The Unofficial Bricscad Wishlist

Robt Deans

@Dan Wiseman:

You can download Express Tools from the App Store.  

I don't think LayerP command is an Express Tool though.  I really miss that too.

Hi Dan. Yes I DL'd Express Tools, they're a great set, although "CURLAY" seems to be broken. I, too miss the "LAYERP" command.
Really would like to see these integrated into next BCad release.
Cheers

Jason Bourhill

Well the poll has closed, the results are in, and it looks like we have a winner! Lets take a look.

Wish No 1 - PDF Printer - Available via PRINT & PUBLISH




Wish No 2 - IMPORT - add support for PDF, EPS, IFC/ifcXML, ESRI SHP, KML, STL




Wish No 3 -  Copy and Paste from Excel as a TABLE.




Wish No 4 - Annotative Object Support - Text, Blocks, Hatch, Leaders......




Wish No 5 - Viewports - Hidden line removal when printing




Wish No 6 - MLINE and MLEDIT - This should be built in, not a freeware add-on!




Wish No 7 - Sheet Set Manager - I need to manage my sheets




Wish No 8 -  BATTMAN  - This should be built in, not a freeware add-on!




Wish No 9 - Provide the ability to create, and edit Multileader objects, not just look at them!




Wish No 10 - eTRANSMIT - Package multiple drawings, and Include XREF Binding options




Wish No 11 - EXPORT - add support for STL, KML, ESRI SHP




Wish No 12 - EXPORTLAYOUT - export a layout to model space




Wish No 13 - Surface modelling - Slice a solid with Surface etc..




Wish No 14 - Model Documentation Viewport Generation



So it looks like the majority are looking for more 2d features, rather than 3d. On to our other two questions.

I Want my Bricscad to run on


Windows is the hands down winner here, but there is also solid interest in Linux. Interestingly Mac support is back in the bunch, behind android. This possibly reflects the growing interest/dominance of the tablet.


And I need my Bricscad to support this many bits



64bit is a clear winner here, which is understandable considering most new machines will have a 64bit OS installed by default. This one is probably of more importance to Linux users than Windows users. You have to jump through some hoops to get 32bit Bricscad working on a 64bit Linux.

So on to our make a wish section:

Hey you missed this of the Wishlist!




And this of the Wishlist!!




And what about this!!!



Plenty there for discussion. The results are attached as a PDF for your own analysis, and a support request has been raised with Bricsys, so keep an eye out for SR36703 in the release notes of V13. If you spot it, it means that your wish has been granted.

Thanks to all who took part!

Regards,

Jason Bourhill

CAD Concepts

The Unofficial Bricscad Wishlist - Results.pdf

Michael Mayer

Dismiss of all Autocad legacy and behavior.
(switch to Microstation behavior)
I know that is pretty unrealistic and may not be very popular but maybe
some improvement could be added by optional settings, so ....

1.
All Commands stay active until I actively quit them

2.
All (often tedious) Selections stay until I actively dismiss them

3.
Commands like PushPull/Extrude/... need an Element selection before
sub selections takes place to also allow sub selection in crowded and
occluded geometries.

4.
Import/Export FBX
(btw. I would welcome any direct Exchange options to Modo or C4D too)
And for all Exports, including things like DAE, IFC and DWG (!) without losing :

• Cameras
• Materials
• Lights
• Instancing (of Blocks)
• Layer Order/Sorting
• Groups
• Layer Colors
• Up-Axis option (DAE !)
• Units/Scale options
• Solids to Meshes as an export option (DWG !)

5.
Better Wacom Tablet and Pen Display support
(Same for similar devices like Dell Canvas or MS Surface)

• Live Zoom (non command interrupting) option for Pen input on Mac
  (no scroll wheel available !)

6.
Bricscad in 3DConnexion driver support for Enterprise.
Icons on Display + "Application Commands" to apply to buttons

7.
Rendering/Redway :

• Global Illumination
• Blurry Reflections
  (btw, most File Presets are in Millimeter while Redway Texture sizes seem
  to be set for Meters Files (?))

8.
Better Selection Tools (compare Microstation)

• Locked Layer Elements will never highlight or select
• explicit key option for de-selection

• right mouse option in property palettes drop down to isolate
  or dismiss object types from the list

• click in blank screen dismisses selection

9.
And many few little BIM Features like :

• Wall's draw Axis recognition
  (to control when changing assignments of Compositions with different widths)

• Default Height setting/lock for things like Windows

• ....

If all dismissal of ACAD behaviors from Bricscad fails because of ACAD
ecosystem and 3rd party App support restrictions,
I really hope to see legacy free advanced behavior in coming release of Shape !

Austrobass

A Lisp-IDE. We're doing LOTS of customization here and the LISP Engine is great. The only thing we miss from AutoCAD is the VLIDE.

Donald Broussard

@Austrobass said:
A Lisp-IDE. We're doing LOTS of customization here and the LISP Engine is great. The only thing we miss from AutoCAD is the VLIDE.

Agreed

Tom Foster

Personally I shudder when I hear the word Microstation, would hate any loss of typical Acad workflow, but can see the worth of the particular points 1-3 and 8 mentioned - however if that means optional on-the-fly alternative (i.e preseving Acad) modes, would worry about recreating the typical Microstation bloat where there's half a dozen legacy ways of doing everything.

Apart from 1-3 and 8, my vote would go to 4 and 6 -

6 right now, hopefully including original SpacePilot mk1 which 3dC have shockingly semi-obsoleted, driver-wise, but which remains throughly modern, viable and probably surviving in quantites because of superb build quality

and 4 in all its extensive aspects as part hopefully of the forthcoming point cloud bundle.

