BIM - Direct Modeling Basics

Michael Mayer

Everyone coming from a different App to Bricscad has developed some
BIM workflow that worked best. For me that was something like

• drawing walls first
• select exterior Walls as boundaries to create a slab
• fill bucket to create (floor package) slabs in each room

I assigned Floor Slabs to a Story, so I can see in a Story from above and
had Exterior Wall's insulation ply extend over the Slabs.

Bricscads BIM tools, like BIM Drag, work on a single element only.
So I can't drag all e.g. Exterior South Walls of all Stories at a time. I could
so by the standard Move Tool, but that would destroy my Wall connections.

1.
Do you model Walls that extend more than one or all Stories, like Stair Cases
or Exterior Walls, as one single Entity over the whole building height ?

2.
Do you separate Exterior vs Interior Walls by Layers to keep access to the
Exterior Wall's Boundary to create your Slabs ?
(Or work by Isolation)

Solids get corrupted and tessellated pretty quickly at their connections
while modeling, like Walls interfering with Slabs tend to produce some
extra solids and such.

3.
Is there an easy way to simplify these Walls and Slabs again ?

Changing Compositions of Entities often changes Elements locations or heights
pretty easily.

4.
Is there a way to parametrically edit a Slabs Z height or a Walls angle or XY
location ?
I see their needed values in Property Palettes Mass Panel and can activate
values but not edit them.

Louis_Verdonck

@Michael Mayer said:

Bricscads BIM tools, like BIM Drag, work on a single element only.
So I can't drag all e.g. Exterior South Walls of all Stories at a time. I could
so by the standard Move Tool, but that would destroy my Wall connections.

BimDrag definitely does apply to multiple solids. If you want to move a group of parallel walls (e.g. exterior south walls), select all the exterior faces and choose BimDrag in the Quad. In a multi-story model where the exterior wall is devided per story select the exterior face of one solid, then choose 'Select Aligned Faces' in the Quad to select the complete exterior wall, which you can then bim drag in one go.

Michael Mayer

Very good Tip Louis !

Got it, that works well. Also Wall-Slab-Connections follow.
So no problem changing e.g. Alls Stair Cases in one go.

But anyway, maybe for other reasons like Visibility,

5.
Do you duplicate your Layers for each Story like in the Villa Titurial ?

Louis_Verdonck

@Michael Mayer said:
Do you duplicate your Layers for each Story like in the Villa Titurial ?

Not anymore, at the time we did not have the Structure panel yet.

Michael Mayer

OK.
I was used to easily switch visibilities between Stories or buildings
by that" Class+Layer" 2nd order dimension or Clip Cube.
For a Bricscad workflow I currently see :

a) Structure Panel : Selection + Isolation
b) Sections : Switching Clip Display
c) (old school Layer Duplicates + Layer States)

I doing a bit hard so far. Everthing needs quite an amount of steps.

Louis_Verdonck

I also use window selection / Isolate a lot, often combined with another procedure such as isolate layer. The problem of combining different methods is that each of them needs to be reversed seperately (unisolate, thaw, unisolate layer, ...).

Michael Mayer

Hmmh, I'm still doing hard.
Sections in Volume Mode do what I want while switching is not very
comfortable. I currently workaround with a single "dynamic"
Floor Section where I edit its height to switch between Floors.
Mainly I use Isolation but organizing Structure Panel needs a lot of
clicking and concentration also. Currently I have 3 Custom Ordering
Setups. Similar to standard BIM, BIM by Parts only and
BIM by Parts + Stories appended.
(BTW why can't I switch the Order Mode by the big bar where its name
is showing but the small arrow dropdown only)

I think the structure browser could need some extra features in the future.

• a way to show selected objects (marking gray if occluded in sub folders ?)
  without expanding or changing a custom tree order.

• a RMB option menu for instant Isolation/Hide/Unhide All

• a checkbox to show or hide a folder's element content with the option
  to overwrite child elements. (Like all Walls off but show Wall134)
  (needs 3 way setting : on/off/unchanged or default))

• a key combination to collapse/expand All Folders under the current folder

• a RMB option menu to de-/activate Sections clip display

Hans De Backer

Perhaps you already are aware, but just in case: a fast way to de-/activate a section's clip display is to double-click it (in the drawing)

Michael Mayer

Hello Hans,
no, while one will find the double click to De-Select when getting
impatient because a single click in free space does not,
I didn't realize this

So it is a great tip !

