Bricsnet IntelliCAD 2000 Review

Geoff Harrod

Bricsnet IntelliCAD 2000 is a powerful and cost-effective AutoCAD-like CAD system. Since IntelliCAD has usually been considered in respect to its compatibility with AutoCAD, we must look at that aspect, and for some people, this version may be found lacking. But as a CAD system in its own right Bricsnet IntelliCAD 2000 is an excellent choice. Read on for the pros and cons.

IntelliCAD's History

First, the evolution story: IntelliCAD was created as a function-alike clone of AutoCAD, originally to provide a lower cost system on which to run specialist add-on applications using LISP and ADS. It was taken up by Visio Corporation, makers of Visio, and IntelliCAD 98 was marketed in March 1998 as a low cost alternative to AutoCAD R14. It achieved considerable success as an R14 alternative and after five free updates matched features very well. The only bits missing were TrueType text fonts, and 3D solid modeling. AutoCAD R14 used the ACIS solid modeling kernel for most of its 3D facilities and IntelliCAD did not have ACIS, so its 3D facilities were limited, although they did replicate some of the primitives tools in a surface-based form. It was possible for a networked office to run AutoCAD R14 and IntelliCAD 98 in parallel, quite successfully passing shared DWG data files (mainly 2D) back and forth. The big advantage over AutoCAD LT 98 as a low-cost option was the ability to run LISP.

A 2000 version of IntelliCAD was in development when Visio sold out to Microsoft. Part of the deal was that Microsoft did not want IntelliCAD, so Visio Corp set up an "Open Source" type of organization called the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium" (ITC) to take care of the source code and further development. In keeping with the Open Source distribution model, ITC made the basic product available as a free download, but this dID not include the sub-systems that were licensed from 3^rd parties – mainly raster image facilities and rendering. ITC continued to develop the code and produced a 2000 version.

Bricsnet - IntelliCAD 2000

ITC licence the basic source code to other ITC partners who can add whatever they like to it and sell it. One of these is Bricsnet. As well as using the IntelliCAD core modules as a basis for their own 3D Architectural system, Bricsnet also sell the IntelliCAD general purpose CAD product, including the licensed raster image and rendering facilities. This Bricsnet version is the 2000 edition of IntelliCAD with raster and rendering facilties.

Although IntelliCAD 2000 is named correspondingly to AutoCAD 2000, it is by no means so much of a replica as IntelliCAD 98 was of AutoCAD R14. This is really an enhanced version of IntelliCAD 98 with the ability to read and write AutoCAD 2000 DWG files. It lacks some of the radical new features that were added to AutoCAD 2000 and LT 2000, with the result that it cannot interchange 2000 DWG data without some risk of loss or alteration of information.

Lineweight Facility

Most significantly, if a 2000 DWG file uses the new Lineweight facility, then those Lineweights vanish when brought into IntelliCAD 2000, because it does not support that property. It relies on matching printer line-widths to screen colors as in R14. I would hope all AutoCAD 2000 users would be keen to adopt this long overdue feature (always found in other CAD products), but sadly they are not. Hence this limitation may not manifest in many offices, at least under existing usage practices. Many AutoCAD 2000 users seem to be ignoring the new features – a long observed habit among AutoCAD users – but it puzzles me why they pay to upgrade if they are not going to make use of the improvements!

PaperSpaces

Similarly, if a 2000 DWG file makes use of multiple PaperSpaces (now called Layouts) only the first Layout tab will appear in IntelliCAD 2000 as PaperSpace. Since users are in fact very likely to use the multiple Layouts feature for multiple plot sheets, this is more likely to be a common problem.

But IntelliCAD 2000 does retain any data that it cannot use in the DWG file even after editing and re-saving, so the invisible additional PaperSpaces and the missing Lineweights would re-appear when the re-saved DWG file was later opened with AutoCAD 2000.

What happens when you open an AutoCAD 2000 DWG that uses ACIS solids. Note that many of the leader notes point to nothing - where the shaft etc ought to be. But the data is retained in the DWG file after altering and saving, and the raster image rendered view of the model is handled correctly.

Comparing IntelliCAD & AutoCAD Improvements

IntelliCAD introduced many user interface and usage enhancements over those provided in AutoCAD R12 and R14. Now AutoCAD 2000 has enormously improved many aspects of the interface and user interaction, but IntelliCAD 2000 has not improved to the same degree. It is still nicer to use in many areas than R14 but feels a bit awkward to me, now being used to AutoCAD 2000. Anyone who had not used AutoCAD 2000 would consider it extremely good

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