We are in the final hour of this year's Bricsys Conference 2011. We just heard from Dmitry Ushakov, current CEO of LEDAS and future CEO of Bricsys Development Russia. He gave an excellent review of the history and current state of history vs direct modeling, as well as the pros and cons.
During the Q&A that followed, he allowed that there might be CAM coming, although it is not clear how, at this point. He reminded us that Inventor has no integrated CAM module.
All About Architecturals
What about Bricsys and AEC? "We have been there before," says Erik de Keyser. "It would be silly of us to not rethink how modeling is done, such as how well a job SketchUp has done. I think modeling is headed in that direction. The technology in V12 will allow us to do that."
Architecturals for AutoCAD and IntelliCAD was dropped in 2003 when the company had to cut back. "We cannot afford, as a platform, not to be in all of these: AEC, GIS, MCAD."
Customers have asked, when is it coming back? Others urged Bricsys to put Architecturals into open source. "We will not do that," he said. He plans to enhance the software, with easy conceptual modeling. But he does not what to compete with their third-party developers. So the plan is to let the third-party developers to use the code for more advanced versions.
"It is not our intention to make it an end-user product. It is our intention to enhance existing products that our out there.
"Of course, there are core features that others cannot do. We have to do that, and move it forward to make it more friendly. It has a full data model behind it, and we will make it connect wtth Vondle."
So, it is free but not for sale. Full API for developers. Code is available. Bricsys will concentrate on making an intuitive GUI. Data model is ready for partner; but it still needs IFC compliance. Available on Bricscad Pro and higher.
Education Users
Now making the Platinum version free to all universities and students free. Yearly renewal. Apply on the Bricsys Web site. Own support site, forums, and galleries on bricsys.com. All Bricscad and Vondel APIs open to the educational community.
New contest will not give away iPads, since all students already seem to have one. Instead, e10,ooo to the winning student and e5,000 for the school. Aim of the contest is for best development idea and implementation for Bricscad and/or Vondel -- called u-apps --, since it is hard to find good developers in Western Europe.
Students will be encouraged to develop apps and sell them for under e20 at the Bricsys web site. Students will be expected to provide support, or risk being kicked off.
"We are going further than just giving away software for free, like other companies do. We want to make it practical." Launches in Q4 this year.
But he does not what to compete with their third-party developers.
I think "what" should be "want"
Posted by: Eric chen | Oct 23, 2011 at 07:00 PM