BricsCAD and CADWorx 2019 Slow

Have anyone been using BricsCAD with CADWorx 2019? When modelling in a large file (15mb+), every time you cancel or finish a command, the program freezes for about 3-4 secs before continuing on. Using the same files in AutoCAD 2019, there is no delay, smooth and fast. Its driving our designers crazy and pushing everyone away from BricsCAD.

It seems like hexagon is forcing us to use BricsCAD because of the price increase in our contract (seems like the price of BricsCAD) and we can't opt out of it .

I'm hoping that is not the case. We use AutoCAD not BricsCAD due to scanning ability and not needing to train employees in other software.
If they move to only BricsCAD we will be looking at AutoCAD Plant 3D seriously.

BricsCAD has pointcloud abilities also, although the out of the box features are a little limited. Cloudworx on BricsCAD is probably a magnitude of 4 times faster than the autocad equivalent, particularly noticebale with orbit and changing views. I have not heard any rumours of support for AutoCAD being discontinued.

I havent heard any rumors either, but the writing is kind of on the wall. Both companies have set themselves up to entice the users to get rid of one or the other. By including Bricscad or plant 3d with their subscriptions, they are saying you dont need both and its cheaper to only buy one.
That being said, CWX 2019 is a step backwards in several ways. We too are looking at our options and weighing the pros and cons.

They keep on insisting that they are not pushing out AutoCAD but why increase the price on CADWorx to include BricsCAD and not let us opt out of it?

I just did some testing of the delay issue and found the main cause to be CADWorx 2019. Putting CADWorx 2018 on BricsCAD is very fast and smooth. I do not recommend using CADWorx 2019 on BricsCAD. Hopefully theyll release a new SP to fix it.

you are correct they do have some abilities for scanning. We use FARO software and not cloudworx for our scanning. Faro uses the RCPs inside of AutoCAD and BricsCAD does not. So we would need to change our methods of bringing scans into the CAD files. Not saying it couldn't happen but overall our team finds FARO better over Cloudworx.

Have you got structure models referenced in ? The initial release of 2019 had some sort of issue where structure models severely impacted performance, there were service packs that resolved it as far as I know.

I don't have too much experience with Faro, however I am intrigued WRT to RCP's ? These are recap files yes ?

My experience with recap has not been great. Lots of accuracy and point decimation issues.

As far as performance, I would suggest making sure you have the latest service packs installed. I run CWX 2019 SP2 on BricsCAD v19.2.11 and haven't had the issue you have described.

BricsCAD 19 can import point clouds without Cloudworx. Currently it can import the following file types: las, pts, and ptx.

As far as the "writing on the wall" or "rumors", there is no intention of discontinuing the ability for CADWorx to run on AutoCAD. This would be a shot in the foot.

I'm not saying intergraph would eliminate the autocad, but autodesk could disallow it as a way to overpower a competing software. Thus the acquisition of Briscad strengthens intergraph's holdings in case such a thing did happen. Not sure what the software developers agreement says, but I wouldnt be surprised if they were updated in the past few years to allow such a thing after grandfathering in older developers. But for the time being they are still fighting for market share, which is why offering a standalone package not reliant of a competitor's makes a lot of sense. If either can get companies to commit to only their software package and not both, they have the advantage.

we had severe performance issues when running CW2019 and Bricscad remotely. the performance issues disappeared when we were running CW2019 in autocad. we also had lots of issues when some designers were using bricscad and other using autocad on the same models

Be Interested to know more about what exactly the performance issues are/were. I am using V20 with some of the multi threaded flags enabled. The only performance advantage I can find with OtherCad is switching visual styles. Everything else is quicker in BricsCAD, changing views, orbit, zoom etc.

As an update to some of this thread. BricsCAD has expanded their point cloud imports to include rcp and rcp in v20 and adding E57 in v21. Currently CADWorx 2020 will run on v20.2.


If performance is an issue with 2019 still, please make sure you have the latest and greatest SP/HF installed.

we tested cadworx on bricscad at the beginning of covid while remote and found that using bricscad remotely via VPN was exponentially slower than using autocad/cadworx. Im not IT so i couldnt tell you how they were both operating through the server. we tested on the same model and tested using only autocad and bricscad made models. all tests showed bricscad was literally 10 times slower. you would sit there twiddling your thumb while bricscad tried to compute view changes or if you tried orbiting your model. this is in any visual style (hidden or wireframe types). bricscad was unusable for us remotely. we tested for a few weeks then dumped it. the VPN/remote slow downs were substantial compared to using autocad. if cadworx end support with autocad we will 100% make the switch to Plant 3D. its cheaper, runs better, has far better support (the Hexagonppm support ticket system is a nightmare for our designers) and its MUCH CHEAPER! ha

My experience with BricsCAD is completely the opposite. Couple things first this was using V20 and also was not running it remotely or via VM.

One of my tests involved a smallish skid model, copy/ arrayed it multiple times so this ended up as 60mb DWG file.

View changes, top/left etc. in 2D wireframe are similar between both applications. With orbit performance in 2d Wireframe BricsCAD has a significant advantage. This is mainly because other cad wants to change to wireframe before rotating the viewpoint and then back to 2d Wireframe once the desired viewpoint has been reached. BricsCAD does not have this limitation.

Once changed to a different visual style like realistic, BricsCAD is quicker with view changes and has superior orbit performance. The only time BricsCAD lagged behind was with changing visual styles, realistic to 2DW and back again other cad has a clear advantage.

This is just one type of test I did, YMMV.

bricscad works great when in the office hard wired to the server. its when you run it remotely via remotely via VPN that it becomes unusable.

Trey, I'm sorry to hear you guys are having difficulty with BricsCAD over the VPN. Are you experiencing the same slow performance running BricsCAD without CADWorx over VPN? Have you guys submitted tickets to BricsCAD and Hexagon making the support team aware of the issues you are experiencing through the VPN? Have you had contact with your salesperson to express this concern? I get the impression that you guys are only adverse to using BricsCAD because of issues using over the VPN and not in the office.

We have recently made changes to our support site, have you and your designers logged into the new Smart Community? https://smartcommunity.hexagonppm.com

If so, do you guys still feel it is difficult to use and submit tickets?

Again, there is zero plan to discontinue CADWorx compatibility for AutoCAD.