Is BricsCAD for me?

Azaravicius

Hi,
company I work in are searching for alternative to AutoCAD Civil 3D. On internet I found BriscCAD as one solution, but I can't determine if it can substitute AutoCAD Civil 3D for ours uses. Here are add-ons for BriscCAD to increase functionality too? So, if pure BriscCAD can't do, can it do with add-ons?

About ours work.
We are land surveyors who search for gravel, sand and other useful resources deposits using drill holes. We are modeling deposits and creating maps which show the thickness of gravel, sand or other useful resources layer. We calculate volumes of this resources and create profiles of deposits.
We design mines from deposits models (mostly open-pit). The result are maps showing thickness of different elements (benches, overburden), bench top or bottom altitude maps, how open-pit mine will look after excavation (in 2D space, so we have 2D marks for benches, mounds and so on).
And we monitor mining process. Mostly we calculate excavated volumes of resources and make maps for current open-pit elements and excavated areas. For this we use flying drones to create land surface using aerophotometry.

From AutoCAD Civil 3D we use mostly 2D drawing (lines, polylines, blocks with attributes, hatch and so on). We use TIN surface, volume surface, grading, feature lines (to create 3D polylines from TIN surface). We create TIN surface from blocks, manually adding points or 3D polylines and xyz files (we get them from photometry software, so here may be 500k points, but we try to use no more 200k points).

Also we have some lisp to automate work. And mostly all ours work are in 2D space, 3D we use to look how the end result of TIN surface looks or how looks data from aerophotometry (TIN surface with draped image).

So, can we change AutoCAD Civil 3D to BriscCAD or BrisCAD with add-ons?

Thanks.

Mathieu

Hi

Please take a look at Civil Site Design that runs on BricsCAD, they will be glad to look into your case.
APP STORE: https://www.bricsys.com/applications/a/?civil-site-design-a622-al1089
DIRECT LINK: http://civilsitedesign.com.au/

Regards

Mathieu

Azaravicius

Thanks,
I looked to Civil Site Design and it is what do i need, but if I add BriscCAD and Civil Site Design prices I get similar price to AutoCAD Civil 3D. So it can be cheaper alternative to AutoCAD Civil 3D. I am searching for cheaper alternative.

Jason Bourhill

@Azaravicius said:
Thanks,
I looked to Civil Site Design and it is what do i need, but if I add BriscCAD and Civil Site Design prices I get similar price to AutoCAD Civil 3D. So it can be cheaper alternative to AutoCAD Civil 3D. I am searching for cheaper alternative.

It is cheaper. You can now only rent Civil3D, you'll have to pay the same amount each year. Pricing for BricsCAD + Civil Site Design is for a permanent license. Pay once, use for as long as you like.

Regards,
Jason Bourhill
CAD Concepts

Azaravicius

Will try demo how it works.

Per Gogstad

There are several other applications available under the Civil/GIS, Survey Mapping categories in the Bricsys Application Catalogue.

https://www.bricsys.com/applications/

rkmcswain

@Jason Bourhill said:
It is cheaper. You can now only rent Civil3D, you'll have to pay the same amount each year.
Pricing for BricsCAD + Civil Site Design is for a permanent license. Pay once, use for as long as you like.
CAD Concepts

Not only that, the rental price for Autodesk products will keep increasing year after year, Once you start using their vertical products such as Civil 3D, you get more and more locked into it due to the proprietary objects. Then it gets more and more difficult to drop it, which Autodesk is quite aware of, hence the ever increasing annual rental prices.

Azaravicius

We already dip AutoCAD. Started using AutoCAD in 2000 and changed to Civil 3D in 2010. And we can see price increase already. So want to find alternatives.
Checked BriscCAD and it is good and nice. Could change AutoCAD to BriscCAD, but Civil Site Design do not look as good, but just started, so need more time to check. First problem with Civil Site Design are screen resolution. My PC monitor resolution are 3840X2160, so Civil Site Design GUI is a mess. Hard to work and I think I can't see some buttons.
And I can't change resolution. I had tried before (use resolution 1920X1440) and my monitor did not liked it. Here was some noise, monitor would go black and return to normal every 2s.
But will try Civil Site Design more, because only I have UHD monitor all other have normal monitors.

Torsten Moses

You should use a supported resolution - 1920 x 1440 is usually not a valid resolution, but 1920 x 1200 or 1920 x 1080 is;
the screen resolution dialog should have a list with supported resolution, chose from there.
many greetings !

Terry Dotson

... change AutoCAD Civil 3D to BriscCAD or BrisCAD with add-ons?

Not all BricsCAD add-ons are listed on their applications page, take a look at DotSoft's MapWorks for BricsCAD before you decide.

rkmcswain

Thanks @Terry Dotson for the reminder. I need to make some time to check that out myself.

Terry Dotson

@rkmcswain: I see you are adding more and more BricsCAD related helpful content to CAD Panacea.

Anytime you need anything, let me know via email.

Azaravicius

@Torsten Moses said:
You should use a supported resolution - 1920 x 1440 is usually not a valid resolution, but 1920 x 1200 or 1920 x 1080 is;
the screen resolution dialog should have a list with supported resolution, chose from there.
many greetings !

My monitor don't have 1920x1080 resolution in list. With resolution 1920x1200 monitor starts to make sound and looks more like 800x800 resolution, not 1920x1200. Only on native (3840x2160) resolution works good.

Terry Dotson I will check MapWorks.

Torsten Moses

3840x2160 is just double of 1920x1080 - your grpahics card very likely supports that resolution;
maybe, you need to adjust the monitor settings (at the monitor itself, not in Windows software) to allow interpolation ?
many greetings !