Category Archives: BricsCAD V18

BricsCAD V19 promo pricing ends 15 December

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I’ve previously explained the changes to BricsCAD pricing that came in with V19, and showed how the prices for new purchases would rise when the promotional period ends.

Upgrading now requires All-In. Problem?

One change I failed to point out, but which was mentioned by a commenter, was that for customers not already on the All-In Maintenance program, they needed to sign up for one year’s All-In in addition to paying the upgrade fee. This meant the upgrade fee was significantly greater than in previous years because customers were effectively paying for two upgrades (e.g. V18 to V19 as an upgrade, plus V19 to V20 covered by All-In).

Although this still represented good value compared with the competition and recent BricsCAD upgrades have proven to be well worth the money, there was still a ‘sticker shock’ effect associated with this double payment, and people who budgeted for upgrades based on previous pricing found themselves in a bind. There were complaints from customers and partners. For Bricsys, accustomed to being the good guys in terms of CAD pricing and licensing fairness, this was an unusual situation.

Fixing the problem

On 16 November, Bricsys responded to this feedback by introducing significantly reduced prices in this scenario, and committing to making good with those customers who already paid the higher prices. How significantly reduced? About half. To give you an idea, an upgrade of BricsCAD Pro V18 to V19 (and later to V20 thanks to All-In) is about US$425 or €400.

I don’t see much to complain about there. It’s great to see a company that actually listens to its customers and acts accordingly, even when doing so costs real money.

However, it’s important to note that this lower upgrade pricing only applies during the promotional period that had already been announced for new license pricing. That period ends on 15 December (i.e. prices go up from 16 December). To make things very plain, at the time of writing:

BricsCAD promotional pricing for both upgrades and new purchases will end in two days.

This only affects on-demand upgraders

None of the above has any effect on customers who were already on the All-In program. That program has always represented the best value way of keeping BricsCAD up to date; I recommend getting on it and staying on it. You can of course hop off it in the future if Bricsys one day fails to keep you happy with its upgrades. Although you’re effectively paying for upgrades in advance it’s still a perpetual license system, which gives you the ability to keep playing even when you stop paying.

There is also the option of the rarely-used subscription (rental) pricing for those cases where licenses are not needed long-term or need to be assigned to a specific project. Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with my thoughts on that licensing model. If you need it, fine. If you don’t, you shouldn’t be strong-armed into adopting it.

Perspective

Bear in mind that with all this talk of rising prices, a little perspective is useful. Based on currently-available pricing, the 3-year cost of BricsCAD Pro including All-In in the USA is $1615, compared with $4605 for AutoCAD on subscription. At the end of the 3 years, you will have a perpetual license of the then-current version of BricsCAD Pro, or you will have nothing at all if you had spent 2.85 times as much to rent AutoCAD.

If you look beyond 3 years (and some customers of mine have AutoCAD licenses ten times that age) then the difference in the value proposition between the products becomes even more dramatic. You’re all smart people with calculators and spreadsheets, so I invite you to do your own comparisons.

Reminder: if you want to get the absolute best value for money from a BricsCAD purchase, remember to do it on or before 15 December. If you do decide to buy, and also want to support this blog, then please use this link to do so:

Bricsys Store

Disclosure: this is a sponsored link. If you buy a Bricsys product using this link, I get part of the proceeds. However, this will not have any effect on the editorial content of this blog. I don’t expect to be able to retire on the proceeds from this link (if any) and I will continue to write what I honestly think about the CAD products and policies of all companies, as I see fit.

BricsCAD V19 – pricing changes explained

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The BricsCAD V19 release has not only given us a new software release (an excellent one – and I’ll be writing about that later), it’s also given us a new Bricsys website and a new pricing structure. In some cases prices are actually slightly lower, but in the vast majority of cases the movement is up. The price movement varies by product, market and currency, and depends largely on whether you choose to opt for All-in Maintenance. The aim of this post is to clarify exactly what has happened to Bricsys prices.

One significant change across the board is the way All-in Maintenance is priced. It was previously a fixed amount (e.g. US$220) to pre-emptively keep up to date with each of the three BricsCAD types (Classic, Pro and Platinum). Now it’s a percentage (e.g. 30%), which means All-in is now cheaper than it was for Classic users and more expensive for everyone else.

You’ll also note that the rarely-used subscription (rental) pricing is now much easier to find on the web site. The annual cost equates to about 40% of the cost of a perpetual license.

Those 30% and 40% figures look high, but remember that they’re a percentage of much smaller sums than you get with Autodesk. For example, the difference between buying BricsCAD Pro with and without All-in is US$255. Going Subscription (rental) for a year is $488. For comparison, keeping an old perpetual AutoCAD license up to date is in the region of US$500+ (it varies considerably under different circumstances) and the current annual AutoCAD subscription cost in the USA is US$1575 (bear in mind that this now includes access to various AutoCAD-based verticals).

Let’s compare the BricsCAD prices before and after these changes. First, US$ prices without All-in. Note that none of these prices include taxes.

US$ BricsCAD Classic BricsCAD Pro BricsCAD Platinum BricsCAD BIM BricsCAD Mechanical
V18 590 750 1110 1760 1630
V19 590 770 1110 1720 1630

As you can see, there is very little price movement at all here. Note that these V19 prices are promotional, which means they won’t stay at this level for ever. (Edit: the promotional prices apply until 16 December 2018).

The Euro prices have moved up a little more:

Euro BricsCAD Classic BricsCAD Pro BricsCAD Platinum BricsCAD BIM BricsCAD Mechanical
V18 480 640 990 1540 1440
V19 525 725 1050 1590 1500

A more useful comparison can be made by comparing the prices including All-in, because (temporary conditions excepted) this is the cheapest way of keeping up to date, and the way I’d usually recommend paying for BricsCAD. I’ve included the post-promotion prices here so you can get an idea of the total movement.

