Autodesk last week announced that it had sold its Pixlr app, acquired during the Carl Bass era; this is the first time it's ever sold off deprecated software. The otherwise innocuous announcement made a startling admission: "As part of our ongoing business model transition, Autodesk has decided to focus development resources on our core product portfolio..." Autodesk has begun to retrench.
As Autodesk announced its contraction, Bricsys held a two-day conference at its headquarters in Ghent, Belgium for members of the CAD press. (See figure 1.) Bricsys has spent ten years patiently laying the groundwork for a new CAD platform. Now, it was ready to show off its confidence as a suitor suitable for the affections of disaffected Autodesk customers -- and other CAD users, too, of course.
 Figure 1Gent, in western Belgium, a city of canals and cathedrals
To prepare for the debut, here are some of the steps Bricsys took over the last decade:
First step was to set up the infrastructure for a lean company, which today has just 135 employees -- 90% of them programmers. The leanness is attributable largely to their massive, home-grown CRM [customer relationship manager] software, which semi-automatically tracks downloads, purchases, bug reports, dealer activity, and so on. This kind automation drives down costs to the point that Bricsys aims for an annual profit of 25% on EBITDA [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization].
Second step was to remove all traces of IntelliCAD code from the original BricsCAD, allowing Bricsys to develop its software independently of, and much faster than, the ITC. Through audits, the ITC has certified that BricsCAD is IntelliCAD-free since version 8. Bricsys spends 40% of its revenues on R&D, which is something like 3x more than most other CAD firms.
Third step was to decouple the UI [user interface] and CAD code from the operating system. This allows BricsCAD to run with nearly 100% identical features and user interface on any platform, currently Linux, Mac, and Windows -- something Autodesk to this day continues to struggle with.
Final step was to set up a free third-party developer program, part of which involved recreating most of AutoCAD's APIs [application programming interfaces]. If a CAD package has lots of add-ons, then it attracts more customers -- this is key to Bricsys CEO Erik de Keyser's plan for customer growth. Bricsys now boasts 1,200 add-ons, of which 408 are available to download through the https://www.bricsys.com/applications/ Web page. (The other 800 are written by customers for internal use.) At the Insights conference, Bricsys told us they were particularly pleased at how easily HexagonIntergraph ported CADWorx and its 3.5 million lines of code from AutoCAD to BricsCAD. http://www.coade.com/ (See figure 2.)
Figure 2 Intergraph's Peter van der Weijde describing the porting process
The result of laying down this four-step foundation is that Bricsys now offers potential customers the following suite of functions, albeit not all are unique to BricsCAD:
- Only one software product, available in three price levels and with several add-ons -- this simplifies buying decisions for end-users
- File format based on DWG -- this lets most CAD users move their drawings away from their old CAD system
- User interface and commands that work like AutoCAD, and can be customized -- this means users of AutoCAD and workalikes have a zero learning curve adapting to BricsCAD
- Permanent licenses, with optional subscription plans -- this means that users are not in danger of having the software stop working, should they be unable to pay the rent, as is the case now with Autodesk
- Priced at 1/4 the cost of AutoCAD -- which helps companies like Intergraph attract more customers
For quality control, Bricsys runs 28,500 tests on nearly 40 servers each time a programmer makes a change to the BricsCAD code.
It's not just about mimicking AutoCAD. Whereas Autodesk dutifully pushes out a new release each March with a few new and changed functions, both the yearly release and the mid-year releases of BricsCAD have lists of functions that take dozens of pages to describe. While some functions play catchup to AutoCAD functions, others are unique. Here's the link to the current 17.2 release notes, some 60 pages long: https://www.bricsys.com/common/releasenotes.jsp
Figure 3Members of the CAD press recording the Bricsys Insights conference
"Nobody else does that" was a phrase that Bricsys executives used several times during the Insights conference. BricsCAD has unique commands not found in AutoCAD and certainly in few other CAD programs of its price range, especially in the area of 3D, such as 3D constraints, design intent, add-ons for doing 3D BIM and 3D sheet metal design, and a unique at-cursor interface. To be fair, the opposite is also true: BricsCAD lacks some functions found in AutocAD, the most significant in my opinion being no dynamic block editing environment. "It's like writing a second CAD package," one Bricsys executive said.
