A future direction for BricsCAD
With the impending release of v2015 everyone is looking to the future. In my opinion Bricsys should consider a shift in direction from the current course. My goal would be to make BricsCAD the only software we use in producing finished documents. While the company has made astonishing gains in introducing 3-D the fact of the matter is the overwhelming number of documents we produce are still in 2-D. Furthermore, because of the basic nature of the graphic abilities of BricsCAD (and AutoCAD for that matter) we often are forced to export drawings into other programs to finish the 2-D presentation. Currently, we export to either Vectorworks or CorelDRAW. While both of these programs can put together a highly polished 2-D presentations each of them have their disadvantages. I have always thought if BricsCAD could add some fairly simple graphic commands we could keep drawings completely in BricsCAD for final presentations. These would include the following: support for transparency of layers (that really works, i.e. prints), the ability to create drop shadows that are feathered and are adjustable in both transparency and color, the ability to create halos around text, an easier method of stacking layers or manipulating display order and the ability to create a wider array of line types. I have tried CorelCAD which claims to export to CorelDraw. It sort of exports the drawing. We produce maps and a lot of site plans on aerials, the exported document is typically a jumbled mess.
I am not a programmer and I'm sure I have just described an incredibly difficult process to implement however, as an end-user these are issues we have to deal with all the time and will take whatever steps are necessary to achieve these graphic effects. It's possible this may be the domain of an add-on application or an optional module, it really doesn't matter how this makes it onto our desktop.
I believe the company should continue its work in making 3-D easier to use and more powerful. However, if you really want to differentiate the product from all other graphic software out there it's necessary to go back to basics and improve on the 2-D experience. That would make BricsCAD best program out there and you can truly say "it's the only program you will ever need".
Comments
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John,
I did not realize transparency was not supported, I just had not checked. We use acad for civil engineering production of plans and exhibits.
I do not have the need for many things you mentioned, which shows the variety of final document process for different industries.
Can you post one of those final docs you mention, so I can see why you would go to corel or outside bcad?
My big thing is iif my company uses bcad, we will not have the civil3d tools available for road and pipe design. Lucky for me, I am a programmer we wrote our own civil3d that runs on bcad. So I care about API compatibility a lot.
I'd like to see your product and understand what industry you would like to accomodate.
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Thank you John,We also have the request from a lot of customers regarding the layer transparency. Especially landscape architects.0
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Yes, layer transparency is very useful feature...0
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The program is pretty useful as is, for my work (mechanical drawings). My beefs are:A. The program is too slow. My models are not that complex. I shouldn't have to wait two minutes for a save or a screen refresh.B. The 2D tools provided are insufficient to the task. I need to make zoomed cross sectional views. The only cross sectional views available now have to go the full width of the view. And there are bugs in the 2D view generation. The scaling of the views gets fouled up. I've yet to get a good explanation for that.C. The threaded fasteners provided in the Platinum edition are very naccurate. I first reported this with V13. They still haven't addressed the issue.D. Intermittent bugs... I don't know why certain variables seem to change, entirely on their own.0
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I couldn't agree more John, but also am no programmer.
I use Canvas as another option in my Cad/ GIS work and wish for more Graphics applications in CAD.
I tried Corel Draw but found it's limitations and oddities not to my liking.
The way Canvas handles text is so far above CAD and one area I'd love to see enhanced in Bricscad.
Text flowing along lines/ polylines, with or without arrows at ends of lines.
I've just finished a set of survey notes for the Titles Office and know the pain of things that can't be done in Cad but can in Canvas.
Re Corel Draw. I find Canvas is better for it's ability to handle dwg's and import and export is IMO, safer from Canvas. I have the GIS version so that would , I imagine, add some extra finesse to Canvas.