US$ BricsCAD Classic BricsCAD Pro BricsCAD Platinum BricsCAD BIM BricsCAD Mechanical
V18 810 970 1330 2100 1940
V19 (Promotion) 781 1025 1470 2275 2155
V19 (Standard) 825 1105 1560 2405 2275

Here’s the same thing in Euros:

Euro BricsCAD Classic BricsCAD Pro BricsCAD Platinum BricsCAD BIM BricsCAD Mechanical
V18 680 840 1190 1840 1720
V19 (Promotion) 701 965 1391 2115 1995
V19 (Standard) 760 1040 1475 2275 2145

The upshot is that for most customers, buying and maintaining the low-end Classic product is slightly cheaper than it was, but as you move up the product range, the price increases start to bite. However, the total cost of ownership is still significantly lower than AutoCAD. The following table shows the total licensing costs over several time periods, assuming no price increases from anybody. Yes, I know that’s not a reasonable assumption, but at least it precludes guesswork! The ongoing annual All-in price is assumed to be 30% of the non-promotional product cost.

US$ 1 Year 3 Year 5 Year 10 Year
BricsCAD Classic (All-in) 781 1276 1771 3009
BricsCAD Pro (All-in) 1025 1688 2351 4009
BricsCAD Platinum (All-in) 1470 2406 3342 5682
BricsCAD Classic (Subscription) 312 936 1560 3120
BricsCAD Pro (Subscription) 410 1230 2050 4100
BricsCAD Platinum (Subscription) 588 1764 2940 5880
AutoCAD (subscription) 1575 4725 7875 15750
AutoCAD LT* (subscription) 390 1170 1950 3900

* Note that I have included AutoCAD LT here for comparison even though it is a significantly less capable product than BricsCAD Classic, which has 3D and full LISP capabilities.

In addition, BricsCAD Platinum plus Sheet Metal is now called BricsCAD Mechanical, with the price including All-in going from US$1940 to US$2155 ($2275 after promotion). Euro prices go from €1720 to €1995 (€2145 after promotion). Similarly, BricsCAD Platinum plus BIM is now called BricsCAD BIM, with the price including All-in going from US$2100 to US$2275 ($2405 after promotion). Euro prices go from €1840 to €2115 (€2275 after promotion).

It’s worth noting that the price of Communicator, the Bricsys format translator, has dropped slightly in most cases despite providing more format translation options.

If you intend buying a Bricsys product and also want to support this blog, then please use this link:

Bricsys Store

Disclosure: this is a sponsored link. If you buy a Bricsys product using this link, I get part of the proceeds. However, this will not have any effect on the editorial content of this blog. I don’t expect to be able to retire on the proceeds from this link (if any) and I will continue to write what I honestly think about the CAD products and policies of all companies, as I see fit.

BricsCAD price rise imminent

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BricsCAD V19, which is expected to be released within days, will bring with it new, higher pricing. It still won’t be anything like Autodesk-level high, of course, but will be a bit higher than it was.

Bricsys is currently offering new buyers of V18 an automatic upgrade to V19 (the serial number will just work for both). What this means is that you don’t need to pay for All-in Maintenance to keep up to date in the first year. You’re therefore saving twice: by avoiding the price hike and by not needing to add about US$220 for All-in. You can add All-in later, or optionally pay for upgrades as you see fit. If you do decide to upgrade later, you will be expected to sign up for All-in at that time, so there will be a catch-up cost associated with that.

Upshot: if you’re going to buy new BricsCAD licenses, be quick. Do it now. Next week might be too late.


If you intend doing this and also want to support this blog, then please use this link:

Bricsys Store

Disclosure: this is a sponsored link. If you buy a Bricsys product using this link, I get part of the proceeds. However, this will not have any effect on the editorial content of this blog. I don’t expect to be able to retire on the proceeds from this link (if any) and I will continue to write what I honestly think about the CAD products and policies of all companies, as I see fit.

Mac users rejoice – at long last, a LISP IDE comes to OS X

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CAD’s best LISP development environment has come to the best “AutoCAD for Mac”. It should come as no surprise to anyone that this has occurred without Autodesk’s involvement.

What’s happened?

With the release of BricsCAD (Mac) V18.2 (currently V18.2.23-1 to be precise), BLADE (BricsCAD’s much-superior equivalent to VLIDE) has been added to BricsCAD

See here for the release notes and here to download. Make sure you select the Mac version:

Significance

This is pretty significant for anybody serious about using DWG-based CAD on the Mac. AutoCAD without LISP is hardly worthy of the name, which is why I’ve never been keen on AutoCAD LT from the moment LISP was yanked out of it just before release in the early 90s. There has never been an integrated development environment for AutoCAD for Mac (either in the first iteration in the 1990s or the second attempt in the 2010s) and I think I can safely predict that there’s never going to be one. I expect AutoCAD for Mac’s LISP to remain forever in 1990 mode.

Compatibility

One problem a small number of users may face when developing for Mac with BLADE is that of downward compatibility. In case you’re wondering, BricsCAD (Mac) to AutoCAD for Mac is very much a downward direction, particularly in the area of LISP. The LISP in AutoCAD for Mac is famously half-baked with large portions of functionality missing, including no ability to control dialog boxes. BricsCAD (Mac)’s LISP is very much more capable, so while compatibility between AutoCAD for Windows and BricsCAD (Mac) is strong, you can’t say the same for LISP compatibility between AutoCAD for Windows and AutoCAD for Mac.

