“Which BricsCAD is right for our company?”
A powerful, reliable and DWG compatible CAD solution One affordable ZWCAD guarantees lifelong design quality and productivity. Streamline your workflow even more with unique ZWCAD features and innovative tools. ZWCAD mobile solution CAD Pockets lets you view, edit and communicate drawings with your team anywhere and anytime. ZWCAD Vs AutoCAD Comparison Chart 0 comments, by Guest/blogger, in ZWCAD Feature comparison between ZWCAD 2018 and AutoCAD 2018.
I get this question a lot, so it seems fitting to make it part of our CAD manager Q&A series. First, if you need a quick introduction to our products, watch our great new one-minute overview videos below. Don’t worry, I’ll wait here for you to get back. Enjoy!
Understanding the BricsCAD Editions
There are several editions of BricsCAD to consider, so let’s define them briefly:
BricsCAD® Shape
A FREE 3D solid modeling tool that lets you create your architectural concept models easily and accurately. Since everything is modeled at full vector accuracy and maintained in .dwg format, all your work moves effortlessly into CAD and BIM workflows. There’s never any need to start over or translate file formats.
BricsCAD® Classic
Familiar, powerful 2D with basic 3D functionality, like the market-leading “lite” CAD program, but with the added power of full LISP customization support. BricsCAD Classic, like all BricsCAD editions, comes with BLADE – the BricsCAD LISP Advanced Development Environment.
BricsCAD® Pro
Everything in Classic plus advanced direct modeling for history-less 3D modeling ease, enhanced productivity tools like automatic block recognition (Blockify) and rendering with materials/lighting on board.
BricsCAD® Platinum
Everything in Classic and Pro plus deformable solid modeling features, a huge catalog of parametric components, automatic 3D parameterization (PARAMETRIZE), and instantaneous 3D model comparison in a single window.
As you can see, there are three editions of BricsCAD with different levels of 3D modeling and rendering tools. You can buy the version of BricsCAD that has the features you need. If you only do 2D CAD but want to use customized LISP routines, then BricsCAD Classic will suit your needs well. If you need to create parametric 3D models and you want to render them for visualization, BricsCAD Platinum will be the edition you want. And, finally, if you want to achieve the same functionality of that other popular CAD program, plus advanced multi-threading / multi-processor support and powerful machine learning based tools, then BricsCAD Pro will do just fine by you.
Adding more power to BricsCAD
If you still need (or just want) more, you can ramp up the power of BricsCAD Platinum in several ways:
3rd Party Products
Popular 3rd party applications like Hexagon’s CADWorx® (for plant design) utilize BricsCAD Platinum as their CAD engine. These applications put vertical market specific workflows on top of the speed and low cost of BricsCAD Platinum, delivering powerful, task-specific functionality. There are over 400 vertical applications available through the BricsCAD App Store.
BricsCAD® BIM
A better BIM workflow that keeps everything vector accurate, all in DWG and 100% IFC interoperable. BricsCAD BIM uses AI-based workflows to automatically categorize BIM objects and PROPAGATE geometry throughout the model. BricsCAD BIM offers consistent level of development (LOD) control that is unmatched in the industry.
BricsCAD® Mechanical
A powerful, history-free and fast part/assembly modeler with resilient sheet metal design tools. BricsCAD Mechanical offers a configurable bill of materials capabilities, intelligent exploded view/assembly animations and assembly kinematics. And like BricsCAD BIM, BricsCAD Mechanical works in a familiar way that will have you up to speed in hours, not weeks.
Understanding License Types
Unlike subscription-only CAD tools, BricsCAD supports a variety of license types. This allows your company to choose the mix of licenses that make the most sense (and offer the best cost structure) for your needs. Here are brief definitions of each type of BricsCAD license:
Single Seat Perpetual
A permanent license that does not expire – it keeps running as long as your hardware and OS support it. You can also install a BricsCAD single seat perpetual license on a desktop and a laptop computer. Or, your work and home machines. Just don’t use both at the same time, and all is good by the letter of the license agreement.
