Tribus choose BricsCAD and MagiCAD for cost-effective and smooth electrical design

About Tribus

Tribus, an electrical consultancy company based in Gothenburg, Sweden, have provided electrical design services since 2018, primarily for school and hospital projects. Flexibility and knowledge sharing are at the core of the work approach of the ten-person team at Tribus, which is reflected in them operating without any fixed work titles.

Background

Tribus had previously worked in AutoCAD, but faced with increasing BIM requirements and rising license costs, they began looking at alternatives. As 2024 turned into 2025 the company started a transition from AutoCAD to BricsCAD and some of their MagiCAD for AutoCAD licenses were converted to MagiCAD for BricsCAD.

The solution

After a technical review that was conducted together with MagiCAD, Tribus chose the BricsCAD BIM module. With support for both IFC and RVT file imports, projects can be visualized directly in the model, providing a clear overall view of the building and its systems.

“The transition has been very smooth. The design work is the same—we still draw all the containment elements, cables, and others in MagiCAD just like before. It’s mostly just a few small commands that are different”, explains Emil Helgesson from Tribus.

Results

The transition has been very smooth so far. Tribus currently uses both AutoCAD and BricsCAD licenses in parallel but has noticed no issues with compatibility between the platforms. In fact, BricsCAD has delivered clear time savings in daily work, says Emil:

“The difference is most noticeable when creating printouts, exporting to IFC, or when rotating 3D-models using the ‘orbit’ function—or ‘Real-Time Constrained Sphere’ as it’s called in BricsCAD. With BricsCAD, everything runs much faster and more smoothly than in AutoCAD. A printout that used to take several minutes in AutoCAD is now ready in about one minute in BricsCAD.”

Customer reactions have also been encouraging and Tribus have received positive feedback in recent projects for regional authorities and property managers:

“Several of our clients have said they don’t understand why more people haven’t already switched to BricsCAD, considering both the cost advantages and the fact that the results are identical to AutoCAD.”

In addition to time savings, Tribus appreciates being able to maintain the same workflows as before without compromising on quality or deliverables.

“Everything we draw in MagiCAD looks exactly the same as before. For our clients, there’s no difference—but for us, the benefit is lower costs and more efficient work”, says Emil.

Looking Ahead

Tribus is gradually converting their remaining AutoCAD licenses to BricsCAD and expects the full transition to be completed during autumn 2025. Their positive experience shows that the switch can be made without risk, with potential time and cost benefits.

Read more about MagiCAD for BricsCAD and BricsCAD.