Welcome to the third edition of our quarterly newsletter. Our goal is to provide you with interesting news about the CAD market in general as well as the BricsCAD platform and the solutions from our Third Party development partners. Feedback welcome!

1. Bricsys Newsletter Q3 - 2013
Bricsys Strategy for Mechanical Design – Part 3:
Variational direct modeling is a game-changing design
paradigm for 3D.
BricsCAD at INTERGEO.
Miscellaneous News.CAD-Earth & ARKIplan.BricsCAD Updates.
Our goal is to make this a quarterly
newsletter to provide you with
interesting news about the CAD
market in general as well as the
BricsCAD platform and the solutions
from our Third Party development
partners.
The Bricsys Team
Welcome to the
Bricsys Newsletter
© 2013 by Bricsys
Click buttons to navigate
through this newsletter!
(requires Adobe Acrobat)
BricsCAD Solutions News
HighlightMCAD Corner - Dmitry Ushakov

2. Bricsys Newsletter Q3 - 2013Bricsys Newsletter MCAD CORNER
PART 3
Variational direct modeling is a game-changing design paradigm
for 3D
2D contours are defined as closed polylines composed of linear and curvilinear segments.
Similarly, 3D solids are modeled as waterproof boundary composed of planar, cylindrical,
spherical, conic, toric, and general NURBS faces. BricsCAD users can directly manipulate these
boundary faces: moving and rotating them, pushing and pulling. This simple and powerful way
of 3D modeling is quite similar to 2D sketching. What makes it intelligent is the same concept
of geometric and dimensional constraints applied in 3D space. To differentiate from pure
direct modelers, we call our technology Variational (e.g. constraint-based) Direct Modeling.
Typical constraints in 3D are a tangency between adjacent planar and cylindrical faces,
a radius of a round hole, a distance between two planar faces of a sheet metal part.
As in 2D, constraints play active role for further design changes. An important part of
variational direct modeling technology is a possibility to avoid manual specification of a great
number of constraints that would guarantee keeping the design intent of the model and its
topological and geometrical validity.
For example, consider a model with a number of holes of the same radius. When the radius
of a cylindrical face is modified with a push/pull operation or by changing the value of a radial
constraint other faces that share the same diameter are recognized by BricsCAD and modified
automatically to keep the radii synchronized. Apart from the recognition of equal radii,
BricsCAD automatically recognizes other geometrical relations between surfaces of a solid and
preserves them during direct modeling operations.
Bricsys Strategy for Mechanical Design By Dmitry Ushakov
Constraints make a CAD model parametric – it can be easily changed to get
different design variants. Parametric modeling is a fundamental CAD concept
that significantly cuts down the costs of introducing changes to the project,
creating new modifications, etc. However, since initially parametric models
were based on design history, a rather stable link appeared between those
completely different concepts. True, design history (the record of operations
used to construct a geometric body shape from scratch) can easily be
transformed into a parametric model, if a set of parameters is associated
with each operation. Examples of such parameters are types and coordinates
of two-dimensional entities of a 2D profile and the height of its extrusion
Design variants with 3D constraints

3. Bricsys Newsletter Q3 - 2013Bricsys Newsletter MCAD CORNER
in 3D space, or the diameter and depth of a hole. Changing their values and regenerating
the design history, a different variant of the same geometry can be created. Parametric
history-based features first appeared in Pro/Engineer, and later this method was repeated
in practically all MCAD systems.
Transparency
With all simplicity and universality, this history-based parameterization method has some
serious drawbacks. The most important are its complexity and lack of transparency for
the users. To change a geometric shape, one must locate a proper feature in the tree and
figure out, which specific parameter should be changed. The fundamental principle of a
user’s interface - WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) - does not work here because
the user edits a text or a numerical value of a feature parameter, and as a result changes
the geometric body shape. It is well known that in large geometry models
design history can be rather long and its regeneration can take much time,
which puts MCAD users in a pending position and force them to waste
their time and nerves in vain.
Parameterization
Another notorious drawback of history-based parameterization is that
a decision, which model parameters can be changed, must be taken
when the designer creates the model. If later for some reason he needs
to change a particular parameter that in absent in the tree, the solution
will not be easy: either to redo the model from scratch or use complex
optimization algorithms in an attempt to approach the desired value of the
parameter in question by varying the values of the defining parameters
(which are presented in the tree).
This shortcoming reflects the overall problem of a procedural approach to
parameterization, a kind of which is the method of history regeneration.
Under a procedural approach designers in advance divide all model
parameters into the input and output ones. It is only possible to change
parameters of the first group, while the values of output parameters are
calculated in accordance with pre-determined procedures, formulas,
history, etc.
Dumb geometry
Another key problem of history-based parameterization is inability to use
this technology when working with multi-CAD and legacy data. Design
history is typically lost in translation from one CAD format into another.
Only boundary model is translated, which in this case is called “dumb”
geometry. Some expensive translators can convert features from one
system into another, but it’s not a panacea as each system has its own

