Welcome to the first edition of our quarterly newsletter. Our goal is to provide you with interesting news about the CAD market in general as well as the BricsCAD platform and the solutions from our Third Party development partners. Feedback welcome!

1. Bricsys Newsletter Q1 - 2013
Welcome
to the
Bricsys
Newsletter
AEC Corner - Erik de Keyser MCAD Corner - Dmitry Ushakov
Our goal is to make this
a quarterly newsletter
The road to BIM: Bricsys is committed to explore the limits of Bricsys Strategy for Mechanical Design: Bricsys’ answers to the
to provide you with
what can be done for BIM within the familiar dwg environment. different MCAD challenges with 3D direct modeling in BricsCAD.
interesting news about
the CAD market in general
as well as the BricsCAD
platform and the solutions
from our Third Party
development partners.
The Bricsys Team
BricsCAD Solutions News Highlight
The BricsCAD re-branding Artisan for BricsCAD, 2012 International The World’s Oldest CAD
click to
and miscellaneous creating realistic images Conference summarized by Operator uses BricsCAD.
© 2013 by Bricsys navigate !
updates. from BricsCAD models. the CAD analyst community.

2. Bricsys Newsletter AEC CORNER
Q1 - 2013
The road to BIM By Erik de Keyser
Over the last several years Bricsys evolved from an alternative CAD provider In a BIM all AEC disciplines add their specific info to the model in order to:
to a leader in bringing about the next generation dwg environment unifying
deliver a digital representation of the complete building as conceived,
2D drawing and 3D direct modeling. While there still are many challenges
including all the technical disciplines needed for making the building
ahead on the road to deliver top-notch solutions for the mechanical market,
operational when physically constructed (design phase)
we are now ready for our next challenge in the AEC space.
hand-over this digital information to the contractors for construction of
Several of us at Bricsys have been involved with BIM in the past, developing the building, add information about modifications along the construction
TriForma for MicroStation in the 90s and Architecturals for the dwg space in process and make the BIM “As Build” (construction phase)
the 00s. When analyzing the many BIM solutions currently on the market we use the “As Build” BIM to operate the building during its life cycle
believe that with our experience and technologies we can add substantial and keep it updated with modifications along that lifecycle (facilities
value to the AEC market in general and for dwg users in particular. management phase).
What is BIM?
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a digital representation of
physical and functional characteristics of a facility. A BIM is a shared
knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a
reliable basis for decisions during its life-cycle; defined as existing
from earliest conception to demolition.

3. Bricsys Newsletter AEC CORNER
Q1 - 2013
In the design phase the BIM concept starts with the conceptual design of the Looking at today’s AEC market, it is clear that BIM is here to stay.
architect, and gradually, as the design matures, more technical engineering At Bricsys we are actively working on two elements of the overall solution:
disciplines become involved. Bit by bit other disciplines take over the
the basic BIM technology with our BricsCAD BIM Module which will be
responsibility about particular aspects of the building (e.g. structural
made available for an extended beta over the coming weeks
engineer for the structural analysis) and become the author/owner of their
information. In a BIM the different players have to share (limited to view) the collaborative platform for the management of BIM models, for which
their work with the other players, so that together they can avoid collisions we will use the cloud-based Chapoo Premium service
and deliver the virtual digital model before construction starts. This is how
BIM delivers major cost savings! Just as we have done for CAD software over the last decade, Bricsys is
committed to explore and push the limits of what can be done for BIM
For each engineering discipline there is a wide range of BIM software within the familiar dwg environment. More details to follow in future
from several vendors and based on different file formats. To manage the newsletters, stay tuned.
different models there is a set of neutral standard file formats such as IFC
and AECxml. When converted to such a standard BIM format, the models
can be compared, matched, and synchronized in order to identify collision
problems and solve them before construction.
To manage all this, the building team needs some kind of model repository
accessible to all participants. The repository environment needs to provide
the required access and workflow functions so that modifications applied
to any of the models ultimately leads to synchronized common results.
This process requires cooperation between major contractors as well as
involvement of smaller sub-contractor with limited IT knowledge, and as
such can best be provided by a cloud-based solution with zero installation
hurdles and a seamless user experience.

