EU Sovereignty Score
EU sovereignCAD & EngineeringHeadquarters: BE

BricsCAD: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

BricsCAD is a CAD application built on native DWG files. It covers 2D drafting and 3D modelling, with toolsets for building information modelling (BIM), mechanical design and land surveying. It is sold as Lite (2D), Pro (2D and 3D), separate BIM and Mechanical toolsets, and Ultimate, a bundle. BricsCAD runs on Windows, Linux and macOS and can be extended through AutoCAD-style interfaces such as LISP and the C++ BRX API.

BricsCAD is developed by Bricsys NV in Ghent, Belgium. Hexagon AB of Sweden acquired Bricsys in 2018; in 2026 Hexagon spun it off into Octave Intelligence plc, and the product is now marketed as Octave BricsCAD. Octave lists a Dublin address in Ireland and a mailing address in Alabama, United States. BricsCAD is proprietary, not open source, and is offered as desktop software under subscription or perpetual licence. European organisations should check which group entity signs the licence and what its ownership means for jurisdiction.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with BricsCAD pre-selected
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Sovereignty score
71 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-2100
    Headquartered in the EU: European law applies
  • Data residency SOV-3100
    EU-only hosting
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-360
    Key management with a European vendor
  • Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
    Closed source: switching requires data migration
  • Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-655
    Closed source, runtime with the vendor

SOV codes: the matching objective in the European Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework. Official source

How the score is calculated

Facts and evidence

Last checked October 1, 2026
Headquarters
BE (EU)Verified by hand
Ultimate parent company
SEVerified by hand
Sovereignty model
Vendor-hosted (EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting
EUVerified by hand
Open-source
NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Hosting signal
GOOGLE-CLOUD-PLATFORM - Google LLC, US (US)Technically measured
Category
CAD & Engineering
Type
Product
Website
bricsys.com ↗

The hosting signal shows the network that serves the vendor's website, often a CDN, and not necessarily where the service or your data is hosted. How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to BricsCAD

The European alternatives to BricsCAD come from our knowledge base of over 6,800 vendors. We only list vendors headquartered in the EU or the EEA; fully European-owned vendors rank before vendors with a foreign owner. For each alternative you see the country, the open-source status and a short description.

Score per alternative: 0 = high exposure, 100 = sovereign

68 European CAD & Engineering vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

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Why digital sovereignty matters with BricsCAD

BricsCAD is headquartered in BE and therefore falls under European law: the GDPR, NIS2 and the Data Act. No foreign legislation can compel access to your data. The ultimate owner is based in SE, also within Europe.

Data is hosted exclusively in the EU, so BricsCAD scores best on data residency.

BricsCAD is closed source and hosted by the vendor. The encryption keys and the runtime sit with the vendor and switching requires data migration. Ask about bring-your-own-key, export options and open standards.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs BricsCAD together with your other vendors and gives a total score, a heatmap and the main risk drivers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best European alternative to BricsCAD?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to BricsCAD include ACCA software, ALLPLAN and AUCOTEC Engineering Base. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to BricsCAD?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to BricsCAD include Blender. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is BricsCAD GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

BricsCAD is headquartered in BE (EU) and hosts data in EU. That makes BricsCAD an EU-sovereign choice in its own right; the EU alternatives on this page are comparable European tools.

Details and sources

Verified by handHeadquarters, owner, hosting locations and licence have been checked by us against public sources. Free of charge and for every vendor, not a paid label. Nothing in this knowledge base is taken over automatically. Last checked on October 1, 2026.

Sources

Public sources used in the latest check of this record.

Compliance evidence

The links below point to the vendor's own public documents. We only record what we found: a missing link means "not found publicly", not "not compliant".

No public compliance evidence has been recorded for this vendor yet. Do you know its DPA or subprocessor list? Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Digital sovereignty in CAD & Engineering

CAD & Engineering: Computer-aided design, 3D modelling and engineering simulation software. In this category the choice of vendor determines who has legal access to your data, where that data lives and how easily you can switch later.

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8 European alternatives to BricsCAD — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score