Half of the stuff you write for AutoCAD in Windows is just going to fail when you try to run it in AutoCAD for Mac. Much more of it is going to work in BricsCAD (Mac). While you can now write, debug and run your LISP code efficiently in BricsCAD (Mac) and it’s practically guaranteed to run just fine in AutoCAD and BricsCAD for Windows, it will be very easy to write stuff in BricsCAD (Mac) that doesn’t work in AutoCAD for Mac. Of course, the same downward compatibility problem applies to writing stuff in AutoCAD for Windows using VLIDE.

If you’ve moved on completely from AutoCAD for Mac to BricsCAD (Mac), that’s not going to be a problem. Bircsys building a notably better product that’s significantly more compatible with the main game is not something anybody could reasonably condemn. However, but it’s something to bear in mind if you are hoping to write code that runs on both AutoCAD and BricsCAD for Mac.

Summary

That caveat aside, it’s all good news for Mac CAD users. You already had a product available that would run a much higher percentage of the huge library of LISP out there than AutoCAD for Mac would. For the first time in history, you now also have access to a professional LISP development tool. Lucky for you, it’s the best such tool on the market.

Adding Express Tools to BricsCAD

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If you’re evaluating BricsCAD to replace AutoCAD, you might be put off by the apparent absence of the Express Tools. Don’t be.

First, some express tool commands have been added to BricsCAD as native commands, such as OVERKILL and TXTEXP.

Next, the Express Tools menu can be added, thanks to a free add-on by Martin Drese (CADwiesel). Here’s the step-by-step process:

  1. Go to the Bricsys Applications page.
  2. Start typing “EXPRESS” into the search box. You should be pleasantly surprised to discover that by the time you’ve typed four characters, what you are chasing will already be displayed for you:
     
  3. Click on the Express Tools box, turn on the checkbox and then pick Download.
  4. If you’re not already signed in with your Bricsys ID at this time, you’ll be prompted to do so. You should have created this ID when you downloaded the main product.
  5. The download (a straightforward one; no nasty download managers involved) is a 3.6 MB zip file. Unzip this to a location of your choice.
  6. As described in the file Install Notes Express Tools for Bricscad V18.pdf, copy the Express folder to the BricsCAD installation folder (e.g. C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD V18 en_US). You’ll need admin access for this step.
  7. Add that location (e.g. C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD V18 en_US\Express)to the BricsCAD search path (Settings > Program Options > Files > Support files search path).
  8. If you already have a file called on_doc_load.lsp in your search path (this is the equivalent of acaddoc.lsp), then add this line to it:

    (load “Acetutil.des”)

    If that file doesn’t already exist, you can just copy the one from the unzipped location to anywhere in your search path (e.g. the path you just added – C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD V18 en_US\Express).

  9. Close and restart BricsCAD.

This is more involved than your typical AutoCAD app store installation, but as a CAD Manager I do like the fact that these are straightforward steps that I can automate in a custom environment such that the users have no need to get involved.

The end result is a Pull-down menu (if you have that turned on – MENUBAR 1 if you don’t) that will be familiar to you:

There are also four toolbar menus:

If you’re using a ribbon and don’t want to see toolbars, substantial manual effort is required to add Express Tools to the ribbon interface. If you are interested in me doing a further post explaining how this is done, please add your comments to this post.

Most of these tools will work with all BricsCAD variants. Some of them require OpenDCL support which is not available in the Classic version, so you’ll need a minimum of BricsCAD Pro (that’s the second level) for complete functionality.

It’s worth noting that the various API LISP functions (acet-xxxx) that are added to AutoCAD by the Express Tools are also there in BricsCAD. Unlike AutoCAD, they are native functions; they can be relied on to be there in BricsCAD, regardless of whether or not the Express Tools add-on is installed as described in this post.

Also unlike AutoCAD, the functions are supported. If there are any problems, you can report them (with, in my experience, a reasonable expectation of them being fixed in a short timeframe by Torsten Moses), rather than being fobbed off by an uninterested Autodesk.

If you go back to step 2 above, see the box that says LISP Developer Support Package (LDSP)? If you code in LISP (with or without BricsCAD), I suggest you download that package. Among many other things, it documents the acet-xxx functions.

Edit: I should point out that R.K. McSwain covered much of this ground earlier this year.

Importing SketchUp files into AutoCAD

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Do you have a SketchUp (SKP) file you need to import into a DWG? Need to know how to do it? Tried it but it didn’t work? This tip is for you.

If you’re using AutoCAD 2016 to 2019 for Windows, you can download and install the SketchUp Import plug-in from the Autodesk App Store. If that goes according to plan, this will add the command IMPORTSKP to AutoCAD. You may need to restart your AutoCAD first. It’s straightforward enough; select a file to import and it becomes a block in your drawing.

Reading the reviews for this add-on, it’s clear that it’s not working for many people. If it does work, it only imports SketchUp files up to 2017 format (2016 on 32-bit AutoCAD).

What if it doesn’t work? What if it does work but you have an unsupported 2018 version SKP file? Well, this post could arguably fit into the Why every AutoCAD CAD Manager should have a copy of BricsCAD series, because this is an example of BricsCAD acting as a workaround for AutoCAD limitations. SketchUp files are supported in BricsCAD’s native Import command, no add-ins required. If you have BricsCAD V18.2.10 or later, 2018 version SKP files are supported. If you have an earlier version of BricsCAD you can download the latest here.

Importing SKP files is also supported in the free BricsCAD Shape application, but at the time of writing the version is V18.2.06, which only supports SKP files up to 2017 format.

