Shinseigiken Engineering saves 50% on design costs and enhances efficiency with BricsCAD^®

Founded in 1987, Shinseigiken Engineering is a highly specialized total plant engineering company providing design and management of the plants and piping systems essential for nuclear power plants and waste processing facilities. They deliver engineering services spanning the entire plant life cycle, from conceptual planning and detailed design to complex renovations. Their customers include IHI Corporation, Obayashi Corporation, Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric, and Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation.

The Challenge

With the 2020 pandemic, sales declined and cost reduction became an urgent priority for Shinseigiken Engineering. Their engineers needed a CAD alternative that was more cost-effective, offered flexible licensing, and had similar functionality to continue delivering high-quality projects to their end customers. BricsCAD delivered this by significantly reducing licensing expenses while maintaining all core capabilities from their previous CAD provider.

The Solution

Shinseigiken Engineering teams use BricsCAD across their projects for nuclear, oil and gas, and chemical plants. From the suite of products, they use BricsCAD^® Lite and their teams reported a seamless migration process.

As explained by Hisashi Fujii, Managing Director, Sales Department General Manager, and OSAKA Branch Manager:

"Because BricsCAD data is fully compatible with AutoCAD^® format, we can hand over files to our customers without issues. They use the data just the same as before."

With the user-friendly, familiar interface, Shinseigiken Engineering teams found the migration straightforward.

“Honestly, switching was much smoother than we had imagined. BricsCAD’s usability is very similar to AutoCAD^®, so our staff quickly got used to it. In plant engineering, the required commands are limited, so it didn’t take much time to master,” Hisashi Fujii said.

“We really like BricsCAD’s lightness and fast startup to get to work in less time. Also, the macros and automation functions we had long used in conjunction with AutoCAD^® run smoothly on BricsCAD. This high compatibility is a huge help.”

The teams at Shinseigiken Engineering use BricsCAD for the following:

Editing and tracing DWG data
Routine tasks include modifying and editing existing DWG drawings for piping and support structures, relying on a core set of commands. BricsCAD’s native DWG compatibility and familiar interface facilitated this key work without interruption.

Creating drawings in BricsCAD from 3D designs
Models are created in 3D software including Intergraph Smart^® 3D, then converted to DWG and processed in BricsCAD. From there, engineers create isometric and plan views, add annotations and dimensions, and adjust fonts and pen settings. All deliverables go through this process.

Integrating with macros for automation
Shinseigiken Engineering teams have long used in-house developed macros to streamline drawing processes. These also work seamlessly in BricsCAD, allowing engineers to maintain existing workflows.

Boosting efficiency with a lightweight startup
With a faster startup in BricsCAD, engineers noted an improvement from their previous CAD software.

“BricsCAD launches extremely quickly. With AutoCAD^®, it takes a long time before you can actually start working, but with BricsCAD it’s about one-third of that. Since we open and close the software many times a day, this difference is significant. Ultimately, it contributes to greater overall efficiency,” Mr. Fujii observed.

Results

With BricsCAD, Shinseigiken Engineering teams experienced a smooth migration, optimized performance, and reduced licensing costs by half.

“The fact that we were able to reduce costs without changing output quality or workflows is a huge benefit. And after switching to BricsCAD, licenses became more affordable, so we no longer passed those costs onto our clients. This is a major benefit for our clients too,” Mr. Fujii concluded.

To see why BricsCAD is the true CAD alternative and how it can support your company’s success, download a free trial today.