4. Bricsys Newsletter MCAD CORNER
Q1 - 2013
Bricsys Strategy for Mechanical Design By Dmitry Ushakov
Automotive, aerospace, machinery, shipbuilding, rail transport, electronics, designing complex mechanical
healthcare, white goods – all these industries are heavy users of Mechanical products – such as vehicles and
Computer-Aided Design (MCAD) software. MCAD is one of the most their components – because
sophisticated kinds of software with a 40-year history of outstanding they lack many of the important
scientific research and excellent software engineering. However, all functions commonly found in
mainstream as well as specialized MCAD products (CATIA, Creo, NX, Inventor, today’s 3D MCAD software.
Solid Edge, SolidWorks) share one common drawback – they use proprietary
file formats and do not work natively with standard .dwg files. Another challenge of existing
MCAD products is rooted in
MCAD challenges the fact that they implement
Worldwide, there hardly exist engineering companies that do not use .dwg the “history-based parametric
files to store and exchange 2D and 3D CAD data. Twelve million users of modeling” approach to 3D
dwg-based CAD applications rely on the familiar environment implementing design. For engineers used to
the well-known concepts of the model and paper spaces, viewports, design in 2D for many years
database entities, block references, grip editing, and command line input. it is very difficult to adopt this
The environment is easily extended and customized with hundreds of 3rd method, whose main drawback
party products, helping users to speed up their design and make their is the impossibility of direct manipulation of geometry. Indeed, users of
drawings compatible with different national standards. history-based systems operate parameters, which are used to generate
the geometry. This is a totally different approach from the one used in the
Users and companies can choose from different implementations of the dwg 2D drawing environment, where users can directly manipulate geometric
environment – software products such as AutoCAD, DraftSight, IntelliCAD, entities (lines, arcs, polylines, splines) and their sub-entities by simply
and many others. However, none of these software packages is suitable for dragging them and directly changing their shapes.

5. Bricsys Newsletter MCAD CORNER
Q1 - 2013
Complicated design methodology is not the only drawback of history-based
MCAD solutions. An additional problem arises from the need to work with
and modify multi-CAD and legacy CAD data – imported from other CAD
systems or from neutral CAD formats. Indeed, design history can’t be fully
translated from one CAD format to another because each CAD system uses
its unique set of 3D modeling functions – with different parameters and
semantics.
To address the problems of complicated design methodology of history-
based systems and their inability to work with multi-CAD data, MCAD
vendors recently added “direct modeling” software products to their
portfolios. This however led to the next challenge: how to express design
intent in a history-free model? Design intent of a CAD model can be thought
of as a set of rules that defines admissible modifications of its geometry.
In history-based systems it is expressed by the design history, which is of
course absent in direct modeling solutions. So traditional history-based
systems can’t be replaced with direct modeling ones, the latter can only As a result, most leading MCAD vendors end up offering their customer
supplement the former. three different kinds of software: a parametric MCAD solution to design in
3D, a direct modeler to work with multi-CAD data, and a 2D drafting software
to work with .dwg files natively. Engineering companies are therefore in the
unenviable position to have to buy licenses, install and support software,
and train their employees for three different CAD products.
“An additional problem arises from the need to work with And whereas the extra costs this involves can maybe be borne by large
and modify multi-CAD and legacy CAD data – imported from companies, this is definitely not the case for Small and Medium Sized (SME)
other CAD systems or from neutral CAD formats.” companies running on tight budgets.

6. Bricsys Newsletter MCAD CORNER
Q1 - 2013
Bricsys’ answers
2002
BricsCAD Direct Modeling
Is there a way to stop this unhealthy growth of CAD-related IT expenses for
engineering companies, to maybe even bring them down several notches? BricsCAD, a full-scale dwg environment fully compatible with
Is there a unified software solution for 2D drawing and 3D design based on AutoCAD through the command set and other end-user
the familiar dwg environment? Is there a design methodology that combines features. BricsCAD is also a powerful platform for third party
the advantages of both history-based parametric modeling and direct developers, who can easily port their applications using a
modeling, and overcomes their drawbacks? broad suite of standard APIs.
At Bricsys, we do believe there is!
2011
3D direct modeling in BricsCAD. Our approach is called
variational direct modeling and uses 3D geometric and
dimensional constraints to express design intent of any 3D
model whether designed natively in BricsCAD or imported
from any other CAD format. Automatic recognition of design
intent makes it easier for first-time users to enter the 3D world
compared to other CAD solutions.
2012
Assembly modeling in BricsCAD. No longer is it needed to use
expensive MCAD software to assemble a complex product
from 3D components, including a library of 30,000 standard
parts. With 3D geometric and dimensional constraints users
can position 3D components in any way they desire, and the
remaining degrees of freedom can be used to analyze direct
and inverse kinematics of any mechanism their imagination
created.

