BricsCAD V18 Archives

Apple, BLADE, BricsCAD, BricsCAD V18, Bricsys, Customisation, DCL, Development, Interview, LISP, Win

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

By Steve Johnson 3 September 2018, 12:54 pm 3 September 2018 itemprop="discussionURL"0

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 …

BLADE, BricsCAD, BricsCAD V18, Bricsys, Customisation, DCL, Development, LISP, Tip, Win

BLADE – putting things back to “normal”

By Steve Johnson 4 March 2018, 4:07 pm 4 March 2018 itemprop="discussionURL"2

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 …

BLADE, BricsCAD, BricsCAD V18, Bricsys, Customisation, DCL, Development, Interview, LISP, Win

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

By Steve Johnson 22 February 2018, 8:05 am 22 February 2018 itemprop="discussionURL"2

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 …

BLADE, BricsCAD, BricsCAD V18, Bricsys, Customisation, DCL, Development, Interview, LISP, Win

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

By Steve Johnson 21 February 2018, 9:57 am 22 February 2018 itemprop="discussionURL"1

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 …

3D, BIM, BLADE, BricsCAD, BricsCAD V18, Bricsys, Customer Service, Development, DWG, LISP, Performance, Win

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

By Steve Johnson 20 February 2018, 10:05 pm 21 February 2018 itemprop="discussionURL"5

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 …

3D, Apple, AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2018, Autodesk, BricsCAD, BricsCAD V18, Bricsys, DCL, Fail

Why Bricsys makes the best AutoCAD for Mac

By Steve Johnson 5 February 2018, 10:54 pm 5 February 2018 itemprop="discussionURL"3

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 …

BricsCAD, BricsCAD V17, BricsCAD V18, Hardware, Tip

Tip – making your 3D controller work sensibly in BricsCAD

By Steve Johnson 10 November 2017, 10:53 am 10 November 2017 itemprop="discussionURL"0

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 …

AutoCAD, Autodesk, BIM, BricsCAD, BricsCAD V18, Bricsys, DWG, Other Blogs, Video, Win

BricsCAD V18 – showing Autodesk how to do DWG CAD

By Steve Johnson 9 November 2017, 12:04 pm 9 November 2017 itemprop="discussionURL"4

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 …

BricsCAD, BricsCAD V18, Bricsys, DWG, Video, Win

Bricsys 2017 Conference

By Steve Johnson 1 November 2017, 10:15 am 9 November 2017 itemprop="discussionURL"0

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.

Disclosure: Bricsys covered my travel expenses for this conference.