Today at the Bricsys 2019 Conference HOK, Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon, and Bricsys announced a multi-year initiative to advance Scan-to-BIM technology.

The ultimate goal behind this initiative is for Bricsys, with its AI expertise, and Leica Geosystems, with its industry-leading reality capture solutions, to jointly develop technology that allows for the automatic conversion of point clouds into solid geometry. Through the use of machine learning techniques, these solids will be transformed into an intelligent BIM model, with automatic IFC classification. The automated conversion of point clouds to 'BIM-geometry' (a.k.a. ‘Scan-to-BIM’) is expected to accelerate today's time-consuming renovation and construction workflows, delivering significant productivity gains to Bricsys and Leica Geosystems customers.

With some of the most recognizable global renovation projects under their belt, industry guidance from HOK will deliver a solution that is customer-first and scalable, built to handle large commercial reality capture projects with ease. Greg Schleusner AIA, Director of Design Technology Innovation at HOK, stated, 'At HOK, we use BIM tools to deliver our work. However, BIM has yet to deliver on its promises. Bricsys has shown us technologies that we are quite excited about, especially in the area of creating better, richer models in less time. The Scan-to-BIM initiative, in partnership with Bricsys and Leica Geosystems, is another step in our continued goal of enabling our project teams to focus on making quality design decisions vs. spending time manipulating data.”

Hexagon Bricsys Autodesk

In addition to a supercharged workflow, automated Scan-to-BIM technology will deliver significant efficiency gains during the execution phase of a new building project. More rapid BIM generation will help minimize approximations and allow for more exact quantity take-offs, delivering an increase in the accuracy of bulk material estimates to return significant improvements in pricing estimations and thus cost savings.

Bricsys Hexagon

“We are dedicated to adding customer value to the BIM process with our advanced reality capture solutions,” said Fabio Ponzio, Hexagon’s Geosystems division vice president of building solutions. “In collaboration with our sister company, Bricsys, and long-time customer, HOK, we are working to change how firms approach re-fit and retro-fit projects with more effective and efficient workflows.”

'We are proud to announce that our BIM Alliance partners at HOK and our colleagues at Leica Geosystems have joined Bricsys in this initiative,' said Erik De Keyser, Founder & CEO of Bricsys NV. 'Our CAD innovations in the area of geometry creation and machine learning have brought strong value to this partnership. We are excited to explore an idealworkflow with HOK and work with Leica Geosystems to make it happen for our customers, worldwide.'

Using a unique combination of industry insight, precision laser scanning techniques, and cutting-edge AI, the HOK, Leica Geosystems, and Bricsys consortium are committed to creating the next generation of Building Information Modeling workflows.

About HOK
Founded in 1955, HOK – formerly known as Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum – is the largest U.S.-based design, architecture, engineering, and urban planning firm.

Bricsys has been developing BricsCAD since 2002. For the last two decades, our singular focus has been building cost-effective, mission-critical CAD tools. Now as a part of the global technology giant Hexagon AB, we are reinforcing our commitment to take your design workflows to the next level. Bricsys was acquired by Hexagon in October 2018. Bricsys’ CAD platform, BricsCAD, is a powerful.dwg-based CAD application offering familiar commands and user interface elements. Today at the Bricsys 2019 Conference HOK, Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon, and Bricsys announced a multi-year initiative to advance Scan-to-BIM technology. The ultimate goal behind this initiative is for Bricsys, with its AI expertise, and Leica Geosystems, with its industry-leading reality capture solutions, to jointly develop technology that allows for the automatic conversion of point. Hexagon ppm is therefore no longer dependent on Autodesk and it also works faster and more stable. Then there is a concern what Hexagon ppm does to the Bricsys team. This team functions under the enthusiastic founder Erik de Keyser as a well-oiled entity. Inside Sales Consultant - South Korean Market (Bricsys) Hexagon PPM Singapore, Singapore 2 days ago Be among the first 25 applicants. Apply on company website Save. Save this job with your existing LinkedIn profile, or create a new one. Your job seeking activity is only visible to you.

About Leica Geosystems
Founded in Heerbrugg, Switzerland in 1921, Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon, creates complete solutions for professionals in a diverse mix of industries, including surveying and AEC.

About Bricsys
Founded in 2002, Bricsys NV is a global provider of computer-aided design software, marketed under the BricsCAD® brand. Bricsys has been a part of Hexagon AB since late 2018.

Bricsys Acquired By Hexagon

A day after the BricsCAD conference in London, it still dizzies. There are loads of radical innovations and improvements to mention. Then there is the news that Bricsys has been taken over by Hexagon ppm. What are the consequences?

Bricsys is a model of our rapidly changing world. A little over a year ago we wrote a widely read article entitled “AutoCAD? Or just BricsCAD?” That article now feels like being outdated and no longer relevant. BricsCAD has technologically passed that station at a high speed. Where is BricsCAD now?

• Alternative for Revit when it comes to BIM
• Alternative for SolidWorks and Inventor when it comes to mechanical engineering
• Alternative for AutoCAD

This makes it immediately clear that you can do everything in one program with one storage format (DWG). This works better, faster and with the efficiency of one environment. It also means a significant cost saving on education and licenses. Finally, this guarantees the quality and compatibility of valuable CAD files. These are not exactly the standard arguments for buying a software package and it is good to think about it.

Obviously, the acquisition by Hexagon ppm raises questions. Hexagon ppm is very close to the industry with specialist products that fill niches. From this point of departure, it is conceivable that BricsCAD as a CAD platform forms a valuable basis for building many solutions. In fact, people are already working on that. For example, the CADWorx Plant Design Suite was made suitable for BricsCAD last year. Hexagon ppm is therefore no longer dependent on Autodesk and it also works faster and more stable.

Hexagon Acquires Bricsys

Then there is a concern what Hexagon ppm does to the Bricsys team. This team functions under the enthusiastic founder Erik de Keyser as a well-oiled entity. The emphasis here is on the team in Ghent for the general features of the whole and the team in Novosibirsk for the translation of difficult wishes into mathematical approaches and ultimately the code. It is a fragile whole with extremely good performances. It can be assumed that Hexagon understands what “do not change a winning team” means.

What does it all mean for market share? BricsCAD is a small player that has shown significant growth every year. However, it is realistic to say that a substantial market share would take many years to come. Hexagon ppm offers an environment to significantly shorten that path. That leaves no room for short-sighted money-rake constructions for shareholders as Autodesk uses with mandatory subscriptions. In order to achieve this rapid growth, it is also not obvious that prices will rise sharply.

PS After writing this, an interview with Erik de Keyser and Rick Allen was published and more or less confirms this vision. The interview can be found here.