Network Perpetual
A license that also allows sharing amongst any number of network users, via a server installed license manager.
All-In Maintenance
An annual support contract that assures you always have the latest minor and major versions of BricsCAD, and access to priority, email-based tech support.
Subscription
A low cost, annual rental agreement for temporary license needs that don’t warrant the expense of perpetual licenses.
Language Versions
No matter what license type you choose, your license entitles you to any language version of BricsCAD. Just download the appropriate language version for your needs and install – the same license key will work for all language versions.
The operative word in understanding BricsCAD licensing options is ‘choice’. It is your choice as to which product, license type, and language suits you best.
Don’t Take My Word for It!
Try BricsCAD for yourself, free for 30 days and see what you like most about using BricsCAD®. And if you have any questions please email me, at robert.green@bricsys.com. Post your comments below, and I’ll do my best to include them in a future blog post.
What is an ACIS solid, what is a geometric modeling kernel and why should you care? Well, for starters, BricsCAD uses ACIS as its geometric kernel, yes even our free product BricsCAD Shape!
What is an ACIS solid?
An ACIS solid is a solid that has been created using the ACIS geometric modeling kernel.
What is a geometric modeling kernel?
A kernel (geometric modeling kernel or solid modeling kernel) is a 3D solid modeling software component used by CAD packages. To model a solid on a computer you need a kernel.
Kernels perform the complex equations that produce the visual representations of objects that you see onscreen. Without kernels, there would be no CAD!
There are many different types of kernels. Some of the more popular ones include ACIS, C3D and Parasolid.
What is a CAD solid?
To understand what an ACIS solid is, you need to understand that, in the most simplistic way, CAD geometry can largely be categorized in two ways: surfaces and solids.
Surfaces
A poly mesh or a face-based geometry is a 3D shape made from polygons. Even if the surfaces are “meshed” together, the geometry is not ‘empty’. Think of it like an empty cardboard box. It’s hollow. There is no “material” in the center of the solid. If you slice into it you will see that is ‘empty’.
Meshes can be great for complex surface editing, but cause frequent problems, especially when it comes to rendering and exporting objects. Meshes aren’t always water-tight. It’s easy to accidentally model objects with holes where surfaces join. When rendering meshes or exporting them to other CAD packages, the faces of a mesh can flip and look invisible form certain angles. When 3D printing, the computer can become confused by what is “inside” and “outside” of the mesh.
Solids
Think of a solid like a block of polystyrene. The material fills the solid and it is not hollow. If you slice it in half, there is no empty space.
Solids can make it harder to create complex, curved shapes, although with advances in direct and parametric modeling, this is changing.
ACIS solids are great for things like 3D printing because the computer always knows what is “inside” and what is outside. This can also make calculating volumes easier.
Why use ACIS?
The problem with kernels is that there are many different types and they all work in slightly different ways. This means that the same operation on the same set of solids, might produce different results. As you will know from your high-school maths lessons, something as simple as choosing how many decimals to round numbers like pi or ⅓ to, can have consequences later down the line!
The good news is that ACIS is highly compatible because it is widely used by major CAD applications. Other than BricsCAD ACIS based CAD software includes: Abaqus, ADEM, Alibre, ANSYS, CADKey, Cimatron, Cobalt, Gambit, GstarCAD, IronCAD, KeyCreator, Naastran, Patran, SpaceClaim, TransMagic and ZWCAD.
AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor use the ShapeManager kernel which forked from ACIS version 7 in 2001.
What does A.C.I.S. stand for?
There are a few different ideas about what the letters A.C.I.S the most popular seems to be Alan, Charles & Ian’s System (Alan Grayer, Charles Lang and Ian Braid – the creators). However others claim the name was derived from Greek mythology (Acis and Galatea).
When was ACIS first released?
ACIS was first developed in 1985 for Spatial Technology’s Strata CAM software and released in 1989.
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Disclaimer: All brand names and product names mentioned in this post are trademarks or service marks of their respective companies, including Autodesk® and AutoCAD®.