Edit a family — BimCraft help

Open the editor

Open a family (the project browser's Families, or Build › Families…) and click Edit the family. To start from nothing, click New family: give it a name, say what it is (a door, a window, furniture, a fixture or something else) and, for a door or window, which starter its plan symbol and hand come from. The editor opens on a family with a few parameters and one solid.

Editing a starter family keeps your changes in this model only. Other models keep the starter as it is.

Nothing in the model changes until you click Save the family. The editor has its own undo and redo (the arrow buttons beside the name, or ⌘ZCtrl+Z and ⌘YCtrl+Y); saving is one step in the model's undo.

Parameters

The Parameters tab lists the family's parameters: a name, a kind (length, angle, number, or Yes / No) and a default.

A formula makes a parameter follow others, for example Width / 30 or if(Width > 1200, 2, 1). Lengths in formulas are millimeters, or write a unit: 3', 6in, 50cm.
Renaming a parameter renames it in every formula and field that uses it. A parameter still in use cannot be removed.
A door or window family also gets two names from its wall: WallThickness and Face (1 or −1, the side the door swings to).

Solids

The Solids tab lists the solids. Add a box, an extrusion, a revolve or a sweep:

Solid	What you set
Box	its two corners: x0 to x1, y0 to y1, z0 to z1
Extrusion	a profile on a work plane (plan, front or side), where the plane is, and a depth
Revolve	a profile, an axis on the plane, and an angle up to 360°
Sweep	a path of points and a radius (a rod or a rail)

Every number can be a typed number or an expression of the parameters. Each solid has a color and Shown when: leave it empty to show it always, or name a Yes / No parameter (or write a comparison such as Shelves >= 3) to show it only then. That is a visibility parameter.

Draw a profile

An extrusion's or a revolve's profile is drawn on its work plane under the preview:

Click on the paper to add a point after the picked one.
Drag a point to move it. Points snap to the grid; hold ⇧Shift to place them freely.
Click a small square on a segment to add a point there. ⇧Shift+click it to make that segment an arc (click again for the other way, then straight).
Double-click a point to remove it.

Hollow points are set by parameters: change them in the table, not by dragging.

Booleans

The Booleans tab cuts the second solid out of the first, or joins them. A Boolean's result can be cut or joined again. A solid used in a Boolean is drawn only as part of it.

When the second solid is hidden by its Yes / No parameter, the first is kept as it is; when the first is hidden, the result is hidden.

The preview and its handles

The preview is the family written as IFC, by the same code that saves it into the model, and drawn back. What you see is what other programs get. Under it, Size shown sets the parameter values the preview uses.

Handles are dots on the preview: The size shows a handle for Width, Depth and Height; The solid picked shows one on each face of the solid you picked. Drag a handle:

on a face set by a parameter, the size shown changes (the family's formulas are kept);
on a face set by a typed number, the number changes.

Saving

Save the family checks the family, then draws every size of it again and makes every element of it again, as one step you can undo. If a size cannot be drawn with the change (for example a solid would have no width at that size), nothing is saved and the editor says which size.