4. Bricsys Newsletter Q3 - 2013Bricsys Newsletter MCAD CORNER
mix of features and exact translation is impossible in principle. The same can be said
about automated feature recognition in “dumb” geometry: it can work only in the simplest
cases and does not resolve the general problem.This is a very important issue for most
engineering companies in the world.
A recent survey conducted by Aberdeen Group covered 269 engineering companies and
showed that 82% of respondents use three or more CAD formats in their design process,
and 42% use five or more. Direct modeling can get “dumb” geometry “talking”, but the top
challenge of working with multi-CAD data (marked by 32% of respondents) is the loss of
intelligence embedded into the native CAD file.
Easy to learn and use
WYSIWYG mode
System response time when changes occur
Possibility to specify design intent
Automatic recognition of design intent
Direct editing
Parametric editing
Editing imported geometry
History-based modeling
Slow
Limited to simplest cases
Limited
Limited by history tree
Impossible
Fast
Full
Elementary (step by step)
Possible
Fast
Full
Full, keeping design intent
Full
Possible
Pure direct modeling Variational direct modeling
Variational direct modeling perfectly addresses the multi-CAD and legacy data
issue, it also eliminates many drawbacks of history-based and pure direct
modeling systems, while combining their best advantages. Variational direct
modeling is a modern, game-changing alternative to parametric design and it
is available to BricsCAD users.
Comparison of different approaches to 3D design

5. Bricsys Newsletter Q3 - 2013Bricsys Newsletter BRICSCAD
Bricsys 2013 International Conference
October 15-17 Bricsys organizes its annual user conference at the Darmstadtium venue near
Frankfurt. The Bricsys 2013 International Conference will coincide with the release of BricsCAD
V14 and also bring together many of our Application Development and Sales partners.
If interested in the opportunity to meet with the Bricsys management team, with Third Party
Application Developers and with BricsCAD corporate users from all over the world, please
contact us at marketing@bricsys.com.
Tuesday November 19th, Shinagawa
Conference Center
Bricsys 2013 Japan Conference
Your annual opportunity to meet
with the Alfatech and Bricsys
management teams and with
fellow BricsCAD users from all
across Japan.
Check it out
Add to calendar
Add to calendar
Check it out

6. Bricsys Newsletter Q3 - 2013
BricsCAD Events in Malaysia
Arthur Gan, director, and his team, our Bricsys partner for
Malaysia, participated in several events:
Archidex ’13, the International Architecture, Interior Design
and Building Exhibition
Kuala Lumpur Convention Center
www.archidex.com.my
June 19-22
Dualisma, 25th Architectural Students Workshop
Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur
www.dualisma.com.my
August 21-15
BricsCAD Magic Days in Madrid
In June Erik de Keyser, Mark Van Den Bergh
and Carlos Brandao, Bricsys CEO, COO and
Business Development Manager, joined
Fernando Castilla and the Bricsys Spain
team for the BricsCAD Magic Days held at
the mythical Houdini Hall in Madrid. The
agenda for the event included presentations by BricsCAD user
Alexia Basso, lightning design manager with Erco Illuminacion,
and by Pablo Fernández Ortiz, commercial director with Ideas &
Programas, a BricsCAD solution partner. The event also included a
working session targeted at software development companies as
well as performances by several magicians and mentalists.
BricsCAD Activity in Central & Eastern Europe
Florin Balcu, head of Australian Design Company and Bricsys partner for Romania,
participated to the 6th edition of the International Scientific Conference on Road
Research and Administration “C.A.R.”, on July 4th & 5th, at the Howard-Johnson
Grand Plaza Hotel in Bucharest, Romania. In the exhibitor area, Australian Design
Company, which was also a sponsor of the event, demonstrated the latest version
of the BricsCAD platform and of the ARD (Advanced Road Design) application.
Rihard Kovačič, Bricsys partner in Slovenia, participated to the Innovations in
Podravje 2013 event organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
on June 20th, at the Habakuk hotel in Maribor, Slovenia.
Bricsys Newsletter BRICSCAD

