Draw walls

What you'll do

Draw the walls of a building on a plan of each level. Click where a wall starts and then each corner; BimCraft joins the corners for you, gives each wall its layers (siding, sheathing, studs, drywall …) and runs it up to the level above. The 3D view shows the walls as you go.

Open the plan

1. Start a new building (Start a new building) or open an IFC model.
2. Click Draw in the toolbar. A new building opens with it on already.
3. The plan of a level shows on the left and the 3D view on the right. Pick the level in the list at the top of the plan, or with the round button beside it in the Levels panel.
4. Use Plan for the plan alone, Split for both, 3D to close the plan.

The plan cuts the level 4'-0" (1200 mm) above its floor, as a floor plan does. Scroll to zoom, drag with the middle or right button (or hold SpaceSpace and drag) to pan; with Select on, a plain drag pans too. FF with the pointer over the plan fits it.

Draw a room

1. Click Wall (or press WW).
2. Choose the wall type in the first list, for example Exterior 2×6 or Interior 2×4.
3. Choose its height: Up to the level above (the wall follows if that level moves) or Fixed height and type it.
4. Click where the first wall starts.
5. Click each corner. Every click makes a wall; the next one starts where it ended. The length and angle show beside the pointer.
6. Click the first point again to close the room. The status line says how many walls the room has, and every wall gets its outside layer on the outside of the room.
7. Press EscEsc (or right-click, or double-click) to stop without closing.

The corners join by themselves: two walls meet at a mitre, a wall that ends on another one stops at its face (a T), and three or more walls at one point share the corner. Walls that cross are left as they are.

Type a length instead of clicking

After the first click, type and press ReturnEnter:

Typing a number while the Wall tool is on goes straight into the Length box. In feet and inches a plain number is inches; in millimeters it is millimeters. You can always type the unit: 3.5 m, 10 ft, 6 1/2".

Snaps

• Wall ends, their face corners and wall midpoints snap when the pointer is near them (a square, a triangle).
• The pointer snaps to a wall's center line or either face (a cross).
• From the last point, the direction holds at every 15° when it is close; hold ⇧Shift to keep it at 0°, 90°, 180° or 270°.
• Free directions round the length to 1/2" (or 10 mm).

Change, undo, delete

• Every wall is one step in Changes: Undo and Redo take walls back and put them back.
• With Select on, click a wall in the plan to pick it; the 3D view and Properties follow. fn DeleteDelete deletes the picked walls, and the walls they joined are cleaned up again.

Levels

The Levels panel lists every level with its elevation and height.

• Type a new name, elevation or height and press ReturnEnter. Changing a level's height (or elevation) moves the levels above it by the same amount, and walls that run up to a level follow.
• Add a level on top adds a level above the top one, as tall as it.
• Units chooses feet and inches or millimeters for everything the drawing tools show and read.

Save

Click Save as IFC. Each wall is an IFC wall with its center line, its joined shape, its type and layers, Pset_WallCommon and base quantities (length, height, areas and volumes), so other BIM programs open it and schedule it.

Good to know

• Walls are drawn on their center line. The thickness comes from the wall type.
• The plan shows walls drawn here filled, and everything else (library items, models from other programs) cut by the same plane, with what lies below the cut in thin lines.
• Walls made by other programs show in the plan but can't be changed with these tools yet.