In Ghent, Belgium, about halfway between the tourist city of Bruges on the coast and Brussels, the capital of the European Union, you’ll find excellent—but strong—beer and the most delicious chocolate. At night, its medieval architecture is gracefully lit and reflects on a network of canals that beg to be photographed. It’s an unusual and delightful place to have a CAD company.
Figure 1. Ghent will be remembered for its beautiful canals, strong beer, delicious chocolates—and the headquarters of Bricsys.
Bricsys invited us to its press event, Insights, which is held at its headquarters in Ghent, to see its CAD programs and meet its people.
BricsCAD is a most capable general-purpose CAD program. It is a good deal, besides. With upgrades, it seems to be able to cover BIM and mechanical design with adequate depth. The fact that it has not taken CAD users by storm continues to be somewhat of a mystery to many at Bricsys, including its CEO, Erik de Keyser.
Figure 2. If the shapes in the Bricsys logo look like stylized bricks, you might be overthinking. BRICS stands for Building Related Interactive Computer System.
Good Deal
Erik de Keyser can articulate very well all the reasons why BricsCAD should rule in the CAD world. It does most everything that AutoCAD can do, if not more, and it sells for one-fifth of what AutoCAD sells for. BricsCAD Classic is listed for $550. How’s that for a starter?
Figure 3. CEO Erik de Keyser leads off Bricsys Insights at…