Belgium-based Bricsys, the developers of a leading DWG-native CAD and BIM platform called BricsCAD, have now introduced BricsCAD Shape. And the first version is available today.
BricsCAD Shape
BricsCAD Shape is a new and free 3D conceptual modeling tool for architects and engineers. The company says its streamlines schematic design and presentation work and offers a simplified user-experience (UX) and user-interface (UI); it will immediately feel familiar to SketchUp users. The new app comes with a library of materials and 3D components.
01 – BricsysCAD Shape is brand new and available for Windows today. The Mac version is coming soon. If it looks like SketchUp that’s because it’s meant to compete directly with it.
Bricsys says unlike the competition, Shape is a solid-modeler and that its models are always accurate. “Shape’s solid models are fully accurate—never approximated,” says the company. It features the same parametric, direct-modeling 3D engine that is inside its BricsCAD Platinum. Models can be “modified deeply, anytime, on the fly” reports the company in a newsletter.
Concept to BIM
The DWG-native new BricsCAD Shape is meant also to be a design front-end to BricsCAD BIM, creating a seamless “Bricsys BIM workflow” that differs from other competitors workflows that mix and match a conceptual modeler with another BIM tool that is not file-format equal. The company says the new Shape can be learned in 30 minutes or less; it features 21 video tutorials on YouTube that handle a specific direct task in Shape, like push/pull, drag, using components, sections, etc.
02 – As you can see here from the thumbnail graphics for its tutorials, Shape does all the core things its rivals do but in a native DWG file format that is IFC certified for BIM interoperability.
Shape features “smart modeling” tools, including doors and windows, the ability to create custom items and structural profiles. For presentations, it features a material library, furniture, people, landscaping, and transportation.
Start in .dwg and end in .dwg
BricsCAD Shape is a native DWG application but the models are also capable of moving across platforms and toolchains thanks to its buildingSMART-certified IFC support.
Availability
BricsCAD Shape will be both Mac and Windows native but only the Windows version is available today. The macOS version is coming soon.
BricsCAD Shape is free. To learn more visit here: https://www.bricsys.com/en-intl/shape/
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