BricsCAD also has capabilities unavailable in high-end CAD packages whose technology is 30 years old -- such as Pro/E-based Creo, UGS-based NX, and even Revit, whose code pedigree goes back to Pro/Reflex and before that to grand-daddy Sonata. These are programs that got their start in the 1980s, and Bricsys feels the primary mistake in them is history. History makes models specific to each CAD system, and is lost when models are exported to other systems; BricsCAD has no history; it uses design intent to infer history.
While BricsCAD uses ACIS for the modeling kernel and MCAD translation, the company has its own in-house modules for direct modeling, design intent, and parametric constraints. These modules allow it to independently develop unique functions, for a price that's under $2,000. (Many of the "new" 3D functions you see in other MCAD programs are just an adaptation of what the developers of ACIS and Parasolid provide.) You might want to watch the sheet metal video at https://www.bricsys.com/en_INTL/sheetmetal/ to see how BricsCAD effortlessly switches between bends and junctions, reworks bad sheetmetal design, and finds conflicts.
Limitations of Bricsys
To the keen observer, holes are immediately apparent in the grand plan. What, no mobileCAD -- such as Autodesk's wildly successful AutoCAD 360 or Graebert's Touch? There's no mobile version, because if you want to view a DWG file on your phone, then just use Autodesk's AutoCAD 360. Bricsys says that this saves them from directing programmer resources to an app for which a solution exists.
Why is there no cloudCAD -- such as Graebert's Kudo, part of which is being used on Onshape? Bricsys provides some cloud services through its online Chapoo project management service. We were told that Brussels airport runs its operations through Chapoo. In any case, cloudCAD is a ferociously difficult problem to solve.
If the Bricsys' four-point plan is so good, then where are the huge user numbers -- like Graebert's 10-million downloads of ARES-based DraftSight? To CEO de Keyser, it was important that he first build a firm foundation, and once ready, then present it to the world; last week's media event was an initial step. "You only get one good shot at it," he told us.
Martyn Day of AEC Magazine, who in the past ignored BricsCAD for what he thought was "just a 2D CAD program," last week saw BricsCAD for the first time. I won't speak for him, but I do want to share one observation of his: He argues that BricsCAD is so capable that it should have a new name and a new UI, because that's the best way to spark interest and to increase mindshare -- kind of like the way SpaceClaim did it some years ago.
Mr de Keyser, however, strongly disagrees with this. No, I'd say he disagrees vehemently! It is crucial to mimic the AutoCAD UX [user experience], he said, to attract the 3 or 6 or 12 million already familiar with AutoCAD. To not do so is crazy, he argues. As for the name, it's never a good idea to change a name (as some vendors found out to their dismay).
Still, there is the issue of lack of marketing, we media types complain. Where's the mindshare? Here's how bad it is: I've written about BricsCAD for about a decade now, yet just a few months ago a regular reader wrote to ask if I'd heard of.... BricsCAD.
Mr de Keyser and his marketing director Sander Scheiris insist that their system works -- custom-built CRM, Web-based marketing, and hundreds of franchised dealers in nearly 80 countries. The proof it works lies in this: they increased the user count from 250,000 to 425,000 in just 1.5 years. By comparison, BricsCAD Platinum does much of what SpaceClaim does, which attained only about 30,000 customers by the time Ansys bought it.
(A bit of history: Bricsys had at one time a contract to interface SpaceClaim with BricsCAD to give it access to direct modeling, but after six months or so interest lagged on both sides. Bricsys instead bought the constraints solver and direct modeling engine from LEDAS of Russia. Another bit of history: at one time, Bentley Systems was a partial owner of Bricsys.)
Figure 4Media and Bricsys execs enjoying vigorous debate at the Belga Queen restaurantWhat's New in BricsCAD V18
What always perks up the media's attention is future features. Bricsys showed us some of the things it expects to ship this fall in BricsCAD V18.
New is a hole wizard: drag a fastener onto a solid model, and BricsCAD makes the hole automatically. Other new MCAD functions were announced, but I lost my notes on them.
Point cloud processing was mentioned, but it was not clear to me if the facility will make an appearance in V18. To prep for point clouds, last month's BricsCAD V17.2 implemented huge design spaces, so that extremely large and detailed models are displayed quickly using spatial trees with dynamic resolution. What this means: the parts of the model that you don't see on the screen aren't calculated or displayed by BricsCAD.
