BricsCAD is a software application for computer-aided design (CAD), developed by Bricsys nv. The company was founded in 2002 by Erik de Keyser, a longtime CAD entrepreneur. In 2011 Bricsys acquired the intellectual property rights from Ledas for constraints-based parametric design tools, permitting the development of applications in the areas of direct modeling and assembly design. Bricsys is headquartered in Ghent, Belgium, and has additional development centers in Nizhny Novgorod and Novosibirsk, Russia; Bucharest, Romania and Singapore. Bricsys is a founding member of the Open Design Alliance, and joined the BuildingSMART International consortium in December 2016.
In 2018, Bricsys nv was acquired in full by Hexagon AB of Sweden.
The BricsCAD Editions
Today, BricsCAD is available for the Windows, Linux and macOS operating systems, and comes in five, workflow-centric Editions. Prior to the release of V21, a sixth edition called BricsCAD Platinum was available. With the release of V21, all BricsCAD Platinum functionality was moved to BricsCAD Pro, and the Platinum Edition was deprecated. BricsCAD Lite (BricsCAD Classic' in V20 and below) is designed and optimized for 2D drafting workflows. It reads and writes native DWG, and offers a LISP API for customization and the automation of repetitive tasks. BricsCAD Pro contains all the functionality of BricsCAD Lite, plus 3D modeling and parametrics, standard part libraries, a rendering engine, a materials library, and an Autodesk AutoCAD ObjectARX-compatible development system that supports hundreds of third-party application programs. In V21 and above, BricsCAD Pro offers the features of the deprecated Platinum Edition, including 3D constraint system management, surface entity creation and lofting, TIN surface creation, deformable modeling, automatic healing of imported solid geometry, automatic design intent recognition, and basic assembly creation & editing. BricsCAD BIM contains the functionality of BricsCAD Pro, and adds a concept-through-documentation Building Information Modeling workflow. BricsCAD BIM uses ACIS as its core modeler, allowing push-pull, free-form development of concept models. Low level-of-development (LOD) massing models can be automatically converted to a Building Information Model using an A.I.-assisted workflow, called BIMIFY. BricsCAD BIM also supports the concept of "continuous Level of Development" via a machine learning / A.I.-assisted feature named PROPAGATE. This feature supports the concept of "model once, use many times" with regard to BIM data refinement. In BricsCAD BIM V21, sheet set generation has also been automated, with the first delivery of a drawing sheet standards manager. The core database schema of BricsCAD BIM is based on the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) from BuildingSMART International. BricsCAD BIM is certified by BuildingSMART International as compliant with the IFC openBIM 'IFC4' import and export schemas. BricsCAD Mechanical contains all the functionality of BricsCAD Pro, and is optimized for 3D mechanical part and component design. It contains an assembly modeling workflow, the creation of sheet metal parts using unique lofted solid representations, kinematic animations, bills-of-materials and exploded-view creation tools. Like BricsCAD Pro, BricsCAD Mechanical is based on a push-pull, direct modeling engine. It is a history-free modeler, and is claimed to be free of the 'regeneration failures' of history-based modellers
. BricsCAD Ultimate is a bundle that combines all the BricsCAD editions - Classic, Pro, BIM and Mechanical - into a single installer package. The BricsCAD 30 day free trial download is a full commercial version of the BricsCAD Ultimate Edition. During the trial, customers can use the RUNASLEVEL command to try any of the BricsCAD Editions. At the end of the trial period, BricsCAD reverts to a free-of-cost 3D solid modeler, called BricsCAD Shape. At any time, a trial version (or an installation of BricsCAD Shape) can be converted to a full commercial license with the entry of a valid license key. The license key determines the user's Edition.
BricsCAD BIM, BricsCAD Mechanical and BricsCAD Ultimate were added to the BricsCAD product family in late 2018. Prior to V19, the BricsCAD BIM product was delivered as a module called "BIM for BricsCAD''", and required a separate license of BricsCAD Platinum. BricsCAD Mechanical was added with the release of BricsCAD V19. It was based on the 3D direct modeling functionality sourced from the pre-V19 "Sheet Metal for BricsCAD" module, and additional MCAD toolsets, developed in-house.