window and wall

Nuno Gouveia

I'm new to BIM.
I already had an opening in a wall and just copied a window to fit it.
Now, the opening will not be displaced if move the window.
How can I make them interact? (moving the window moves the opening, like it happens wen I create the opening automatically with the window)
thanks

Piet

Hi,
The correct workflow is to use a window as a component with a subtractor solid. When you look at the components in the library you will see there is a solid on layer "BC_SUBTRACT" (by default turned off). This is the element actually creating the opening.

Nuno Gouveia

But what if I have a wall, created as a 3D solid with opennings already made. Can I place windows and make them interact with the openings?

Piet

It depends on how you made the openings, if you created them with "_bimwindowcreate" the opening is a component and you can replace this opening component with a window by using "_bmReplace".
If you created the opening with pushpull or boolean operation subtract, then the opening is not an object an you can not replace it.
You can easily see if the opening is created by a component by looking at the wall quantities in the properties panel. If there is a difference between net and gross quantities, the opening was created with a component.

zoomer

Nuno Gouveia said:

Can I place windows and make them interact with the openings?

As Piet said, unfortunately not.

When I think about workarounds ....

When you are fine with the features the Shape-way Window offer,
(from Rectangles or Shapes on the Wall Face)
you could draw Rectangles at the Wall side from/over your existing openings
(to keep your defined Window dimensions and aspect ratio),
close the openings with PushPull by moving one Face to the opposite Face
of the opening.
And finally create Windows from the Rectangles.

Or if all Windows already exist, move the Window(s) a certain known distance away
from the former opening, close the Wall as described above and finally move the
Window(s) back.


I am not sure if Bricscad will really "keep" an opening from a boolean in a Solid,
after an overlapping new opening was created by inserting a Window ?
So that the initial opening comes back when the Window was moved away ?

And if it really does, maybe a DMAUDIT would fix that and delete the initial opening.

Nuno Gouveia

thanks. I guess the only way is to close the opening (puch/pull), and make a new one with the window

Piet

I'm afraid so. Before you close the openings you can use _GENERATEBOUNDARY to have the openings as polylines and use these as input for "_bimwindowcreate"