BricsCAD

By audience

Designer / Drafter

• Produces construction drawings in native DWG, so sheets round-trip with AutoCAD-based consultants without export/import loss.
• Runs existing AutoLISP routines, menus, scripts and templates unchanged, preserving an office's accumulated drafting standards.
• Uses direct modelling to push/pull 3D solids without a feature history, then generates dimensioned 2D views from the model.
• Available on macOS and Linux, so drafters outside a Windows-only estate can work on the same files.

Architecture

• Authors walls, slabs, roofs and columns as classified BIM elements in BricsCAD BIM and exports coordination models as IFC.
• Imports Autodesk Revit .rvt models as classified 3D solids to pick up a consultant's model without a Revit seat.
• Imports SketchUp .skp massing studies and converts the meshes to solids for detailed development.
• Drives facade and form studies parametrically through the Rhino/Grasshopper Connection and bakes results back as BIM elements.

Civil Engineering

• Builds TIN surfaces from survey points and derives alignments, profiles and corridors for road and site grading.
• Reads Autodesk Civil 3D surfaces on import so existing civil deliverables stay usable.
• Extends into GIS and survey work through catalog applications such as Spatial Manager, GeoTools and Plex-Earth.
• Produces earthwork and cut/fill quantities off the graded surface for pre-construction estimates.

BIM Manager

• Standardises an OpenBIM workflow on IFC import/export rather than a single vendor's proprietary model format.
• Controls CAD licence cost per seat while keeping DWG as the office exchange format.
• Vets and deploys third-party plug-ins from the BricsCAD Application Catalog against a documented BRX/.NET/LISP API surface.
• Scripts batch drawing validation, PDF publishing and metadata extraction through the .NET and LISP APIs.

By phase

Concept & Planning

• Sketches early massing directly as 3D solids, or imports SketchUp studies, before committing to a BIM model.
• Explores design options parametrically in Grasshopper with live preview in the BricsCAD viewport.
• Generates preliminary site surfaces and grading to test whether a scheme fits the parcel.

Design

• Authors the coordination model and issues it as IFC to consultants on other BIM platforms.
• Develops the drawing set — plans, sections, elevations, details — in native DWG for issue to the wider team.
• Pulls a consultant's Revit model in as classified solids to check fit against the in-house model.
• Runs MEP, structural, plant or electrical design through catalog applications layered on the same DWG model.