Video – 3Dconnexion fine tuning in BricsCAD and BricsCAD Shape

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The second video in the cad nauseam YouTube channel is more typical than the first in that it’s a tips and tricks video. In this case it only applies to BricsCAD and Shape users, but future videos will provide information for AutoCAD and other DWG-based CAD applications.

BLADE – putting things back to “normal”

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Disclaimer: I’m making money using BLADE. I’m using it on a paying project right now (well, not while I’m typing this, but you get the idea). I’m developing a routine to automate a massively repetitive task for one of my AutoCAD-using clients, and I’m developing it in BricsCAD and BLADE rather than AutoCAD and VLIDE.

I can simply develop faster in the more modern environment, and BricsCAD’s significantly quicker start-up time helps with that. So does the fact that the routine runs several times faster in BricsCAD, making testing the large data sets much more efficient. I’m getting paid on results and not by the hour, so using BLADE is putting cash straight into my pocket while giving me more time to walk my dog.

Using BLADE in production, I’m discovering a few bugs, quirks and things I don’t like. That’s totally understandable with a new feature of this level of complexity and functionality. Where I think it makes sense, I’m submitting problem reports or feature requests to Bricsys. I’m sure Bricsys already has a bunch of these from other developers, so they’ll be very busy for a while. From past experience, I know my reports will be taken seriously and acted on appropriately in a timely manner, if it’s feasible to do so. Your LISP IDE feedback won’t be ignored for decades by Bricsys.

One of the things Torsten Moses mentioned to me that didn’t make it into the published interview was that many developers are very conservative. There’s some truth in that. I’m missing certain keystrokes, for example: 1978-era WordStar Ctrl-Y to delete a line, anyone? It’s a reasonable expectation that as more VLIDE users migrate to BLADE, many requests will come in for VLIDE-like things. I’m told that some of these things will be provided in coming months.

In the meantime, there are things we conservative developers can do to make ourselves feel more at home. One of these is to configure the editor appearance. Here’s the VLIDE editor:

Here’s the BLADE equivalent:

One of the great things about BLADE is how configurable it is, and I know Torsten’s working right now on making it even more so. Configurations are stored in the Registry in a version-independent location (HKCU\Software\Bricsys\BricsCAD\VLispDbgEditor). These can be exported and imported directly or via BLADE, so multiple complete setups and configurations can be managed.

In this post, I’m going to be going through the process of configuring BLADE’s editor appearance to make it look more like VLIDE. I’m not suggesting that’s necessary or even a good idea in most cases, but if you really want to do it, here’s how.

Note: before you do all this manually, please note that at the end of this post I will provide a configuration file that will do it for you.

  1. Start up BricsCAD V18.2 or later and start BLADE using either the BLADE or VLIDE command.
  2. Open a LISP file in BLADE so you can check the effects of the changes we’re going to make.
  3. Use Preferences > Show preference dialog…
  4. In the Preferences & Settings dialog, pick the Styles tab and the Lexer Styles sub-tab.
  5. I’m perfectly happy with Courier New 10, but if you want the VLIDE look, change 1 – Default text to Fixedsys 11.
  6. Click next to 3 – Comment, turn on the Background color toggle and change the Back Color to mid-grey (192,192,192) and Fore Color to dark magenta (128,0,128). You’ll need to specify that RGB value in the lower right corner and use Add to Custom Colors to do this.
  7. Click next to 5 – String and change the Fore Color to magenta (255,0,255).
  8. Click next to 7 – Operator and change the Fore Color to red (255,0,0).
  9. The 8 – Keyword 1 setting should already be blue as in VLIDE. If you want system constants such as T, nil and pi to also be that shade of blue then change 9 – Keyword 2 accordingly. Personally, I prefer a different shade so they stand out. Mid-dark cyan (0,128,192) works well.
  10. I like the pale grey background in BLADE that helps identify the current line. If you don’t, click next to 8 – Caret colour and turn off the Background color toggle.
  11. Switch to the Editor Colors sub-tab, click next to 5 – Selection colour and change the Back Color to a custom mid-blue (0,120,215).
  12. While you’re in the Editor Colors sub-tab, there are a few other non-VLIDE things you can play with. 1 – Brace hilight and 2 – Brace mismatch are dynamically applied to matching and non-matching parentheses respectively. I like my Brace hilight setting to be plum and bold (turn on the Attributes toggle to enable this):

I like my non-matching setting to be white on red (the inverse of a normal parenthesis so it shows up):

Changing all that should give you something that looks like this. Familiar enough?
There are several things in the above image that might be unfamiliar but which I suggest you leave turned on because they’re useful. If you really insist, here are the locations for these settings in the Preferences & Settings dialog:

  1. Line numbers  – View > Margins, Show line number margin
  2. Marker margin – View > Margins, Show marker margin. If this is turned off, bookmarks show up using the settings under Styles > Editor Colors > 13 – Bookmark marker.
  3. Edge marker (that vertical line on the right indicating 80 character width) – View > Edge marker > Type, No background.
  4. Indentation guides (those vertical lines that show you what your code is lining up with) – Tabs and EOL > Indentation, Show indentation guides.
  5. Code folding margin (the margin on the left that allows you to collapse functions, etc. – Folding and Wrapping > Show code folding margin.

Unlike VLIDE, the default in BLADE is to use spaces for indentation, not tabs. As I don’t know of any LISP developer who uses tabs except by accident, this is a much more sensible default. But if you really want to use tabs, turn it on using Preferences > Use tabs and set the width to the VLIDE default of 8 in Preferences > Set tab width.

If you’ve left opening parentheses on previous lines and have indented the following code as usual, then as you go on to finish off the code with closing parentheses, in BLADE a single backspace will take you back your indent width (2 spaces by default) rather than a single space as in VLIDE. If your coding finger can’t get used to this keystroke-saving feature, you can turn this off with Preferences > Backspace unindents.