7. Bricsys Newsletter Bricscad
Q1 - 2013
BricsCAD re-branding 2012 – A Vintage Year for Bricsys
Reactions to the new BricsCAD look & feel, introduced with V13 of
the platform, have been largely positive. For some of the reasoning Notwithstanding the worldwide economic
behind the re-branding, check out the blog entry. crisis, business came in at record levels
for both the fourth quarter and the full
Read more year 2012! Continuing the trend of the
last several years, year-over-year revenue
again showed double-digit growth.
Lisp Benchmarks: BricsCAD up to 6x faster than AutoCAD®
Performance tests show BricsCAD to be 4 to 6 times faster than other
Welcome new Sales Points
dwg-based CAD platforms! For more details go to the Bricsys blog.
Join us in welcoming new Bricsys Sales
Read more Points in Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay
and South Africa. S3T in Quito, Trazar in
Panama City and DigiCAD in Asuncion
have joined the BricsCAD family in Latin
eBooks for BricsCAD BricsCAD V13 Platforms America. Johannesburg-based Addosoft
Ralph Grabowski’s eBooks for BricsCAD have been All editions now available in all will be driving the BricsCAD business in
updated for V13 and can now be downloaded or languages on both Windows and South Africa.
purchased from the Bricsys eStore. Linux!
Read more
Bricsys and Chapoo in Technical Partnership
The March 15th point release of BricsCAD
(V13.1.22) now includes seamless access
to the Chapoo cloud-based collaboration
service. Read more...

8. Bricsys Newsletter Solutions
Q1 - 2013
Artisan is integrated within BricsCAD, so when you make changes to the
Artisan for BricsCAD model your render can be updated instantly. You can position Artisan
Lighting Blocks in your model which represent real-world light fixtures
Realistic Rendering Made Simple and see the lights illuminated in Artisan. In addition the Artisan SnapShot
functionality lets you capture your scene settings and then easily reapply
them to different versions of a model.
Artisan for BricsCAD provides an easy-
to-use tool for creating realistic images Ability to change models and see renders immediately
Easy-to-use with drag & drop materials
from your BricsCAD models.
Customisable –use your own textures & backgrounds
Create your own lights
Available in 10 languages, more coming soon
Access a thriving User Community & Forum
Free downloadable materials available
Download free trial version

9. Bricsys Newsletter Q1 - NEWS
2013
News “Bricsys is another mouse that’s roaring. They hold the distinction of being the only small CAD vendor to
The announcement of BricsCAD V13 last October hold an annual developer conference. (The ITC and ODA no longer do this.) If you read my live coverage
on the WorldCAD Access blog then you’ll know that the company is offering Inventor for $825. Well, not
and the Bricsys 2012 International Conference
all of the capabilities of Inventor, but Bricscad V13 Platinum certainly adds Inventor-like functions to an
held in Amsterdam Oct 2/3 received quite a bit of
AutoCAD-like CAD program -- something Autodesk cannot offer.”
attention from the CAD analyst community:
Ralph Grabowski - Editor at upFront.eZine Publishing
“I have seen BricsCAD improve leaps and bounds over the “No doubt under Erik’s leadership, Bricsys has emerged as the predominant
past few years. In fact, with direct modeling, assembly non-AutoCAD DWG-based CAD package from among a host of contenders. So
modeling, 2D/3D constraints and kinematics calling it an close is its likeness to AutoCAD that a developer was reported to have given an
AutoCAD clone would be improper. Being an AutoCAD clone entire presentation with BricsCAD thinking he was using AutoCAD. This, at a
has become just one of its features.“ fraction of the cost of AutoCAD.”
Deelip Menezes - CAD software blogger Roopinder Tara - Editor/publisher for CAD, CAM, CAE online media
“Bricsys decided to focus the branding efforts around the company’s main
Check out the cover of the October 2012 edition of isicad.
offering, the CAD software BricsCAD and Chapoo (the former Vondle).
Entering the mCAD world indeed, and fast on the heels
The new logo, the new look and feel rolled out earlier in the week
of AutoCAD … and we’re doing it all within the .dwg
throughout the company’s social media and web presence, reflect the
environment!
contemporary and forward looking nature of the company.”
Isicad - CAD/PLM made in Russia
Rakesh Rao - CAD/GIS Developer

10. Bricsys Newsletter Highlight
Q1 - 2013
World’s oldest CAD operator
Jason Bourhill, owner of partner CAD Concepts in Auckland,
New Zealand, recently caught up with Noel Cunningham.
At 83 years of age Noel is still going strong, doing contract
draughting for a variety of clients, focusing mainly on mechanical
process type work. Noel’s well appointed office sits behind his
home in a converted garage, there he uses BricsCAD.
Born in 1929 at Hikurangi, New Zealand, working on oil tankers for Shell Oil out
as the oldest of four sons to a coal of Singapore and on cargo liners that
mining father, Noel went to Whangerei ran between New Zealand and Europe
Boys High. As a member of the school for a NZ Shipping Company. In 1962
battalion during World War II, he was a Noel put an end to his maritime career
signaller and learned Morse code and and joined R&W Hellaby Freezing Works
how to operate Army radios. After the in Otahuhu. There he worked his way
war, at the age of 16, Noel started out up from Shift Engineer to Engineering
as an apprentice fitter & turner at Binns Manager before finally starting his own
Engineering Company on the Auckland business, Cunningham Engineering, in
waterfront. Later on he became a Marine 1987.
Engineer and spent 10 years at sea,