That said the many LISP routines available and applications certainly sweeten the Cad side.0 -
Yes, I wrote this before - BricsCAD seems to follow the same direction as others - mixing too many unfinished and unpolished features! There are so many things that can be done to make BricsCAD the best 2d CAD! Whatever they say 2d is still the fastest and the easiest way to do the job in many fields!0
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After purchasing v13 Planinum, for its 3D abilities, and spending some time with it, I realized it was not going to be able to handle my 3D design needs. I would have preferred that BricsCAD put their development effort towards bringing the 2D features up. For my own needs, it is the Dynamic Block limitation that hurts the most. This is a short-fall that has been around for a number of releases.So, I also agree with the idea that the 2D development should receive more of the priority.-Joe0
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I always thought the goal was to match the "main" autocad features as they progressed each version.
So you could look at what is behind there and likely form a list of priorities.
This issue of what to do next is something that really should be based on customer base statistics. Who uses it for what?
I keep telling autodesk they need to have a panel of trusted experienced users/cad managers for things like civil3d, so they can take info like this thread and bounce it off them. Its a discussion though, starting with questions from both sides - what do users need, what chance do we have of influencing features?...and so on.
How does that (really) work with bricscad? I am new to this side. I watch autodesk use teh AUGI wishlist, and laugh, and laugh....
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The contents of this thread already show how differently some of us use BricsCAD. Our wish list and desires for the direction of BricsCAD vary greatly. For example, layer transparency is on my list but falls fairly low in priority. BricsCAD does a very good job at producing the deliverables we are required to provide.
This is a tough nut to crack. Fortunately, Bricsys is working hard to improve BricsCAD. That's a lot more than I can say for many of the software providers I am forced to work with.0 -
While the number of users that use a particular feature is an important consideration, I think an absolutely critical one is drawing fidelity. Specifcially, if something was created in a version of AutoCAD that BricsCAD supports, then it is critical that the drawing open, display, and print the same as AutoCAD would do. As a possible example, layer transparency may be an issue. I don't use it, but if someone does, and a layer is set for transparency, but if BricsCAD does not support it, and then prints a page so the transparent layer now obscures something important, then it might create a very big problem for a company.Note that I don't actually know how BricsCAD handles layers with transparency. Another example I know about is Dynamic blocks. Even though DB's are not fully supported, they always open and plot the same as AutoCAD, so fidelity is preserved. So, I suspect transparent layers should be a higher priority than dynamic blocks.-Joe0
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DWG file integrity is critically important. One of the main reasons I have stuck with BricsCAD is the fact that we can send and recieve files from other consultants using AutoCAD and have no problems. And for years, that has been the case. But the bigger question is: Is Bricsys satisfied with just doing the same thing as Autodesk, or do they want to seriously improve the software experience? Based on what I have seen, I believe they want to improve the user experience.
Here are some examples of what we produce. We are Land Planners, our documents are often used at municipal meetings. On all all these the site plan was drawn in BricsCAD. The plan was rendered in Vectorworks. The site context plan was assembled in CorelDraw and is a good example of using drop shadows/halos and transparencies. Actually the overall sheet (scale and position of the aerial) is done in BricsCAD. One advantage of BricsCAD (or AutoCAD) is that it is very easy scale and clip the aerial to the exact size and location needed.
The other item I would add to my initial list is the ability to import or create color palette files. While you do have 16 million colors, you can waste a lot of time trying to get (or recreate) a specific color. You typically only need 150-200 colors, it is much quicker to save those to a color palette file which can also be used in different software.
_Deer Hollow_Site_Photos_.jpg
Deer Hollow Plan_.jpg
Deer Hollow Context_.jpg0 -
Layer transparency has now become a real problem for me as well
( I've submitted a support request.0 -
Thx for the examples.
We should be careful to not forget the thirp party programmers who may have solutions going.
I am going to write a Raster Design of my own somtime, as all the tools are there to do it, using Image Magick as the engine.
I wonder if those shadow effects could be done with images made on the fly. Or maybe hatches if transparency gets going.
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