Having done all that, and having arranged the rest of the interface to your needs (overall window size, pane and field widths, etc.), make sure you save it! It’s as simple as Preferences > Save preferences, but it’s not done automatically. If you want to keep a safe copy of your settings, you can do so with Preferences > Save preferences to file. This simply exports the relevant part of the registry to a .reg file of your choice. This is a text file you can hack about with at your leisure (using BLADE if you like!), and you can even make files that represent subsets of your preferences.

For example, I’ve removed all but the style settings from a .reg file I exported. I’ve uploaded it renamed as a .txt file because .reg files are considered dangerous by browsers, etc.

If you want to use this to give BLADE that old familiar VLIDE look, here are the steps.

  1. Download SteveVLIDE-likeBLADEStyleSettings.reg.txt.
  2. Rename the file to remove the .txt extension so it becomes SteveVLIDE-likeBLADEStyleSettings.reg.
  3. In BLADE, use Preferences > Load Config from File
  4. Close BLADE and BricsCAD.
  5. Restart BricsCAD and BLADE.

That should do it. Happy BLADEwork!

Interviewing the creator of BLADE – CAD’s best LISP IDE – part 2

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This post continues my interview with Torsten Moses about BLADE, the new LISP IDE that arrived with BricsCAD V18.2. See here for post 1.

Steve: I’ve noted before that BricsCAD execution of AutoLISP and Visual LISP is several times faster than AutoCAD’s. How does the new technology affect that performance?

Torsten: All the new BLADE-related stuff doesn’t really affect normal LISP execution outside the IDE and debugger. The connection is made by a few callbacks, which take zero time in normal processing. Therefore there is also no chance of breaking things. The BLADE implementation is very safe, and performance remains high for normal usage. For the debugger and the synchronization, it is all home-brewed stuff, optimized for best performance even when debugging, and minimum system and LISP memory usage.

In the course of implementing the debugger and internal versus external synchronization, I also removed most emulations and implemented that as core OpenLisp functionality. That has the side-effect that the (repeat), (foreach) and (vlax-for) functions now run about five times faster at the loop construction. So rather than slowing things down, creating BLADE has actually speeded things up!

Steve: Will the Mac and Linux versions also get this feature?

Torsten: Yes, it is fully compatible. This is due to the implementations of WxWidgets and my own stuff. I have already verified BLADE running under Linux. There are no differences; even the implementation code has no Windows-specific stuff.

Steve: Can you give a simple example of the workflow of a debugging session?

Torsten: First, don’t pre-load any LISP file into BricsCAD. Such code loaded outside the debugger is fully functional, but it can’t be used for debugging. The special connection between internal and external representation is only established when loading the LISP code under a debug state.

Next, in BLADE open an existing FAS or VLX project, and/or a “Named Session”, or simply any LISP file you want to start debugging with.

Now you can select Start Debugging from menu or toolbar, or hit the F8 hotkey. The special Debug Toolbar will appear. You can either activate AutoBreak, which stops at first executable code, or activate the LISP source where you want to start debugging and place some breakpoints.

Then load the dedicated LISP file, either by the normal Load into BricsCAD function, or from the Load button in the Debug Toolbar. Now that loaded code is debug-enabled and you will see the file and debug-enabled functions in the two right tabs.

When the debugger halts at the first breakpoint, all debug-step modes are enabled in the toolbar, and you have all the usual debug step modes. More than in AutoCAD’s VLIDE, actually. You can set the watches (observed and tracked variables) as “Data Break Point” by activating the checkbox. Then, whenever that value changes, the debugger also stops automatically at the related LISP statement.

Steve: What if your code calls code in other files you haven’t loaded?

Torsten: Don’t worry about that. The debugger recognizes this and will ask to load the related LISP file on-demand. In normal LISP, you would get an unknown function error but the debugger catches this upfront. In fact, this is one of the high-end features – only load the primary LISP file, any further debugging into other files resolves by loading during the debugging session. This is very handy for dealing with complex apps – there’s no need to preload any other LISP source. I’m sure you’ve experienced Murphy’s Law, where the particular function you need is the one that’s not loaded. You won’t have that problem in BLADE.

Steve: Where to from here? Is this job done or is there still room for improvement?

Torsten: As BLADE is still a very young product, there is definitely a lot more to come. So far, the main target was to provide good debugging features, and a somewhat reasonable handling of projects, but not so much focusing on plain editor capabilities.

My to-do list still has a number of major key features to be implemented. We want to add a hotkey editor, because every developer loves his own keystrokes and learning others is a nightmare! We also want cross-reference checking on a per-file and per-session basis, mainly for bigger LISP applications.

Then, over time, the editor capabilities will be extended and improved, providing more features. One example is to provide an editor tooltip that shows a function signature and short help when hovering over a LISP function name.

And of course, I’m aware that when people start using this in production, a lot of feedback will arrive from developers in the form of wishes, hints for improvements and bug reports. It’s very likely there will be many wishes to implement several details to make BLADE resemble AutoCAD’s VLIDE more closely. This could be a bit difficult sometimes, and is also not the main target. I hope that developers will be open to a slightly different workflow, given the big advantages they get in return.

In general we are very open to developer ideas, needs and requirements, as we are with BricsCAD itself. In the end, it’s the developer who needs to work with BLADE, as easily and productively as possible. Even the initial release of BLADE is based on important feedback from beta testers such as Martin Drese (CAD Wiesel).

Steve: I can certainly attest to how well you respond to feedback. I’ve seen bugs I’ve reported fixed in a very short timeframe.

Torsten, thank you for your time. This has been very illuminating.

