Hatching a floor slab

Andrew_Mac

So I would like to apply a hatch to a slab object in order to represent wood flooring.

I have tried 2 different ways - the first is to apply a Composition which contains a Physical Material to the object. The Physical Material has the proper hatch set to the Elevation property. This doesn't seem to work in a plan view (horizontal section). It appears to work correctly in an elevation (vertical section).

The second way is more straightforward - I created a hatch object using the upper boundary of the slab. Although I can see the hatch object in 3D, it does not appear to show in a plan section.

Any ideas would be welcome.

ScottS

Each BIM Section has a "Generate elevation fill" option that I think is off by default for plan (horizontal) sections. Try turning that on (under "BIM" in the properties panel) and doing a BIMSectionUpdate to see if your Composition hatch appears in the generated plan view.

Andrew_Mac

That seems like exactly what I want, but for some reason my sections do not have that property...

ScottS

This is strange. I do not find it documented but something has changed in the last 3 months since the online help for Elevation Hatch was last updated. Maybe it changed with v21 or one of the sub-releases? A few days ago I installed v21.1.06, and now I, too, no longer have the "Generate Elevation" property for BIM sections! However, the property is still there if I open the same model in v20.

The puzzle continues. Now in v21 if I create a new sheet and generate a BIM viewport using BimSectionUpdate, that new viewport has a group of BIM properties including "Generate elevation fill" and "Drawing customization". These properties do not appear in other viewports made by mview, or even made previously by BimSectionUpdate. This last point is frustrating me, because I would like to start applying the promising new Drawing Customization features, as well as elevation hatches, to drawing sets I have already painstakingly set up. The only way I can figure out to proceed is to tediously create the drawing views all over again, which the Sheetset Setup dialog does not make easy when sheets and views linked to the sections already exist. I run into various errors trying to rename or remove the sheets that sections point to, in Project Browser or Sheet Set manager or both, or if I change a section entity name or destination file and attempt to re-generate the section anew.

Anyone know how to access the missing properties, or has a better approach?

Tiemen

Now in v21 if I create a new sheet and generate a BIM viewport using BimSectionUpdate, that new viewport has a group of BIM properties including "Generate elevation fill" and "Drawing customization".

Hello Scott,

The properties "Generate elevation fill" and "Drawing customization" have indeed moved from the BIM section to the viewport in BricsCAD V21. The reasoning behind this is that it will be possible to have two viewports pointing to the same BIM section, but with different customizations or elevation fills (which can be changed at the viewport). Previously, multiple BIM section planes were needed to achieve the same.

Currently, the viewport properties only appear when the section viewport is generated from the project browser, but not from the BimSectionUpdate command. This will be improved in one of the upcoming maintenance releases, but in the meantime please use the project browser to create/update the sections. Please feel free to file a support request if you wan to be kept updated about the improvements.

ScottS

That reasoning makes good sense. Thank you, @Tiemen.

I wonder if one BIM section will be able to point to multiple sheet files?

Also, could it be possible to encompass multiple generated view blocks in one viewport? For example, an array of related interior elevations?

And I am still interested in related BIM viewport controls that I posted an earlier question about—
https://forum.bricsys.com/discussion/36148
—so I will go ahead with a support request. Does your team prefer related feature requests to be lumped into one SR or kept separate?

Tiemen

Hello Scott,

In general we prefer separate support requests for separate issues. Of course, if you have closely related feature requests (e.g. about viewport arrangements, etc.), you can group them into one.

Also, could it be possible to encompass multiple generated view blocks in one viewport? For example, an array of related interior elevations?

As far as I know, this is not possible. A separate viewport will be created for each interior elevation.