Chapoo will add a BIM model server function later this year.
Brief mention was made of a civil engineering add-on, but without details. I got the impression that it might be a platform for civil, not an add-on. By writing an API that's compatible with something like AutoCAD Civil 3D, Bricsys makes it easier for third-party developers to write add-ons for earthworks, sewers, roadway design, and so on.
Bricsys is determined to push multi-threading as far as the DWG file format will permit. Some multi-threading is alreay implemented in BricsCAD, more is coming. Multi-threading speeds up the loading and displaying of drawings by using multiple cores in your computer's CPU to perform calculations in parallel.
During the NDA [non-disclosure agreement] portion of the conference, we saw some innovations in the user interface, dimensioning, and sheet metal, as well as a new design program -- which I cannot tell you about until late October, because Bricsys wants to surprise users attending its annual user conference. I will say this: the capabilities of the new dimensioning command are pretty unique.
Bricsys will run its annual user conference October 24-25 at the Louvre Museum in Paris. (I plan to be there.)
Figure 5 Gent at night
https://www.bricsys.com
For more coverage of this event, visit our WorldCAD Access blog:
[Disclosure: Bricsys provided me with travel, accommodation, and some meals, and I have written some books about BricsCAD.]
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And Now the Rest of the News...
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Cedreo is launching Cedar Architect for 3D home design, replacing My Sketcher. I'd try it out to let you know more, but my Vivaldi browser isn't modern enough. Maybe Cedreo will work for you at https://app.cedar-architect.com/en/
Xi Computer is shipping its new PowerGo laptop, with a 6GB Quadro P3000 GPU, and up to 4.1GHz i7 CPU and up to 64GB RAM on the motherboard. http://www.xicomputer.com/products/powergointel157.asp
View, print, and translate (to DXF) CADDS 5 and CADDS 4X files with Draftview for CADDS from http://www.draftware.com/
Vention is saying they can move your projects from concept to delivery in 12 hours using a browser-based 3D machine builder and warehouses. https://www.vention.io/
Onshape waits until the end of the week to announce changes to its namesake product. Interesting that Onshape refers to its software as "full-cloud software." This is to differentiate it from partial-cloud, cloud-assisted, and cloud-aware forms of CAD software. New in Onshape are projected curves, curve bridging, surface merging, conic sketches, breaks in drawing views, dimension flipping, and more. Videos of the new functions in Onshape are at https://www.onshape.com/cad-blog/whats-new-in-onshape-04-13-17 .
Totally awesome video of a red-bearded American in China buying all the parts needed to build an iPhone from scratch -- for $300. https://strangeparts.com/how-i-made-my-own-iphone-in-china/
Poetry in a press release from France:
"I remain at your disposal
to discuss this proposal." |
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Re: Stuff I Heard at COFES
This [name changing] is some sort of disease. It seems to afflict Europeans more that Americans, and Germans the most of all. I was flabbergasted when Pro/E changed their name from what was a good, solid name, with a hard-earned rep for engineering software, to a meaningless acronym (or whatever Creo was supposed to be). All that money just poured down the drain. And it's not just software companies; the hydraulics industry is rife with it. Even such mundane industries as tooling fall into this: the long-standing, respected supplier of every sort of clamping device known to mankind, Reid Tool, has bafflingly changed their name to Evian, or Eve...cr*p, I can't even remember.
Are there consulting firms running around promoting this sort of thing? Is it some class that they all take in MBA school? Where does this come from?
- Jess Davis, president
Davis Precision Design
The editor replies: I won't say who the company is, a name change is never a good idea. Customers don't understand the change; only company executives are ever excited by it.
Mr: Davis responds: One of the worst company name disasters to me was Sundstrand. They had a very good reputation and name, and their new German corporate overlords changed it to Sauer. A name nobody in the US had ever heard, couldn't pronounce, and when heard, left a sour taste in the ear.
It reminds me of the phenomenon of moving the corporate headquarters. Cat's recent move from Peoria to Chicago is typical. The few occasions where I've been close enough to get the inside story, it's had nothing to do with business, and everything to do with where some individual wants to live (or golf).
