Dynamic Blocks

Peter Scott

I offer my apologies if this has been covere dalreayd in this forum but a quick search turned up nothing.

Is anyone aware of whether Bricsys have any intention of extending dynamic block support? Not only does BricsCAD v14 still lack the ability to create and edit dynamic blocks, but it also fails to support most of the dynamic block features available in AutoCAD. Dynamic blocks can be very powerful tools (the use of constraints in conjunction with parameters allows complicated geoetric patterns to be achieved) and I am rather dissappointed that improvement in this area was not part of the v14 release.

I would be grateful for any information regarding this.

Thank you kindly,
Peter Scott

Joe Dunfee

 For my own situation, I have been irked by AutoDesk enough to want to avoid them, even if the price difference between BricsCAD and AutoCAD were not so great.  But, the lack of full support for Dynamic Blocks has become enough of a problem, that as soon as we can afford it, we will switch to AutoCAD. 

-Joe

Terry Dotson

I think dynamic block support (along with API support) is the number one item for v15 this fall.  Many people will be deeply disappointed if its not added.

Peter Scott

Thanks for the replies.

It appears that your sentiments are similar to my own.

I would rather keep BricsCAD as I dislike AutoDesk, but there are a couple points where the missing functionality in BricsCAD becomes very limiting; not least dynamic blocks. I have been disappointed that so much of BricsCAD's recent development has been focused on the 3d elements of the program. Whilst expanding the 3d tools is good, I would rather that they focused on bringing the 2d tools up to par with AutoCAD before pushng the 3d BIM tools.

Let us hope that v15 at least remedies the dynamic block problem.

Resto Mara

I agree! We have half-backed 2d and 3d program! This seems to be a common trend in a software development - loosing focus, too much attention to the interface gadgets, trying to be swiss-army knife! There are so many 2d functions missing  - just look at how many ways of drawing and manipulating curves Rhino 3D has!

Rajesh Celestine

It would be better if Bricsys comes up with a different concept or approach to dynamic blocks than copying the same as AutoCAD.

Donald Broussard

We utilize AutoDesk Civil 3D, AutoCAD, and BricsCAD in our office. We would prefer to use more BricsCAD and less AutoCAD. The limited support for manipulation of dynamic blocks in BricsCAD is our biggest hurdle at this point. Since we have AutoCAD and BricsCAD, the ability to author dynamic blocks is not as big as issue.

Joe Dunfee

Another thread discussed dynamic blocks, and there I was referred to the Chinese program, Gstar CAD.

https://forum.bricsys.com/discussion/19739

I was considering using it just for dynamic block creation, and was going to use BricsCAD for most of my work.  But I realize that this is still not an option until BricsCAD better supports using dynamic blocks.

Since BricsCAD has had some limited support for dynamic blocks for a while, and still has a ways to go before it really works like we expect, I doubt the next version of BricsCAD will be able to add robust support for dynamic block creation. It seems to be a big hurdle to jump.

-Joe

Constantin Müller

I am tasked to evaluate the replacement of AutoCAD by Bricscad in our company. Since the increased support of dynamic blocks in V15 I hoped to cover the requirements, but failed. Parametric dynamic blocks are very important for an efficent and unitary drawing that we cannot waive. Has anybody a feasible idea for another workflow replacing a large number of dynamic blocks? Otherwise we will have no chance to replace ACAD, even as we dislike many aspects of ACAD and Autodesk. Or has anyone more information about a future roadmap of Bricscad inventing parametric dynamic blocks?

Joe Dunfee

Since it sounds like you already have a number of AutoCAD seats, I imagine you will keep them. Though, perhaps you will let the subscription lapse.  But, you can continue to use those AutoCAD licenses to create dynamic blocks.  BricsCAD is very compatible with many of the add-ons, and all the LISP programs I have used from AutoCAD sites.  So, it may be viable to keep them both active for a while.

There is one other AutoCAD clone that can create Dynamic blocks.  It is GStar CAD from china. But, my company is concerned about the industrial spying that China is doing, and other abhorrent practices as a country.  We decided to eliminate it as a possibility. 

Our plan was to get AutoCAD soon, but finances have not permitted it yet. Now with AutoDesk's new policy to stop selling perpetual licenses at the start of 2016, that has really eliminated them as a possibility as well.

I could really use dynamic blocks for some things, but don't current have any software we find acceptable and affordable.

-Joe

Constantin Müller

Thank for this information, Joe. I will try out GStar, this looks rather good. If this fits to our requirements this could be our final solution. We will slightly give up Autocad, so we have enough time to adjust. We do not have any concern about Chinese software, Chinese supposingly do not spy more than US, UK or Russia. US and UK bomb Iraq and Lybia, Russia bombs Ukrain, so what?

Joe Dunfee

 I agree that the spying is typical on all the countries, but because China is communist, all businesses are government businesses.  So, their government spying is tied with the corporate spying.  I have read that a lot of Autodesk software is coded in China, but  in that case, there is some level of oversight.  The GStar is not subject to the same scrutiny by a U.S. company, and so it is more suspect, and may have back doors built into the software.  

I know it is very speculative on my part. But, when you add regular stories in my church bulletin about pastors being arrested, etc.  That really adds to the negative feelings about dealing with them.

-Joe