The briefing

Technology

Disrupting the Status Quo with BricsCAD

MIDDLE EAST

Rahul Kejriwal, head of Bricsys, explains the reasons behind the CAD software company’s rapid expansion in the AECO market to

Big Project ME

How would you define what Bricsys is? Bricsys is a global provider of engineering design and collaboration software. Our core brands include the BricsCAD® CAD platform and the Bricsys 24/7® collaboration solution. The company was founded in Belgium in 2002 and has since expanded globally with regional offices across all major geographies.

In late 2018, Bricsys was acquired by Hexagon AB, an established global leader in industrial information technology for over five decades.

How has that acquisition impacted Bricsys’ operations? Bricsys continues to operate as an independent entity within Hexagon’s PPM division while closely collaborating with other major Hexagon divisional companies like Leica Geosystems and MSC Software.

Hexagon is a builder of acquired businesses and has continued to support Bricsys’ scale-up. In the two or so years since the Hexagon acquisition, Bricsys has experienced rapid growth with topline revenues and team size more than doubling.

What would you say differentiates BricsCAD from other CAD products in the market? BricsCAD is a modern and innovative CAD platform for the AECO industry. We are unique in our ‘one platform, one file format’ approach that delivers 2D and 3D CAD, BIM, and Mechanical

Third-party developers

Since launching the BricsCAS Runtime Extension in 2007, over 400 third-party application developers’ products have been been added to the online marketplace.

2018

The year Bricsys was acquired by Hexagon AB

functionalities all on a single platform, and all in industry standard .dwg.

This is why we are a future-proof platform. Customers can adopt BricsCAD for its powerful 2D and 3D CAD features today and decide to progress to BIM and Mechanical at their own pace.

As a technology first company, Bricsys operates at the forefront of the CAD industry. Unlike other industrystandard CAD products, BricsCAD is continuously evolving and improving, even on core 2D/3D CAD. We have added 100+ new features and workflows to BricsCAD every year since 2018, and we are the only software vendor delivering production ready Machine Learning features and functionalities in our commercial software.

Flexible licensing and fair pricing are also important to us. We offer customers full freedom in how they want to use BricsCAD - perpetual or subscription, single, volume or network – and offer follow-the-sun licensing out of the box, at no extra cost.

And finally, together with our local partners, we deliver industry leading post-sales technical and commercial support to our customers.

How would you say BricsCAD has evolved? Bricsys was founded by Erik de Keyser in 2002, and BricsCAD V1 was released in 2005. Over the past two decades, our development teams have made incredible progress on our flagship product and our latest release is V21.

Since launching the BricsCAD Runtime Extension, or BRX API in 2007, we have added over 400 third-party application developers’ products to our online marketplace. 3D parametric solids modeling was added in 2010, at which time BricsCAD was released on the Open Design Alliance platform. Five years ago, we introduced sheet metal design tools and offered the first release of our Building Information Modeling (BIM) workflow.

The story behind BricsCAD’s development is one that will continue to evolve to meet customer needs.

What role did Bricsys play in the development of the Open Design Alliance (ODA)?

Pushing the envelope

BricsCAD intends to continue pushing the envelope - in performance, in features, and in usability, for its products.

Open and fair industry

BricsCAD is committed to developing and creating an open and fair CAD industry. Bricsys is a founding member of the ODA, the industry’s leading provider of .dwg compatibility technology. The ODA’s Drawings API, formerly known as Teigha, is used by hundreds of companies in thousands of engineering and design applications. Bricsys is recognized as the largest contributor of source code to the ODA’s continuous efforts to improve this shared platform.

As a company we are committed to an open and fair CAD industry.

Any software package should win market share based on the strengths of the technology and not by lockingin customers in a ‘walled garden’.

Why is BricsCAD a compatible and trusted alternative for existing CAD users? The .dwg file format is the industry standard for CAD drawings globally, and BricsCAD uses .dwg as its native file format, by leveraging our partnership with the Open Design Alliance. BricsCAD was developed to ensure our customer’s existing LISP routines, menu files, macros, template files and more can move easily from other CAD products to BricsCAD.

Bricsys is the leading .dwg compatible CAD alternative to the industry incumbent product. What’s more, we offer a customer-first approach by providing greater speed and productivity at a lower cost of ownership, with more flexible licensing options and outstanding support.

For these reasons and more, many of the world’s largest companies including STRABAG, Nippon Steel, Mitsubishi Electric and Stageco rely on BricsCAD for their core workflows.

What is in store for the company over the next five years? .We are technologists at heart and will continue pushing the envelope – in performance, in features and in usability.

We want to delight and surprise customers with our products, something that seems to have been lost in our industry.

