BricsCAD (Mac) V17 comes in a 64 bit version—supported on Mac OSX 10.8 or newer—and comes loaded with a full set of new features that match BricsCAD (Linux) with the exception of only a few Windows specific features. A BricsCAD comparison sheet shows you the details.
A license for the Pro or Platinum version is required for rendering, 3D modeling, and drawing views, while Platinum licenses gain users 3D constraints, mechanical assembly design, and deformable modeling. It’s worth mentioning that the BIM design requires a separate BIM license and a BricsCAD Platinum license.
What’s new in BricsCAD V17
When starting up BricsCAD, by default the “Get Started” dialog is displayed, allowing users to directly access online tutorials. This “Get Started” dialog makes it a breeze to create, select, and switch between user profiles as well.
01 – BricsCAD Mac has been available since version 15. Now at version 17, the Mac version is nearly a match to its Windows sibling and a feature-by-feature match of its Linux sibling. BricsCAD Mac comes in multiple versions including its BIM package. Image: Bricsys. All rights reserved.
3D constraints are one of its new features that has the added DMANGLE3D and DMDISTANCE3D with specific measuring modes for cylinders, circles, and spheres. AIDIMPREC sets the precision of dimensions and ANIPATH Command that records animation of a camera moving along a path or panning in a 3D model. In assembly design, the BMAUTOUPDATE system controls stores locally copies of external components, and the BMINSERT command has been significantly reworked to support insertion of local components. The support for materials with physical properties has been added, making it possible to assign built-in or user-defined materials to components.
BIM STRUCTURE panel allows to examine the BIM model, and by default, the structure of building elements are organized by spatial containment. DATAEXTRACTION has been extended to process all BIM elements, including windows, doors, and rooms. Every building element has a property called “Display Composition,” and when switched on, the 3D solid is displayed showing its composition for modeling.
The “Content Browser” offers a tree-view of drawings contained and user-selected folders and contents can be drag-and-dropped into current drawings, activating the new Placeview command.
02 – Bricssys believes that the DWG native file format is perfectly capable of meeting the needs of BIM in the AEC industry. Image: Bricsys. All rights reserved.
Form features were introduced as a new kind of sheet metal features, corresponding to the result of a forming tool to a sheet. Form features are listed in the Mechanical browser with their parameters.
The dockable STRUCTURE panel is fully configurable, and entities selected in the structure tree can optionally be simultaneously highlighted in the drawings. These dockable panels can share the same panel’s space now with each docked panel getting its own tab.
Visual styles and multileader styles toolbar combo controls were added in the toolbars. There is also a new 3d snap mode that allows users to snap to the intersection of edges and tracking lines with faces.
Improvements
From the many improvements BricsCAD (Mac) V17 has, what is worth mentioning is that the BIMsection creation has been simplified. Many improvements are made to the update capabilities of windows and doors. Materials can now be assigned to all instances of a local component or standard part. When extending a 3D solid with BIMDRAG, it automatically subtracts from any other 3D solid it intersects with.
In direct modeling, the DMMOVE command produces more expected results when applied to linear edges. When geo-information is attached, multiple selections of images from a single folder is supported.
Sheet metal design has added categories for sheet metal model properties with enhanced feature validation check of smoothly-connected thickness faces.
Fixes
In Drag, MTEXT will no longer crash when moving large chunks of mtext and equally, BricsCAD will not crash when attempting to open the materials explorer. Setting the scale calibration in Plotter Configuration Editor has been fixed in this new version. Also, plotstyle table customization for print, print preview or export/publish to PDF works on Macs now.
Applications LISP
BricsCAD V17 implemented COM methods for Linux + OSX (IAcadTable): GetMinimumColumnWidth, GetMinimumRowHeight, GetColumnWidth, SetColumnWidth, GetRowHeight, SetRowHeight implemented COM properties for Linux + OSX (IAcadTable): ColumnWidth, RowHeight
Communicator V17 is not yet available but it is expected to be published soon. BricsCAD V17 is not compatible with Communicator V16 and an upgrade to Communicator V17 will be required. To report any problems one can send a Support Request here.