This interview is also available in one post on the Bricsys blog.

Interviewing the creator of BLADE – CAD’s best LISP IDE – part 1

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Easily the most impressive new feature of BricsCAD V18.2 is the new Visual LISP IDE, BLADE (BricsCAD LISP Advanced Development Environment). The lack of any LISP IDE has been a BricsCAD stumbling block for a while, dissuading CAD Managers from adopting BricsCAD to replace their stagnant and increasingly expensive AutoCADs.

As I will relate elsewhere, Bricsys has not just caught up with Autodesk here, but has shot so far ahead it’s unlikely to ever be caught. BricsCAD’s BLADE is so superior to AutoCAD’s VLIDE in so many ways there’s really no comparison.

Yet it remains highly compatible. I have personal experience in making large amounts of AutoCAD LISP code (literally hundreds of routines) work in BricsCAD. That experience tells me that the vast majority of code will work just fine (and much faster) in BricsCAD. A tiny proportion of LISP or DCL code may need adjustment before it will work perfectly on both platforms, and that’s one reason an IDE that works within BricsCAD was an important step that Bricsys needed to take.

I had the chance to see this IDE privately in then-unnamed pre-release form when I attended the Bricsys Conference 2017 in Paris. I was surprised and delighted at the functionality demonstrated by its creator, Torsten Moses. I recently had the chance to interview Torsten about his creation.

Steve: I understand it was difficult to create a LISP IDE for BricsCAD because of the way BricsCAD’s LISP works. Can you explain that?

Torsten: BricsCAD LISP uses the OpenLisp core system, from French developer Christian Jullien. This is the only LISP engine still under development; the others I found stopped development in the mid-90s.

OpenLisp is a very modern implementation, not comparable to the old XLisp dialect used by AutoLISP. Even object-oriented features are supported. Therefore the internal representation of LISP expressions is different from the textual representation as seen in a LISP file.

Steve: So the AutoLISP code I write isn’t the code that BricsCAD executes?

Torsten: That’s right. A number of typical AutoLISP constructions were implemented by a kind of emulation, which drives the internal versus textual representation differences even further. That makes it a major challenge to synchronize the internal OpenLisp expression execution with the related textual representation in order to provide any debugging functionality.

Besides the plain technical details, which seemed to be virtually unresolvable, there was the expected heavy effort to implement a full-blown GUI. This was not just a plain editor, but the entire IDE GUI. It would have been a disaster, a major disgrace, if we had provided a VLIDE that was just up to AutoCAD standards. That was great in its time, but it’s 20 years later now. The idea of creating a LISP IDE for BricsCAD seemed so filled with difficulties that we put it off for a long time.

Steve: How did you finally manage to overcome these difficulties?

Torsten: First, it was a pure coincidence. [laughs] By luck, I discovered a hidden detail in OpenLisp – any LISP symbol (and expressions are a kind of anonymous symbols) can hold unlimited, attached custom data, very similar to XData in DWG database objects. I even knew about that for many years, but never worked out the shortcut to ‘misuse’ this for the LISP expression execution to editor and debugger bidirectional connection. Some initial quick tests showed that this approach was very suitable.

By another coincidence, I discovered that WxWidgets (our cross-platform system, not only for GUI) already includes support for the famous Scintilla editor, an OpenSource editor engine, widely used by many editors. WxWidgets even provides two levels of wrappers – a plain, core wrapper, and a high-level wrapper class system. This fits perfectly into the WxWidgets logic.

But still, that is only plain editor support – not a GUI. Then I found a very suitable, extensible editor and GUI implementation, based on that WxWidgets Scintilla system – as Open Source under the WxWidgets license. Hence, we are allowed to use that source code in a commercial application. That editor is called wxStEdit.

I verified that this source was suitable for our LISP IDE, and put in a lot of extra work to extend it. wxStEdit development finished in around 2008, and it still was compiling and working mostly fine. Nevertheless, in the course of extending that GUI, I found and fixed a lot of defects at all related levels (Scintilla, WxWidgets Scintilla wrapper and wxStEdit).

So it was this set of coincidences that suddenly opened both wings of a big gate!

See here for part 2 of this interview.

This interview is also available in one post on the Bricsys blog.

Bricsys shows Autodesk how to do mid-term updates – again!

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BricsCAD V18.2 for Windows is out. The new stuff in this mid-term update is again showing up Autodesk’s lack of progress with its once-flagship product, AutoCAD. I’m sure Autodesk would love customers to accept that there’s only so much anyone can do with a DWG-based CAD product once it reaches a certain level of maturity. Customers should get used to nothing of significance being added year after year. Diminishing returns, and all that. Pay to continue using the product, but don’t expect it to get better.

What a shame for Autodesk, then, that Bricsys exists. By consistently providing a raft of significant improvements with each full and mid-term release, Bricsys shows up that idea as nonsense. It’s perfectly possible to keep improving CAD at a very rapid rate, particularly if you’re not worried about competing with other products in your range. There’s a reason AutoCAD’s parametrics are restricted to 2D, and BricsCAD’s 3D parametrics in a DWG product proves that the reason isn’t technical. It’s strategic. Also strategic is cutting the guts out of an already much-weakened AutoCAD team, because you would really prefer your customers to be using your trendier and/or more expensive products.

I should point out that BricsCAD V18 customers who have a perpetual license, even without maintenance, will be receiving V18.2 with all its improvements free of charge. Contrast that with Autodesk, which is, despicably, withholding even bug fixes from selected customers. Autodesk’s attitude to customers who aren’t constantly paying up front is one of utter contempt. Autodesk feels entitled to your money; Bricsys wants to earn it.

So what’s Bricsys done to earn your money with BricsCAD V18.2?

