Linux has a new native CAD tool
Unlike the Geospatial area where Open Source applications outperform the proprietary ones, very little free software we have seen for CAD apart from the initiative FreeCAD that still has a long way to go. While Blender It is a fairly robust tool, its orientation is to animation and not to CAD applied to Engineering, Architecture and Construction. The way Parallels and Wine solve the cross-platform problem has been a palliative for those who hope to work with Mac or Linux, and while AutoDesk starts launching Mac versions in 2010, Linux seems to lack a tool like AutoCAD or Microstation. Barely Ares y Medusa Which are very mature tools and the few with support for PC, Mac and Linux.
Now Bricscad has been announced, one of the solutions that although it started in IntelliCAD, a few years ago it is already a platform independent of that model and perhaps because of its positioning with representatives at a global level, with promising growth (100,000 licenses). There are many developments on CivilCAD both in the area of surveying, such as Engineering and modeling. Solutions like CivilCAD run over Bricscad solving the inconvenience of needing AutoCAD full version to run; who knows if in the long term we could have CivilCAD for Linux.
Among the most attractive of Bricscad V12 is that it works directly on DWG without requiring export or import, it even recognizes AutoCAD formats from 2.5 to 2010 (Does not include the new format of AutoCAD 2013 that just arrives). Already in these versions things like parametric constraints are included.
The fact that this tool was released from IntelliCAD, despite not being so, recovers part of the legacy such as the recognition of the DWG format and maintaining the operation logic in many of its routines. That is why LISP, BRX, ARX and in the case of Windows VBA are running.
This helps make it easy to find users who have mastered the tool and decrease the learning curve; it is said that an AutoCAD user in a week is already in the new environment without requiring an intensive course. Beyond that, Bricscad has innovated in usability with tools such as quad, with which the number of clicks in repetitive or suggested workflow routines is reduced, especially in 3D modeling.
Cosillas that has, that draw attention:
- The rendering is on the fly, it means that the design is being worked on and the object display is in rendering condition. In the case of other solutions, this is only possible as a post-display and as an image.
- You can edit external reference file layers.
- You can make hatch clippings.
- 3D object section cuts with included rendering, and in option to reuse them in the drawing (not only in the layout)
- You can change the layout of layouts simultaneously, including copying properties from one to another.
- Dimensions are associated with reference points, so when you move an object, the dimension changes automatically without having to edit its nodes. This even in paper space.
It is somewhat surprising how it operates, with a minimum requirement. For Windows it runs on 256 MB of RAM and recommends 1 GB; contrary to AutoCAD 2012 and 2013 suggesting 4 GB.
In the case of Linux, it runs on the following distributions (or higher): Fedora 14, OpenSuse 11.3, Ubuntu 10.04
As for the price: A fifth of what AutoCAD costs.
In conclusion we consider interesting news, Bricscad V12 for Linux.
Here you can Download it for test
Here you can know More from Bricscad
Here you can see applications developed on Bricscad
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