is excellent and very willing to work out recommendations or glitches (most mine). Some functions are different from AC. The different functions are intuitive and fairly easy to figure out. I also work on a portable and on a PC in an office location with no problems using it on both computers. The cost for Platinum version at this time is around $675.00 very economical and reasonable. You are definitely getting a lot more for your investment.
So far so good. I’m planning on migrating to Linux. My problems are more with Windows 7 than with Autocad. Windows will be dropping XP support in about 2 years. My first PC had linux so I figured I’d go back, since I gotta spend all that $$ to upgrade.
I have a 50 member team of Draftsmen. Recently I shifted 12 of them from AC to BC. The feedback is , BC is not too different and people are comfortable working with BC.
Start switching to BricsCad two years ago, because of higher price price of ACAD and the complexity of dealing with ribbon-like interfaces. Also, antipiracy policy made companies (in Spain), adapt their ongoings, looking for propietary software. Tried ProgeCAD, ZWCAD and others IntelliCAD based. BricsCAD outperforms them all. I must recognize, CAD alternatives were, then, all very poor, continuous hangs, bad dealing with memory, lines wicht wasn’t made or general bad performance. They were (BricsCAD too), in the level of ACAD v13-14. Not now, still need to progress, but they are now 2008 level. Meanwhile, ACAD don’t understand where is going (I assume that a big majority of CAD software users are experienced enough, why dealing with big buttons when you need as much commands within your sight as you could?. And, >2Gb?, for Godness sake!).
Also, that time I was starting with VBA for ACAD, so, no point learning another flavour of VBA when you get used to an specific one, BricsCAD did a perfect move here, although little referenced. This not make me a Third party developer, does it?