Mostly, it’s lots of relatively small-sounding things that add up to significant productivity enhancements. There are several items that are playing catch-up to AutoCAD, such as long-overdue in-place text editing. There are big performance improvements in drawings with PDF underlays due to a smart multi-resolution cache mechanism. The 3D-to-2D generation mechanism has also been significantly sped up. Constraints (2D and 3D, unlike AutoCAD) are easier to create. Several 3D direct modeling operations have been made easier. That also helps with sheet metal design, which has seen other improvements.

In Bricsys BIM V18.2, a lot of smarts have been added. The mechanism for converting CAD models (including those made in BricsCAD Shape) to BIM models, BIMIFY, already did some fascinatingly clever things, but that’s been improved further particularly in the areas of structural member and room recognition. For those of us in Australia, support for our steel sections is very welcome.

For me, that’s not the big news. Oh, no. The big news for me is a thing called BLADE – the BricsCAD LISP Advanced Development Environment.

If you’re a CAD Manager or in-house developer and you’ve been waiting until BricsCAD had VLIDE, wait no longer. But this isn’t just catch-up. This is a big leapfrog over Autodesk’s sadly neglected IDE for CAD’s primary user programming language. There’s so much good stuff in BLADE that I can’t hope to do it justice here, so I will be covering it extensively in future posts. For now, here’s a statement for you:

If you program in AutoLISP or Visual LISP, you should be doing it in BLADE.

It’s that good. Really. Watch this space for details.

The download is small, the install is fast, it won’t harm your AutoCAD installation, and you can evaluate it free for 30 days. Links:

Why Bricsys makes the best AutoCAD for Mac

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Bricsys has just released BricsCAD V18 for Mac. Here’s the download link and here are the release notes.

BricsCAD V18 is an excellent DWG 2018-based CAD application, and the Mac version lacks little in comparison to the Windows version. It’s so much more capable than the perpetually half-baked AutoCAD for Mac that I struggle to comprehend why anybody with the choice would even contemplate the notably inferior and seriously overpriced Autodesk offering.

That’s not just opinion, it can be supported objectively.

Price first. US prices are shown here for a single standalone license over five years, inclusive of the cost of upgrades. The BricsCAD prices therefore include maintenance (it’s optional); the Autodesk prices are for subscription (not optional). No temporary discounts have been included. I have excluded bargain-basement BricsCAD Classic because it lacks the full set of programming and 3D modeling tools. I have assumed that there will be no price increases over the next five years. Given recent history, that’s probably close to the truth for Bricsys prices. Autodesk, not so much.

Year BricsCAD Pro BricsCAD Platinum AutoCAD
1 970 1330 1470
2 240 240 1470
3 240 240 1470
4 240 240 1470
5 240 240 1470
Total 1930 2290 7350

It’s worth noting that if you want to stop paying Bricsys, you’re left with the latest version to use indefinitely. You can change your mind and get back on the upgrade train later, if you like. That sort of flexibility is long gone at Autodesk, where subscription means no pay, no play. If you stop paying, despite having paid 3.2 times as much for your software over the five year period, you’re left with nothing.

Now, features. You may have noticed that Autodesk is now too embarrassed to list the differences between the Windows and Mac versions of AutoCAD on its web site. The Compare AutoCAD vs. AutoCAD for Mac page is now a shadow of its former useful self, devoid of all detail. If you want to get a reasonable idea of what’s going on with AutoCAD for Mac’s deficiencies, you can check out my post about the 2017 release that lists the missing features.

Alternatively, you can have a look at the equivalent Bricsys comparison page, which you should probably do anyway before spending any money. It’s strange that you now need to visit a competitor’s page to get detailed information about an Autodesk product, but in the CAD world these are strange days indeed.

It’s important to note that the Bricsys comparison page has issues; while the BricsCAD columns are up to date, the AutoCAD columns are a year behind. That page definitely needs an update in order to provide a fair comparison. Don’t rely on it completely (e.g. all of the listed products except BricsCAD V17 for Linux use DWG 2018 as the native format, not DWG 2013), but it will give you an approximate idea. Look at the little red X marks in the rightmost column and you’ll see that a whole bunch of the missing AutoCAD for Mac features, even after all these years, are very significant and their absence could rule out the product for you. Don’t expect much in the way of future improvement. either. AutoCAD for Mac is in maintenance mode, just like the full product.

BricsCAD for Mac is not just more fully-featured, it’s ironically also more AutoCAD-compatible than Autodesk’s effort. For example, try to run a selection of LISP routines in both products. Almost all of it will run just fine in BricsCAD. Anything that uses ActiveX or DCL (dialog box) calls simply won’t work in AutoCAD. You might be all right with some simple routines (if it was written for AutoCAD for DOS then it will probably be fine) but any LISP even moderately sophisticated is going to fail.

BricsCAD for Mac doesn’t just provide capabilities that AutoCAD for Mac doesn’t have and never will, it offers something more than that. It offers a path beyond basic drafting. You can abandon all hope of Revit for Mac – that won’t be happening. AutoCAD-based vertical products? Nope. Inventor OS X? Forget it. But the availability of a product like Bricsys BIM for Mac (not priced above – it’s US$770 extra if purchased seperately) is an obvious drawcard for Mac-happy architects. You can create 3D parametric models on your Mac if you use BricsCAD Platinum, and you can create them without straying far from a familiar AutoCAD-like environment. Sheet metal? Sure (at extra cost).

If you’re a Mac-only person and you’re wedded to Autodesk, you’re not only being ripped off, you’re following a dead-end path. Time to check out the alternatives.

Tip – making your 3D controller work sensibly in BricsCAD

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This tip applies to BricsCAD V14 to V18 inclusive, and possibly other versions too.