I realize that if you own the whole company, you're free to do anything you want with it, but when it's a huge, publicly-traded corporation that is supposedly responsible to its stockholders, it's different.
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"The firm lost millions due to the name change some years ago" and "Hexagon is changing Intergraph's name to Hexagon PPM." A failure to learn.
- Steve Johnson (@SteveJohnsonCAD on Twitter)
What is the average age of the users you surveyed? I imagine the response would be different by generation. Older preferring desktop, younger preferring cloud.
-Michael Corr (via WorldCAD Access)
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The definition for private cloud we used for the survey is a cloud computing platform that is implemented within the corporate firewall, under the control of the IT department.
There are many similarities to local servers. However, a private cloud will normally include virtualization and multi-tenancy capabilities and other cloud services such as measuring and tracking usage, so multiple users may use a single server, but as distinct from a public cloud, a private cloud is only accessible by one organization. It may use local on-site servers, or a private cloud may use servers hosted externally by an external hosting provider.
-Bill Gordon, vp of business development
The Business Advantage Group, England
Re: And Now the Rest of the News
You posted, "Dassault is integrating CAM [computer-aided manufacturing] into Solidworks, currently in beta."
My initial reaction was, "Ho hum, another CAD company jumping into the CAM space with an ‘integrated’ CAM package”, but when I went to their site I was pleasantly surprised to read what Solidworks was rolling out.
Finally a mainstream CAD company that understands the value of integrating CAD and CAM. The CAM algorithms actually have the opportunity to leverage the full product definition, not just the nominal geometry but also the PMI data -- all the dimensions, tolerances, and surface finishes -- by which manufacturing processes are determined. This is a significant advancement in the field of CAD/CAM and one definitely worth looking more closely at.
This is real knowledge-based manufacturing. It will be very interesting to see how robust the Solidworks-integrated CAM algorithms leverage this extended data. I can’t help but wonder if the team that developed this is an in-house team, or was developed with a third party.
The only downsides I saw are that the machining process doesn’t seem to have a notion of work-in-process stock, and that feature recognition is based solely on finished-part geometry. Still, it appears that Solidworks has once again moved the technology bar.
- John Cullen
Lutron
The editor replies: I know the basics about the CAM, but not the fine details, and so I am glad to hear from you on this development at Dassault.
Mr Cullen responds: As far as CAM goes, most CAD firms really don't have a clue what it takes to manufacture something. They deal in a nominal world, concepts of numeric precision in CAD. In manufacturing, it is all dimensional. Most CAM algorithms are nominally-based.
Traditional manufacturing is all subtractive, so most feature recognition is based on finished part geometry. It's unclear that Solidworks' CAM system approaches machining from a work-in-process approach or if it the standard finished part geometry approach.
(Additive manufacturing technology is really changing manufacturing so that it is no longer just subtractive. You can now do subtractive, additive, and a blend between the two. The opportunities are pretty incredible and we're just beginning to scratch the surface how to map between part geometry and the corresponding manufacturing processes in this space.)
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Thanks so much for the Braceworks mention in your recent e-newsletter, but we had some confusion over Vectorworks being only a rendering program. In the future, could you please ensure that it is referenced as a “design and BIM software”? This mention was incredibly positive for us otherwise!
- Lauren Burke Meyer, Communications Manager
Vectorworks, USA
Re: We Talk to PTC about Creo 4.0
Your interview with Paul Sager was just published in Russian at isicad.ru: http://isicad.ru/ru/articles.php?article_num=19182. The interview was translated by PTC Russia.
- David Levin, chairman
isicad, Russia
The editor replies: My article translated into Russian and back into English through Google Translate is here: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fisicad.ru%2Fru%2Farticles.php%3Farticle_num%3D19182&edit-text=&act=url
Re: Autodesk Subscriptions
In this article 'Autodesk: Many Users Are Not Happy With The Transition To A Subscription-Only Model' is a reference to a "blogger” at “COFES” who knows all about BricsCAD -- hmmm, who could that be?
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4063346-autodesk-many-users-happy-transition-subscription-model?auth_param=17u9go:1cfeon1:17d9f08c5e4fc55354167d324e1d05bb&dr=1
- Roopinder Tara
The editor replies: It looks like Amit Ghate is quoting Steve Johnson and me.
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