BIM : Multiple sections 'n views of multiple sub-projects on one sheet

Harr

We / My client are still hovering between 2D, 3D and BIM. Modelling has its growing pains but documentation drawings to paper/pdf is an important issue here.

for example We would like to have all sections and views of 2 sub-projects in one 2D drawing with annotations in MODEL space and all paper layouts made up in this file (f.e. several items on iso A0 paper).
And we love to have the conversion from 3D to 2D blocks automated.

Not the bricscad bim way as read in the docs. Our pipeline (and of clients) is based on annotation in modelspace. And making layouts of it. We do not mind to do that manually.

What we did try :

A. putting all views on one sheet using the BIM project browser
basically selecting all sections and views and filling in one and the same filename as destination file
problem : system is not programmed for this, difficult to setup. only one sub-project per file. After moving the blocks and restarting the drawing next morning somehow bricscad was not able to update the 2D drawing anymore

B. Making sheets the bricscad way and importing as block in one file
all views and sections exporting using the BIM project browser in separate files. Then importing the dwg files as blocks in a master drawing.
problems: manual labour: inserting one by one. nested blocks are not updated if there is a change. I also cannot delete these blocks with purge command.

C. making sections in the 3D model itself with bmsectionplanetoblock
problem : levels and grids not in these blocks and manual labor: moving the blocks with copy paste to new 2D file

How do other companies tackle this (essentially multiple views on one sheet)

What we are also struggling with : How to get a 3D view to a sheet (now we make extra layouts with camera views)

ScottS

@Harr, your post touches on a couple of the shortcomings I see that remain in the rapidly maturing BricsCAD BIM platform.

Like you, I and many others I imagine want to keep annotations in MODEL space. It should at least be an option to put BIM tags in MODEL space (and on layers of our own choosing).

Currently, BIM tags end up in paper space but are activated in the properties of the section entity back in the BIM model dwg. Except for elevation symbols (_StoryIndicator), which get nested inside the generated section block in model space of the sheet dwg and cannot be deactivated (although the block can be redefined with its contents on a different layer that can be turned off). Elevation hatches, on the other hand, get generated in model space—appropriately—but are controlled (as of v21) by a property of the BIM viewport in paper space. These hatches get made on "Elevation_*" layers in excess of the dozens of other auto-generated layers.

The management of all these layers is just one reason why it would be nice to be able to consolidate multiple layouts with BIM views in a given drawing file. Too many viewports in one file might slow the software performance, but I don't see why it should be limited to one layout. Sheetset manager can handle multiple layout tabs if manually created, but Project Browser doesn't seem cut out for it yet.

I haven't tried implementing BIM in a case of sub-projects, but I have run into confusion about how to handle multiple design options or versions of a project, where it could be useful to reuse or swap out parts of the project tree files. The seemingly basic task of renaming sections or sheets, let alone moving a view from one sheet to another, still never seems to go smoothly for me.

For 3D axonometric or parallel projection views, I simply create a BIMsection on an oblique plane normal to the desired view direction. For perspective views, I either use flatshot and update that manually, or xref the 3D model as an overlay into a sheet file and create a viewport within which I set perspective view properties.

Lukas Fertig

just a sidenote: for perspective 3d views theres the command placeview which does the referencing and viewport for you. it even registers it with the sheetset and places the view label. its a bit fiddely to use though...

Harr

@Lukas Fertg thanks for the suggestion for generating a 3D view on a sheet with the placeview command.
Yep bricscad fiddeling and it seems after a first try Xrefs aren't included in the result and no control of view style in this command.
I hate workarounds but for speed sake in running projects: Now ending up making layouts with the perspective (camera) views in the 3D model file and place generated PDF files in the 2D drawing. This is not ideal but with only 6 3D views in my current project acceptable.

Harr

@ScottS i am working on a steelstructure on an existing - partly over water hanging - concrete structure. Hence the xref to divide old and new.
Disadvantage : 2D section views and floorplans created in the xref file also pops up in the projectbrowser of the new 3D dwg.
It would also be great to have the control over visibility of xref objects on the sheet with the 2D output (f.e. transparency) to make clear whats new or not (without managing tons of automatic generated layers);