Louis_Verdonck

Michael, I think a number of your requests are already possible using the Quad: if 'Show Quad on Selection' = ON and if 'Rollover Tips' = ON, do the following:
Select the entities in the Structure panel, then the Quad shows when you move the cursor to the graphic screen. Now you can choose Hide or Isolate in the Quad. Because the properties in the Rollover Tips are editable in V18, you can toggle the Clip Display property in the Properties field of the Quad when a section is selected. The properties display in the collapsed state of the Quad. When the Quad is expanded you can go back to the collapsed state when you click in the Quad title bar. Notice that It is not necessary that the section entities are visible to select them in the Structure panel, so the layer of the section entities can be frozen.

Michael Mayer

Hi Louis,
I needed to read your post 5 times but I think I finally understood
I'll have to try that, if I feel good with a constant Quad around my cursor.

For me such Quad actions are often a bit tedious or need a lot of
concentration, versus simple automated actions like LMB/RMB clicks
on visual elements.
So I differ between "expensive" and "inexpensive" user interface actions.

My problem with the Quad is that it comes and goes, each time it has a
new position in screen space where I have to target my cursor again.
When I do wrong movements it may disappear.
And while it is powerful by being context sensitive, the downside is that
it looks different each time and I have to reorient.

So in this case I think I would still prefer a longer cursor distance down to
my Isolation Palette Tools that I am used at the bottom of my view pane
that I have in muscle memory.
Opposed to Mouse input, my preferred Cintiq Pen Display input showed
that even moving the Pen in my hand across the whole 27" screen is still an
"inexpensive" action, because you look at and directly edit things with
your "hand" and it needs very low concentration.

Or as I have lately seen in a Revit video,
their "Quad" as an context sensitive but fixed special Toolbar in their Ribbon.
I can imagine that I would prefer such a palette option
(at the bottom of my view pane)
beside my Quad option.

Letting aside if new interface elements make any sense or disturb the UI,
I thought about a check box in front of Structure Pane Names to switch
visibility beside clicking the Names for Selection
(maybe even something for locking edit-/select-ability)
and that double click behavior to switch Sections on/off in Structure Pane
would be quite handy from my point of view.

But that would be of course a redundant duplication of what Selection and
Layer System should do in first place.
(Lock for Active Layer Edit-ability only, Visible but non select-/edit-able States ...)

I see "invisible but active" objects, Layer switching and Selection behaviors
a bit problematic in general, but I see that many users that are familiar with
such behaviors rely on it.

Tom Foster

Could there be an option that the quad opens always in a fixed (muscle memory) location on screen, instead of 'conveniently' near the pointer which by definition is likely to be right on top of the next thing you want to be looking at?

Michael Mayer

I think questioning the Quad is a bit of a sacrilege as it the heart and
highlight feature of Bricscad.

But thanks for bringing the idea Tom.
As a Pen Display user, I started to use (extended) RMB option menus
a lot. I should test the Quad as a RMB option menu.

That would mean in Bricscad settings :

• Quad by RMB click only
• Quad hide delay 8000 ms

But currently I can't hide the Quads auto appearance on Mac (!?)
Even when deactivated in status bar.
^ EDIT
It was Rollover Tips on

So it works but now I wish for an option to expand the whole Quad
when opened by RMB click, "Tabs" vertically and all Tools expanded
in separated rows to the side.
And as a right handed Pen Display user, Quad popup Corner > Left

Lorenzo

Personally I think the Quad is ok but I dont have all the possible commands in it (draw order is missing) and I think it would be nice to still have a RMB standard menu like autocad.

Also, and here maybe is me that didnt found it yet, I am missing the little "over menu". For instance in AutoCAD when I over a polyline grip I see some options related to the grip (add, remove, convert to rouver/line,...). This I find super usefull when 2D drawing. Same apply to Hatches.

Louis_Verdonck

Dear Lorenzo
The content of the Quad menu is fully customizable. If you need a command, just add it. Customizing the Quad is done in the Customize dialog. See the BricsCAD Help for more information.
You can have both right click context menus AND the Quad. When a selection set is present do a so called 'long right click': keep the right mouse button pressed a little bit longer to call the context menu. A short right click displays the Quad.

when I over a polyline grip I see some options related to the grip (add, remove, convert to rouver/line,...).