BricsCAD automatically works with a 3D “mouse” (e.g. 3DConnexion SpaceNavigator controller), and due to the generally excellent performance of BricsCAD in 3D, it works very smoothly and is a real productivity boon for 3D work. If you don’t already have one and you work in 3D, it’s well worth spending a fraction of the money you saved by switching to BricsCAD to get hold of one.

Unfortunately, the way BricsCAD reacts to use of this device fails to lock the horizon by default. This means it does not keep the vertical axis vertical, so unless you have an exceptionally light and skilled touch, you will soon have your model skewed, upside down and/or flopping around all over the place.

OK, this may be a silly default setting, but how do you change it? Read on.

Method 1

Press the left button on your controller. If you’re lucky, you will see the 3dxWare Panel. (I’m not seeing it in V18 so maybe I need a driver update). Use the Button Configuration tab and change it from “All Applications” to “BricsCAD”, then it should show as:

  • L: BricsCAD Default Menu
  • R: Fit

Picking the controller’s left button in BricsCAD after doing this brings up a context menu containing a Lock Horizon option.


Once you turn this on, the controller will work as expected.

Method 2

If you don’t have those options available to you when you pick the controller’s left button and you’re comfortable messing around in the Registry (the usual caveats apply here), you can fix it up.

First close BricsCAD. Now start REGEDIT and search for the 3dMouseMenu section, e.g. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Bricsys\BricsCAD\V18x64\en_US\Profiles\3D Modeling\3dMouseMenu. Under there is a LockHorizon value: change that from 0 to 1. Next time you start BricsCAD, the controller should work as expected. If therre are multiple user profiles, you will need to repeat this process for each profile.

Method 3

If you don’t have rights to use REGEDIT or you don’t feel comfortable doing so, you can achieve the same result by exporting and importing a user profile, with a little bit of text editing inbetween.

  • Close BricsCAD
  • Start the User Profile Manager (e.g. Start > All Programs > Bricsys > BricsCAD V18 (x64) en_US > V18×64 User Profile Manager
  • Choose a user profile and export it
  • Manually edit the resultant .arg using a text editor (e.g. Notepad) and change the appropriate line under 3dMouseMenu to “LockHorizon”=dword:00000001
  • If that section doesn’t exist, add it as follows (ensuring you use the right version information, e.g. V16x64 in place of V18x64):
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Bricsys\BricsCAD\V18x64\en_US\Profiles\3D Modeling\3dMouseMenu]
    "Rotate"=dword:00000001
    "PanZoom"=dword:00000001
    "LockHorizon"=dword:00000001
    "RotCenterModeAuto"=dword:00000001
    "RotCenterModeSelected"=dword:00000001
    "Speed"=dword:00000001
    "3dMouseMode"=dword:00000000
    "RotCenterVis"=dword:00000002
  • Import the edited .arg – you’ll have to provide a different name to any existing profile. Don’t worry, you can rename and delete profiles later as required.
  • Set that profile current
  • Start BricsCAD

You can do the same from within BricsCAD using Tools > User Profile Manager, but as you need to restart BricsCAD anyway before the change takes effect, you may as well do the above.

BricsCAD V18 – showing Autodesk how to do DWG CAD

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For years now, Autodesk has done very little worthwhile with AutoCAD. There have been a few small but welcome improvements, but it’s really just tinkering at the edges. The product as a whole continues to stagnate and yet blimp out. It’s getting bigger and slower with each new release. The downloads get bigger. The install times get longer. The startup times drag out. The responsiveness suffers. And for what? Pretty much the same old thing, every time. Sometimes you don’t even get a new desktop icon. Don’t get me started on value for money.

It’s as if Autodesk considers DWG-based desktop CAD to be a solved problem. Many CAD users accept this. There’s not much more that can be done to improve it, right?

Wrong.

Bricsys has, yet again, proven Autodesk wrong. It is very possible to significantly improve DWG-based CAD. The improvements to the just-released BricsCAD V18 go far beyond anything Autodesk has done for many years, and that’s improving on an already-excellent and innovative product in V17. I’ll be covering some of the most important changes in future posts, but for now here are a few Bricsys links:

Don’t take my word for it. The easiest way to test the validity of what I have to say is to try it out for yourself. Unlike Autodesk products, Bricsys downloads and installs are small, fast and efficient. How efficient? This efficient (R.K. McSwain, Twitter):

It’s a 258 MB download for an entire DWG-based CAD application which is significantly more fully-featured than AutoCAD. No nasty malware-like download manager. It’s not a stub or a pre-installer that expands itself before even starting the install proper. It’s a ready-to-run installer for the entire top-of-the-range product capable of parametric 3D, sheet metal design and BIM. It installs and starts up quickly. You can have no trace of BricsCAD on your computer now and be editing your DWGs with it (yes, including your AutoCAD 2018 and Civil 3D DWGs) in a few minutes.

Here’s the download link. You can evaluate it for 30 days.

Did I mention that perpetual licenses are available? Or that it’s way cheaper than AutoCAD? Or that when you report a problem it goes to a real developer who actually cares about fixing it in a reasonable timeframe?

Bricsys 2017 Conference

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I have recently returned from the Bricsys 2017 Conference, held this year at the Carrousel du Louvre, Paris. There were many impressive things demonstrated at this conference and I will be posting about them in due course. In the meantime, here is a short video from Bricsys:

You may wish to check out my Twitter feed to see what I live tweeted at the time, along with the #bricsys2017 tag to see what myself and other CAD press and bloggers thought of it.

Press and bloggers at Bricsys 2017

Disclosure: Bricsys covered my travel expenses for this conference.