Michael Mayer

Well, I totally understand that without ACAD - Bricscad wouldn't even exist
or not in that form. And it needs to keep 100% compatibility with ACAD and
3rd party. And that most users come from ACAD and want Bricscad to work
like ACAD. Also no secret too that I am not a friend of any ACAD behavior.

It is not so about special features missing here and there. It is more about
the basic tools and behaviors that you need hundred times a day.
Like screen navigation, selection, visibility control and basic object translations
that will lead to like working with a CAD Software or not.
So for Bricscad that means for me things like,

1.
Screen Navigation
One of the most often used actions, done in an automated fashion beside
real work like modeling.
And Pan/Rotate is done by Middle Mouse Button (= Scroll Wheel Click)
which is actually the most difficult to use mouse button action you can imagine.
If there is no button to zoom to a selection I need to do some extra navigation
actions.

2.
Visibilities
It is totally obvious that the "active" Layer should be visible, non-locked or
not restricted otherwise in any way.
But that doesn't mean that it should warn me each time if I select all Layers
and try to switch them off or lock them. It should just silently accept my settings
and ignore any restrictions set by the user for an "active" Layer.
It shouldn't even try to change my settings for the active layer so that I can
work by isolating elements on active layer only and quickly switch between
these.
And switching Layers States could work faster by simply dragging the cursor
over the buttons instead of needing to "click - scroll - SHIFT+click - click".

3.
UI
I also feel restricted if the whole App is blocked because a dialog window
is opened. Like the settings dialog prevents my to zoom in my drawing,
layers or property window list if I forgot something or want to compare again
with existing.
Or the special behavior of all Dropdowns that need one extra click to "activate"
before a second click until they finally show their selectable content.
Some even need that second click at a special small area at the end of the row.
Like deselecting Layers in a list needs to explicitly click in the first column, using
the name column does not work, like the way it would in Finder or Explorer.

So far I have no clear overview which of the behaviors in Bricscad that I would
like to be improved have to stay that way for compatibility reasons and which
are free for improvements.

Louis_Verdonck

@Michael Mayer said:
... And that most users come from ACAD and want Bricscad to work
like ACAD. Also no secret too that I am not a friend of any ACAD behavior...

You also should focus on the features that are unique to BricsCAD:

• All system variables and user preferences in a single dialog: Settings dialog
• All drawing related settings and definitions in a single dialog: Drawing Explorer
• The fully customizable Structure panel allows to easily select entities and zoom onto the selection.
• The new Clean Screen setting which allows to hide all menus, toolbars, command bar and panels and still have all the commands you need available in the customizable and context sensitive Quad cursor menu.
• ...

Michael Mayer

To not get misunderstood, Bricscad is clearly the better ACAD, no doubt.

It has nearly 100% compatibility with ACAD and its 3rd party vertical App
environment plus some more and some of the ACAD features improved.
And even more affordable.

And there is a part of features that exceed the ACAD package by far like BIM
and direct modeling.
So these are independent from any ACAD compatibility restrictions and
therefore done in a modern way without any smell of ACAD.
And these are very interesting and the reason why I finally bought Bricscad (BIM).

But using these new features, so far I can't always avoid to still run into some
legacy ACAD stuff. So for me it is quite interesting to know if some workflow
deal breakers are potentially improve-able or need to stay forever for
ACAD ecosystem compatibility.

As you mentioned some features,
I think the Structure Panel currently is mandatory to navigate through the
model because of the other options available and I use it constantly.
I am not 100% convinced from its Interface when a file is a bit more complicated
like a Villa Demo. It forces my to constantly collapse+expand tree branches or
switch between BIM, default or custom modes.
Where auto collapse+expand is more hindering if you think of 5 page long folders
opening 1200 Solids and scrolling your current view out of focus or close your
folders you will need next again.
I need it for Selection and even Visibility by Isolation.
But have to admit that Navigation, Visibility+Activation and Selection with my
current CADs Classes+Layers+Clip Volume System works much faster and easier
than Structure Panel + Sections + Layers in Brisccad so far.

For the Improved settings dialog, it seems like a no brainer from a ACAD point of view. From a user perspective I think its by far the limit what you can present to
an average CAD user. I am happy over the control I have but miss some
default vs advanced setup to hide some of the more exotic cluttering settings
or some common presets that switch a whole group of settings.
Like e.g. a user who selection Marquee in drag mode likely also deactivates
auto-add to selection and prefers add by SHIFT only, and such things.
Or an option to show changed settings only.
Usually searching by key words for me mostly needs to jump through 20-30
non-related settings until I find what I need.

What I really like about Bricscad,

• the Structure Browser for what is possible beyond the things I criticized above
• that BIM Objects rely on standard 3D Solids
• that BIM complexity (mostly) happens in generated 2D plans

• that BIM objects are pretty reduced opposed to other complex tedious plugins
  that run into limits anyway

• that Bricscad opens and closes fast

• that the file system is robust
• that it has very nice icons and palette docking is flexible

Michael Mayer

@Michael Mayer said:
4.
Import/Export FBX
(btw. I would welcome any direct Exchange options to Modo or C4D too)
And for all Exports, including things like DAE, IFC and DWG (!) without losing :

• Cameras
• Materials
• Lights
• Instancing (of Blocks)
• Layer Order/Sorting
• Groups
• Layer Colors
• Up-Axis option (DAE !)
• Units/Scale options
• Solids to Meshes as an export option (DWG !)

I cancel this one.
Learned some more about FBX and think it is not needed.

As I can see from Vectorworks > C4D or Modo,
Collada DAE can do the same export features listed above.
So I vote for Bricscad improving the current limited DAE export
to make use of DAE features.