SurveyTools for BricsCAD V23.0

SurveyTools for BricsCAD is an all-in-one solution for surveying workflows by MicroSurvey®. The combined solution includes leading technology from MicroSurvey, Bricsys and the trusted industry partner, Leica Geosystems.  As Hexagon companies, we work together to enhance day-to-day workflows between our solutions.  Land surveyors will benefit from this collaboration by accelerating their productivity with industry-specific tools developed by surveyors for surveyors while benefiting from BricsCAD’s AI‐driven drafting tools and point cloud workflows. This initial release had the primary objective of bringing our survey tools to the BricsCAD platform and ensuring data integrity for you.

 

What’s New in Version 23.0

What’s New

• SurveyTools for BricsCAD brings our existing suite of tools for land surveyors used in MicroSurvey CAD, inCAD, and embeddedCAD to the BricsCAD platform.

Known Issues

Several known issues are being addressed. Here is a list of the most common remaining ones with workarounds.

• When MicroSurvey commands are added to tool palettes, the command icons do not display but the text labels do.
• Opening the same drawing in two instances of MicroSurvey software will create a file titled [Your Drawing].MSJ. The initial drawing will not allow the user to save, and many errors will be displayed on the command line. Do not open the same drawing in more than one instance of MicroSurvey software at the same time. If you do, close SurveyTools for BricsCAD, delete the file (not folder) named [Your Drawing].MSJ, and the drawing will open again as expected.
• Changing the Visual Style between 2DWireframe and any other style, or any other style and 2DWireframe causes the Independent Point Numbers, Independent Point Descriptions, and Independent Point Elevations to no longer display until the drawing is saved, closed, and re-opened.
• Sometimes the Independent Point Numbers, Descriptions, and Elevations will remain visible until the user pans or zooms when the points have been frozen or layers turned off.

Compatibility and Upgrades

MicroSurvey SurveyTools for BricsCAD will read and write to *.DWG drawing files and our *.MSZ database interchangeably with our other CAD products: MicroSurvey CAD, embeddedCAD, and inCAD. There are no compatibility issues or workarounds required to use saved MicroSurvey databases between these products. We have supported the *.MSZ format since 2008, and offer conversion utilities for older formats which are described here.

 

Civil 3D objects can be converted and imported into BricsCAD using the CIVIL3DIMPORT command.

 

 

Important Notes

MicroSurvey Subscription License

• Existing SurveyTools for BricsCAD users with a current subscription license must enter their License ID and Password to run this version.
• Each license has a different subscription plan, so multiple licenses may not have the same expiry date.
• You can confirm your subscription expiry date by reviewing the About screen found on the Help ribbon.

If your subscription has expired, you can phone us at 1-800-668-3312 or 1-250-707-0000 to renew it. Without a current subscription plan, you will not be able to work with the new version.

MicroSurvey License Portal for Floating License Users

• If you have purchased a floating license, you may visit The Licensing Portal to review usage statistics on your license.
• After purchase, you will be asked to create a login for the portal.
• Log in to the portal, click "Licenses & Activations", then the desired license to review its details.

System Requirements

• SurveyTools for BricsCAD V23 is compatible with 64-bit versions of Windows 8.1, Windows 10, and Windows 11 in 64-bit only.
• Full administrator rights are required to install SurveyTools for BricsCAD V23, but it can be run by limited user accounts.
• For detailed system requirements and recommendations, please review this online article.

Software Requirements

• SurveyTools for BricsCAD V23.0 requires that BricsCAD V23.2.06-1 or newer (but still V23) be installed already. If you do not currently own BricsCAD V23, you can register and download a 30-day trial here.
• After BricsCAD V23 is installed, run the SurveyTools for BricsCAD executable to complete the installation. To launch SurveyTools for BricsCAD, simply run SurveyTools for BricsCAD from the desktop or start menu and BricsCAD will be run.

Run as Administrator

• You must run the program at least once elevated with "Run as administrator" access
• Clicking “Run” from the installation package does this automatically
• If this step is skipped, you may run as administrator by doing the following:

1. Right click on the SurveyTools for BricsCAD icon.
2. Choose "Run as administrator".
3. Select "Yes" on the "User Account Control" dialog when prompted to allow the program to make changes to your computer.

 

• After this step is complete, you may run the program from any user account on the computer, even if they do not have administrative privileges.

Online Resources

• Online training courses
• Technical support (1-800-668-3312; free with a current subscription)
• Online store

 

What's New in BricsCAD V23.0

 

Rather than list everything that Bricsys has improved and implemented, we provide a link to the BricsCAD release notes website here.