7. Bricsys Newsletter Q3 - 2013Bricsys Newsletter SOLUTIONS
Ideas & Programas: Value-Added Solutions for BricsCAD
Are you ready to empower your cad experience? Discover how with our BricsCAD integrated applications.
What does Ideas y Programas offer? Our company, with over 25 years of experience in designing and
developing CAD software, guarantees good and innovative solutions, specialized attention and the best
technical service. Please, visit our website and get to know us better!
ARKITool & ARKITool Plus
These products represent the best example of our philosophy.
Discover more than 500 free commands and our exclusive utilities
package (for topography, translations, protection, architecture...).
ARKIPlan
This is our famous architectural software. It allows the user to
design architectural and installation elements, get dimensions
and measure automatically, make project layouts, get 3D
models, etc. Every tool we develop is focused in giving our clients
intelligent, fast and easy solutions.
ARKIMediciones
Gives you the quickest and easiest way to measure and get a
budget from your project drawn in BricsCAD. Thus, you do not
need to use any other software because you will perform these
tasks in the same BricsCAD environment.
ARKIModelo
Solutions for 3D architectural models. It is the only 3D software
that only needs a 2D plan to generate a model. Then, you can
easily modify the model and obtain different views, projections,
sections, elevations, etc.
Go to solution
Go to solution
Go to solution
Go to solution

8. Bricsys Newsletter Q3 - 2013Bricsys Newsletter SOLUTIONS
CAD-Earth for BricsCAD
Import & export objects between Google Earth and BricsCAD
CAD-Earth is designed to easily import/export images, objects and terrain meshes between
Google Earth and BricsCAD Pro/Platinum, and create dynamic contour lines and profiles.
You can pick CAD-Earth commands from a toolbar, from the screen menu or at the
command prompt. Automatic load of commands in each BricsCAD session and extensive
help in each step.
Import Google Earth image to CAD
Export CAD screenshot to Google Earth
Import Google Earth objects to CAD
Export CAD objects to Google Earth
Import Google Earth terrain
Cross section from mesh
Profile from mesh
More than 3000 supported coordinate systems worldwide
Free 30-day trial available
Available in English and Spanish
Go to solution

9. Bricsys Newsletter Q3 - 2013Bricsys Newsletter NEWS
News
The release of the BricsCAD BIM Module in mid June was well received by the CAD press and
analyst communities:
“Bricsys has been hinting at getting back into the architectural design market,
and today they released the first beta of the BricsCAD BIM Module … Expect
the BIM module to be developed slowly, and not rushed out as today’s mobile
apps are. Bricsys’ thinking is long-term. Their idea is to build an entire CAD
ecosystem based on solely the DWG file format: 2D, 3D, MCAD, and BIM.”
Ralph Grabowski - upFront.eZine Publishing
“Bricsys today announced BIM software for BricsCAD V13.2+, available as a free add-on module to
Pro and Platinum users. Released as a public beta, this move is in line with the Bricsys ‘Unified CAD’
philosophy of offering everything from 2d/3d drafting & design, Direct modeling, Constraints based-
design, Mechanical parts libraries and BIM, all under the .dwg CAD platform. A ‘BIM-enabled’ tag for
BricsCAD may be new, but this development comes with a long history and rich lineage behind it.
Long before BIM became a buzzword in CAD circles, Bricsys had a powerful but under-marketed
software called Architecturals, which offered everything that architectural design practice demanded.”
Rakesh Rao - CAD/GIS Developer
New Third Party Solutions on the Bricsys eStore Catalog
Completions Manager RV
Create high quality oil well diagrams quickly
and easily.
Publisher: PetroFocus (Aberdeen, UK)
www.petrofocus.co.uk
Plateia
Plateia is a professional software solution
for designing and reconstructing roads of all
categories, from motorways to city roads and
paths.
Publisher: CGS plus (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
www.cgsplus.com
Autopath
Professional swept path analysis for analizing
maneuverability and clearance of vehicles on
projects such as intersections, roundabouts,
parking lots, etc.
Publisher: CGS plus (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
www.cgsplus.com
Novedge Webinar #75: An Introduction to LightWorks Artisan for BricsCAD
One-hour webinar including a Q&A session delivered by Clive Davies from Lightworks.
Go to solution
Watch Webinar
Go to solution
Go to solution

10. Bricsys Newsletter Q3 - 2013Bricsys Newsletter HIGHLIGHT
BricsCAD at INTERGEO
Bricsys Germany will be present on the INTERGEO exhibition
floor in the city of Essen from October 8th to 10th,
along with five BricsCAD Solution Partners representing
applications ranging from classical measurement to civil
engineering and GIS for supply and disposal companies:
INTERGEO is the world’s leading conference and trade fair for geodesy, geoinformation and land management. With over half a million
event website users and more than 16,000 visitors from 80 countries, it is one of the key platforms for industry dialogue. INTERGEO covers
a wide variety of fields, ranging from surveying, geo-information, remote sensing and photogrammetry to complementary solutions and
technologies.
IBB Battefeld below SOFTWARE norBIT
GEOGRAT RZI Software Visit the BricsCAD Partner stand in Hall 3, booth F3.083!