Bricscad V14

Brian Marr

Thanks to the developers thanks to Bricscad for Bricscad v14 x86_64 Linux beta. This one is running on OpenSuse 13.1. Installation went without a hitch, but keep in mind that v13 is already installed on this machine. Stability seems good so far but naturally further testing is required. The new interface looks nice.I can see some good ground work for Mechanical Parts and Assemblies, and look forward to trying them out. Text does not display very well here, but this is probably due to some local configuration problems. I need to look into it. Linux Bricscad is turning into a powerful productivity tool with this pending release. Sure, it is taking time. We all would like to be modelling at full speed. Look upon it as an investment in the future.

Morgan Leijström

I chime in on the applause

OS: Mageia 4 RC 64 bit, KDE. using the mageia automatically selected proprietary nvidia driver. (nonfree repo enabled)
Machine: Thinkpad T61, nvidia ‎G86M [Quadro NVS 140M].

v13 just segfaulted for me. uninstalled it, and installed v14.1.06 beta 64 bit rpm.
Install went fine and it is fast on simple 3D rendering.
(i am a real beginner, so can not take it for a thorough spin yet,
time to look at the tutorials   )

During run, it outputs to the terminal from where i started it a few Gdk-CRITICAL during use, and "segmentation violation" when ending, which i of course have reported to support.

Morgan Leijström

Bricscad 14.1.06 64 bit rpm installed cleanly in Mageia 3 - 64 bit

What functions are not yet implemented in V14 (beta) for linux?

Mechanical browser library seem not, or do you get it working?
In mechanical browser clicking "library" i get in the command bar:
[code]An error occured while trying to load the content of the mechanical browser.[/code]
And it can not list nor find anything.

Tijs Vermeulen

The library section of the mechanical browser, or "standard parts browser", is indeed not yet working in BricsCAD (Linux).
It is a fairly simple matter of missing resources. Normally it will be solved in the next version.
Mind that the standard parts browser has been omitted from the Release Notes.
We noticed it was not working, but did not want to further delay the first beta.

The largest missing feature in V14.1.06 is the Communicator, for 3D import/export.
Like on Windows, it will become a separate download.
On Linux we did not check the behaviour of the Communicator yet.
Nearly all effort for the Communicator is still spent on Windows currently.
In principle it should work all the same on Linux, but that is not how development in c++ works
That said, it could be working partially already, since we did not separate any Communicator files from the installer.
But then again we did not check on Linux yet, so required files might be missing.

Morgan Leijström

@Tijs Vermeulen:

"standard parts browser", is indeed not yet working in BricsCAD (Linux).
It is a fairly simple matter of missing resources. Normally it will be solved in the next version.

Thanks for the quick reply.
next version = next beta or V15?

Tijs Vermeulen

Morgan Leijström
next version = next V14 beta

"It is a fairly simple matter of missing resources."
I was not talking of human resources here
These are file resources we already have internally, but they still need to be copied to the proper location when building, installing and on first run.

Morgan Leijström

@Tijs Vermeulen:

The largest missing feature in V14.1.06 is the Communicator, for 3D import/export.
Like on Windows, it will become a separate download.
On Linux we did not check the behaviour of the Communicator yet.

Shouldnt it too be beta tested?

Tijs Vermeulen

@Morgan Leijström:

Shouldnt it too be beta tested?

Yes, of course, but it is too early.
Being a new product, it still requires fairly intensive follow up on windows.
It is more efficient to wait for things to settle down a little on windows before beta testing the communicator on linux.

The communicator is a separate product (separate download, separate license), so we can start the beta-cycle of the communicator later.
BricsCAD can be released while the communicator is still in beta.

Mikael Nordvall

Excelent that v14 Linux is in Beta now!
Stupid question, but how can I download the beta verison(s) of v14 and participate in the beta testing?

Regards
Mikael

Morgan Leijström

Make a support request, asking to be a beta tester.
They will open it for you and tell where to dowload from

Morgan Leijström

Tijs, is it OK to share here what problems we have found not every beta tester make a bug report ("support request") about it?

(We already mentioned the mechanical browser library, and that communicator is to be tested later.)

Mikael Nordvall

Installed the 32 bit beta version of BricsCAD v14 for Linux this evening on Ubuntu 12.04 with AMD A10 5700 APU and Catalyst GPU driver.
First impression after an initial test run: Really good!

Installed with no errors.
Launched with no errors.
Got into settings and changed GL Swap Mode to option "0" (because it works better/without artifacts with AMD graphics)
Opened up four DWG files in a few building projects (three 3D drawings and one 2D drawing) with a total file size of 113 MB simultaneously, without any errors.
Started to spin 3D models around, cutting sections with sectionplanes, activated live section, doing push-pull with the quad tool, did some boolean operations and tested to undo boolean operations. No problem! The level of optimization accomplished in v14 compared to v13.2 is a huge improvement.
Got into the 2D model, turned on all layers and attributes and started panning and zooming. Performance feels snappy! Tested to create and edit some basic 2D geometry and it worked fine. Tested to change the first attribute in a block with block attribute manager (this will instantly crash v13.2) and it worked like a charm.
Really tried to stress test the application by opening yet another 80 MB 3D model (this one is a complex steal structure) and crashed the application. Started BricsCAD again and opened the same file without having other files opened at the same time; Worked fine, so I guess I just reached the 32-bit memory threshold the first time.
Tested '3dconvert' to convert a complex solid model to a polyface mesh model. Worked fine!
Tested 'sectionplanetoblock' to see if it possible to cut sections through polyface mesh models (like the dwg exports I get from Tekla in some building projects), but cutting through non-solid geometry is obviously not implemented in v14 (nor was it in v13).