Route to the Future T hales, the French multinational giant specialising in the design and build of electrical systems, has worked with the Dubai Metro since it was first announced in 2004, and its ground transportation solutions have been deployed on the Metro since its inauguration. Therefore, when Dubai was announced as the host of Expo 2020, it came as no surprise that Thales was entrusted by the Alstom-lead consortium Expolink and the RTA to design and build the 15km extension of the metro line and upgrade the system of the existing line. Thales will provide state-of-the-art driverless train signalling technology, as well as integrated supervision,

MIDDLE EAST Bernard Roux, CEO of Thales in the UAE, discusses the work carried out on Route 2020 and shares how the technology deployed on the extension will shape Dubai’s future

telecommunications, passengers’ services, security and automated fare collection systems, all of which have been designed to optimise energy consumption, smooth passenger flows and improve IT connectivity.

In order to learn more about how Thales is working to help ensure that Expo 2020 Dubai will be a celebration of the UAE’s Vision 2021, Big Project ME spoke to Bernard Roux, CEO of Thales in the UAE, to learn more about its work on Route 2020.

How will the systems and technology deployed on Route 2020 improve efficiencies and performance? We’re preparing for millions of visitors, which is no small feat! Dubai’s

Seamless transport

Bernard Roux says that Thales has been working with Alstom and the RTA to improve urban mobility and provide seamless transport to the millions of Expo 2020 visitors.

15km

Length of the extension of Dubai Metro

comfortable, efficient and fully automated metro system is expected to seamlessly transport the crowds to the Expo site. Thales has been working with Alstom and the RTA to improve urban mobility to provide the latest enhancements to solutions which already in service and have equipped 50 new trains provided by Expolink consortium with a range of solutions, such as signalling technology, integrated supervision, telecommunications, passengers’ services, security and automated fare collection systems.

The upgraded technology will optimise energy consumption, ensure smooth passenger flow and improve the overall connectivity, efficiency and performance of the metro.

Thales’s ground transportation solutions have been in service on the Dubai metro for the last ten years. What were some of the biggest challenges encountered during this process? The 75km long red and green metro lines have served more than one billion riders over the last decade. These lines have become a dependable pulse for commuters, running like clockwork, arriving on time over 99% of the time. The in-train and stationwide connectivity, along with the high levels of safety provided, have been appreciated by passengers, and commended around the world.

So, going in, we knew that one of the biggest challenges would be to complete the project without disrupting to the metro’s 20-hour-a-day operation on the existing line. Given the significance of the project, we have all been working round the clock to successfully complete the project.

How will the technology and systems deployed on Route 2020 contribute towards the overall experience of Expo 2020? With the vast number of visitors expected, it is vital that everything around the Expo 2020 site runs seamlessly to provide a provide a positive, easy experience for everyone. The innovative technology being deployed to ensure the smooth running of this critical infrastructure is a major milestone in the urban transport system of this futuristic city.

Expo 2020 Dubai aspires to deliver one of the most sustainable World Expos ever, and the state-of-the-art solutions being provided by Thales on Route 2020 will play a large part towards this goal through automation and improved efficiency and energy consumption, whilst also helping to provide a smooth overall visitor experience.

What are some of the USPs of the technologies? The metro system is the foundation of the public transportation system, and the driverless metro in Dubai has been integral to internal connectivity. What ensures that the metro system runs seamlessly and efficiently is the SelTrac™ system, a fully automated solution with driverless train (UTO) and central train management capabilities that allows trains to run closely to each other in a safe manner.

The trains are automatically controlled by the Operation Control Centre and route adjustments can be made quickly to meet changes in demand.

Before the start of regular operations, trains are automatically positioned for service. The services can be prescheduled in the schedule, or by operator command, and when needed, the trains can even be sent for a wash! This is all is done automatically with little to no human intervention.

How will they contribute to Dubai’s Smart City ambitions beyond the Expo? Dubai’s Smart City ambition is simple and direct, to make Dubai the happiest city on Earth. Ordinarily, this would be a tall order to achieve. However, with the right partners and services, it can be made much easier. Leveraging on key emerging technologies and harnessing data science capabilities is one of the key factors in creating a better quality of life.

With the Route 2020 up and running, Dubai will be significant steps closer in making life for residents seamless and efficient.

The overarching vision of the nation resonates deeply with our own vision, as we aim to continue to contribute to the development of in industry, innovation and education in the UAE.

As such, we strive to ensure that the technologies we support Dubai with are pre-emptive of the new generation of technologies.

Dubai was the first city in the region to implement a driverless metro system in the Middle East, and even today, we are committed to ensure that it is the ‘smartest’ city.