2012 is released!

[Vincent Popish]

The following is a quote from Erik De Keyser, a Bricscad representative:

We have had meetings with Carlson, we have developed all the needed BRX functions to enable a smooth porting from ACAD to Bricscad for all their applications - all technical issues should be solved. Carlson has never been very responsive to us. I heard that Carlson argues that they don't want to be dependent again from a 'paying-per-license' platform. It is what it is, although I could argue that Bricsys is uncomparable with other big companies when it comes to tranparency and support. I guess the only way to make Carlson move for Bricscad is the pressure coming from their users. I guess their users just don't know how easy it is for Carlson to move to Bricscad. All I can say is that Carlson is always welcome but we are not going to ask them again.
erik

It truly is a shame they can't get together, it would be a great combo.

[Dent Cermak]

I do not see Carlson dropping the AutoCad embedded products or those that can load on top of AutoCad at any point in the future. However, if they would offer a Briscad version WITH the embedded version as an option, AND IF Briscad is all that you say it is, then big changes could come about.
Full AutoCad compatibility is a MAJOR issue to many people (especially the ones that do not really know what that means) but if I could run a Briscad version of Carlson that did not crash on a regular basis like Intellicad, and it would give me real AutoCad 20** drawing files (not only 2007 like Intellicad), and it operated as easily as my embedded version and was sound and stable, I just might switch over.
Perhaps when all of this started, Intellicad was the only one willing to work with Carlson on this project and promisews were made as to marketing in both directions, then it may be rather "difficult" for Carlson to add another base program at this time. It may be a major "contractual obligation" problem. We will just have to see how it all works out.
Oh, tell Erik that this sounds a tad peckish and puts them in a bit of a bad light. It just comes off just a little bit as unprofessional. It could have been stated a little more generically without what comes off as whining. A simple "We have presented our capabilities and solutions to Carlson and we are still in negotiations." That would have sounded SO much better.

[DaveG]

So, it has been almost a year, and now Carlson 2013 is released .. where does the whole Intellicad v Bricscad situation stand now? Is Intellicad 7.x still considered a beta? Did anyone from Carlson offer any clues as to why they don't seem interested in offering a Bricscad option?

[tstrickland]

fwiw,
2013 is now out with Icad 7.2, which seems to be getting fair reviews with anticipation of getting better. I will probably stick with it as long as Icad is fairly stable. I've been wrestling with the decision for about 3+ years and using imbedded acad for real work. Time for me to get with the program (literally) , I guess. However, I would take a hard look at Briscad if it becomes available with Carlson and proves to be a viable alternative.