You can have these options in the Quad: hover over a polyline, then press the Ctrl-key. The segment under the cursor highlights and commands such as Add Vertex, Remove Vertex, Adjust Bulge, ... are available in the Quad.

Lorenzo

Hallo Louis,
thankyou for your answer, I didnt know about the "long richt click" / Ctrl trick. To me it seems still a bit long. If I click / over on a grip I would rather see the just the options relative to a grip not all the Copy, Paste, Paste as block,.... Those are already visible if I click anywhere in the screen.
But I guess this adjustment is at the moment not really priority.

Michael Mayer

@Lorenzo said:
Hallo Louis,
thankyou for your answer, I didnt know about the "long richt click" / Ctrl trick. To me it seems still a bit long.

I think that is adjustable in settings by SHORTCUTMENU (?)

Lorenzo

@Michael Mayer said:

@Lorenzo said:
Hallo Louis,
thankyou for your answer, I didnt know about the "long richt click" / Ctrl trick. To me it seems still a bit long.

I think that is adjustable in settings by SHORTCUTMENU (?)

Hallo Michael, with "long" I meant that when compared to AutoCad editing Polylines is a lot more complicated and a bit frustrating:

• You first have to unselect the Polyline (you probably have it already selected since that would be the first natural step before editing anything).
• If the Polyline is overlapping other lines you then have to "find" it with tab
• you than have to press CTRL on the right segment you want to remove or edit, if now you realize you are on the wrong segment, or segment-half you than have to start from beginning.
• removing a segment is not always as intuitive as removing a point and this often leads to moving other points.
• If I want to "flattern" a rounded segment (Bulge) I dont really know how to do that without having to delete the segment and create a new portion of it.

For me Polylines are the item I use 2/3 of the time and they have to work 100% smooth. I do the comparison with AutoCad bacause BricsCad is clearly based on that and it aims to be an improvement.

Michael Mayer

Yes,
I only managed to get used to the 3D Direct Modeling (and BIM),
where I think I got up to what I did in Microstation in the early 2000s
with some +- in individual features.
Which is fine of course.
But all the 2D stuff in Bricscad is still a miracle for me and not very intuitive
(similar as it was in Microstation) but somehow I am doing much harder
to understand the workflows than in Vectorworks.
And I am doing even a bit hard understanding Ralph Grabowski's eBooks.
I am thankful for every Video in Bricscad's Youtube channel and have to watch
these multiple times.

Michael Mayer

@Louis Verdonck said:

@Michael Mayer said:
Do you duplicate your Layers for each Story like in the Villa Titurial ?

Not anymore, at the time we did not have the Structure panel yet.

I tried to rework a recent small project which I thought could have been
also done in Bricscad instead of my current BIM solution I still used to
avoid risks. And it didn't work out so well for me. So my current
BIM conclusion is to misuse Layers for switching Stories Visibility only.
Primary 1 single Layer per Story.

So not duplicating a classical Layer usage like :
Story1_Walls, Story1_Slabs, Story1_Windows ....
but really just Story Layers like :
Story1, Story2, Story3, ...

The rest of Layers, often generated by Bricscad, like for Window Components
are basically ignored. Maybe I use some extra Layers to separate Story
independent Parts like multi Story Walls or Facades. Or secondary objects
like existing surroundings or Site Terrain.
That is the most less cumbersome way for me to control Story Visibilities and
those seem to be the most important Visibility Order for me when trying to
control and organize my Model.
(I think I wrote enough why and where I feel limited and or slowed down by
Selection, Visibilities, Structure Panel, and View Navigation as alternatives)
And I hope that further Classification, that would normally done by Layers
will work by BIM "Classification" and Components by Structure Panel to
serve as needed separation instead.

For me that seems like a feasible 3D BIM Workflow that also seems to help
in Bricscad Shape.

Louis_Verdonck

@Lorenzo said:

• If I want to "flattern" a rounded segment (Bulge) I dont really know how to do that without having to delete the segment and create a new portion

Place the cursor over the arc segment, then press the Ctrl-key and choose 'Adjust Bulge' in the 'Modify' command group in the Quad and press Enter. Done.