BricsCAD V18.2 is here, and it’s… wow!

Sander, our VP of Marketing, asked me to write a blog post to announce the release of BricsCAD V18.2. You’ll be happy to know that V18.2 is a no-cost upgrade for all BricsCAD V18 license owners. Job One for me was to peruse the product Release Notes and figure out what to write. I was a bit shocked to see that the Release Notes are fourteen pages long. I took the leap and picked out my favorite new features & enhancements. For lots more, read the Release Notes! -Don

BricsCAD V18.2

The V18.2 release brings new features to the core BricsCAD platform. New associative center-lines and center marks help automate drawing and modeling tasks. In-place text editing makes its debut in V18.2. Viewport boundaries work for TRIM and EXTEND, too. The trademark BricsCAD Quad cursor and roll-over tips have been enhanced again. And 2D and 3D constraints are much easier to create in this latest version of BricsCAD.

Do you use PDF files as underlays in your drafting or modelling workflow? In BricsCAD V18.2, we generate a multi-resolution, persistent image cache to display PDF underlays. Sounds geeky, sure – but it delivers very fast Zoom and Pan operations. You can control how BricsCAD regenerates the underlay to meet your specific needs.

New 3D direct modeling enhancements help you create rotated, swept and symmetric solids more easily. Detected model boundaries can be used for advanced shape creation. And the 2D drawing generation performance of VIEWBASE has been improved, again.

Newsflash: BricsCAD V18.2 contains the BricsCAD LISP Advanced Development Environment – but you can just call it BLADE. LISP is alive in BricsCAD!

BricsCAD BIM V18.2

The powerful BricsCAD BIM auto-classifier, “BIMIFY”, has gotten much wiser in V18.2. Model elements using standard profiles are recognized as structural members, and auto-tagged with their profile data. We added additional smarts to BricsCAD BIM to speed the creation and editing of linear solids. And, we’ve added support for Australian Standard Steel Section profiles.

But that’s just the start. Room detection is smarter about room bounding elements. In BIM V18.2, you can attach volume sections to a Room as interior elevations. The BIM Suggest tool can use section views to show you how your BIM fits together. Insert a component into any wall segment and it’s automatically BIM classified. You can break the link between a window and a wall to remove the window and retain the wall opening, if you wish.

BricsCAD Platinum and Sheet Metal V18.2

For the mechanical designer, the modeling power of BricsCAD Platinum grows with every release. In V18.2, the new modelling, constraint and drawing generation features are exciting enhancements to an already strong offering. But that’s just the start of the improvements in Platinum and Sheet Metal V18.2.

Sheet metal settings can now be stored in drawing template files. The handling of adjacent lofted bends can be exported to OSM files for manufacturing, thanks to a new zero-radius hinge feature. Unfolding is improved with the smooth handling of rib feature path curves. And a series of new LISP commands help automate sheet metal entity selection and editing.

When you export a sheet metal assembly, the report will clearly flag malformed parts that represent “poor” sheet metal design. And thanks to our loft-based sheet metal paradigm, its simple to deeply modify these parts to make them manufacturable.

When is a dot release not a dot release?

When you see the level of dedication that our Development team devotes to the BricsCAD Platform, you’ll agree that it’s the clear future of .dwg-based CAD. As a BricsCAD user, the value you get from your license is growing year-over-year. It’s a win-win-win situation for everybody involved. If you’re not using BricsCAD today, you should be.

Try BricsCAD V18.2 free for 30 days