So far I think v14 is looking really good, even literally, when looking at the refurbished but still familiar user interface.
/Mikael

Tijs Vermeulen

@Morgan Leijström:

Tijs, is it OK to share here what problems we have found not every beta tester make a bug report ("support request") about it?

(We already mentioned the mechanical browser library, and that communicator is to be tested later.)

Hello Morgan, after you asked for a list of known issues, we have discussed this internally.

We decided to make a list of known issues ourselves, and add it to the Release Notes.
I just added a first list to the Release Notes, check it online using the usual beta location.

It is our intention to update this list regularly.
Whenever a next version is published, fixed known issues will be moved from the known issues to the list of fixes.
A new known issue can be added to the Release Notes any time.

Mind that we do not intend to add every reported issue to this list.  We will omit an issue if it is not likely to be reported again.  If it turns out that we often misjudge, we will reconsider this.  If we have to reconsider because of getting too much input, that will be a good sign - I think

So we prefer to keep such a list under our own control and visible to beta testers only, rather than to share it here with everyone.

Thanks for the valuable input!

Kind Regards
Tijs Vermeulen

Morgan Leijström

Great

How do I find "the usual beta location?"
(For beta, I only know the beta download link.)

Idea: make it accessible somewhere in https://www.bricsys.com/protected/common/account/
(Download link, the mentioned list, and other info you may want to share with beta testers.)

Tijs Vermeulen

@Morgan Leijström:
How do I find "the usual beta location?"
(For beta, I only know the beta download link.)

The beta download link is precisely what I mean.
This is the beta download link, always pointing to the latest BricsCAD (Linux) beta:
http://www.bricsys.com/open/en_US/common/download.jsp?pl=lin&beta=y
You need to login in order to see the download buttons.
Next to each download button, there is also a Release notes link.
For V14.1.06, this is the Release notes link:
http://www.bricsys.com/common/releasenotes.jsp?i=3448

You can see a list of known issues on top.

Roland van Klink

Hi i wanted to test V14 too. Since i hadn t  any luck with V13 on opensuse 12.3 64 bit, I really want it to try out.

Mikael Nordvall

Am I the only one who can not save documents in the second beta release? (Version 14.1.15 revision 33021 beta)

Andrey Didencool

Mikael Nordvall

 you not alone. I also can not save anything with last build.

[code]~> LANG=en_EN.UTF8 zypper if bricscadv14

Loading repository data...

Reading installed packages...

Information for package bricscadv14:

------------------------------------

Repository: local

Name: bricscadv14

Version: 14.1.15-1

Arch: x86_64

Vendor: Bricsys

Installed: Yes

Status: up-to-date

Installed Size: 405.7 MiB

Summary: BricsCAD is the number one DWG CAD alternative offering a complete and recognizable feature set to professional users. BricsCAD reads and writes the DWG format and offers high compatibility with AutoCAD®

Description: 

 .

 .

  Bricsys End-User License Agreement

 .

skipped

[/code]

my system is 

[code]~> cat /etc/os-release

NAME=openSUSE

VERSION="13.1 (Bottle)"

VERSION_ID="13.1"

PRETTY_NAME="openSUSE 13.1 (Bottle) (x86_64)"

ID=opensuse

ANSI_COLOR="0;32"

CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:opensuse:opensuse:13.1"

BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.opensuse.org"

HOME_URL="https://opensuse.org/"

ID_LIKE="suse"

~> uname -r

3.12.0-1.ge8fa6b4-desktop

[/code]

I check with two hardware systems

Where I can post bug report? Or Is it a bug?

Morgan Leijström

@ Roland: to get acess to beta build: got to
https://www.bricsys.com/protected/common/account/
and make a support request, asking to be a beta tester.

@ Mikael & Andrey not able to save: i have the same problem on mageia3 64 bit.
Bug reports are made by going to https://www.bricsys.com/protected/common/account/
and make a "support request", with suitable title.
Please do.

Alexandru Branescu

Hello,

This bug has already been reported and solved in the meantime. Our tests are not running on Linux at the moment and we decided at the last moment to release beta no. 2 from head of trunk (since it is still a beta and not suited for production) because it solved one other issue which was difficult to merge. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Morgan Leijström

Please keep the beta release notes known issues updated!
As proclaimed by Tijs above.
(The page that is linked on the beta download page)

Tijs Vermeulen

>Please keep the beta release notes known issues updated!
my mistake

I have updated the list now.
I had a few days of vacation and forgot to ask a colleague to keep this list up to date.

Morgan Leijström

Good, Thanks

Mikael Nordvall

Worth mentioning I think; A stable v14 with good 2D and 3D performance is most important, but the improved quad tool in the first beta and the slimmer tool bars and better display of menus in the second beta release is a welcome improvement. It's nice to see that the BricCAD GUI is refined without going down the 'ribbons blind alley'.

Morgan Leijström

V14 is released.

(Head up, i did not receive a mail about it)

Peter Kells

Kudos to Bricsys! I have been using the Bricscad Linux Pro version 14 since it was released last week and so far it is performing flawlessly on Ubuntu 12.04 on a Dell Latitude laptop. This is an excellent tool for the kind of projects that we process in our small office.

Mikael Nordvall

I agree, credit to the Bricsys team. BricsCAD 14 for Linux is a professional platform for drawings and 3D-modeling.

Vaclav Cermak

Despite my other post in this forum about raster engine (which has serious problems in even in V14) I must say, that V14 seems to me much more pleasant than V13 and I do not regret money invested in upgrade. Also, I didn't noticed any segfault from upgrade to V14 (well, I may be lucky ;-). V13 crashed very often.