Place equipment and furniture from the library

What you'll do

Put a library item into an IFC model: a sink, a work table, a chair. BimCraft writes it as a proper IFC element with a type, so every copy of the same item shares one set of geometry, and its data, item number and license travel with it.

Steps

1. Open an IFC model.
2. Click the Library tab beside Properties on the right, or Library in the toolbar above the model.
3. Pick a source:
   • LibraryCraft: the CadCraft library on this site. Public items need no sign-in.
   • This file: the blocks of an open DWG or DXF drawing.
   • Files…: a DWG, DXF, IFC, glTF/GLB, OBJ, RFA or CSV file on your computer. It is read in this tab; nothing is uploaded.
   • Other feeds: another library that speaks the same feed format. Add its address once; it is kept in this browser.
4. Search or pick a category, then click a card. The card shows a plan preview, the name, maker and model, the license and the version.
5. Click Place in the model.
6. Pick the storey in the placing bar. Storeys above it are hidden while you place, and the view turns to the top.
7. Move the pointer over the model: a see-through box shows where the item goes.
8. Press RR to turn it 90°. Press TabTab (or Wall snap) to put its back against the nearest wall, facing the room.
9. Click to place it. Or type the position in X, Y (mm), for example 1200, 3400, and press ReturnEnter.
10. Answer the one question: the item number (the next free number is filled in), the quantity and a note. Press ReturnEnter.
11. Place more, or press EscEsc to stop.
12. Click Save as IFC to download the edited copy.

What you should see

• The item in the model, picked, with its properties on the right: a Library item box with its license and attribution, and the sets CadCraft_Placement, CadCraft_LibraryItem, CadCraft_Equipment and, for items from tagged drawings, CadCraft_SourceAttributes.
• "Placed: item (item n)" in the change list. ⌘ZCtrl+Z undoes it.
• The status line: "Placed item as item n."

Good to know

• An item with no 3D body (a 2D symbol) is placed with a stand-in box; you give its height when asked.
• More of the same: pick a placed item and use Copy and Paste, or ⌘DCtrl+D. See Copy, paste and duplicate library items.
• To start every placement with wall snap on, turn on Start with wall snap on in BimCraft settings.
• Lengths are converted to the model's own units, whatever they are.
• In an IFC2X3 file the body is written as a faceted solid; in IFC4 as a triangulated face set. Both open in other IFC tools.
• A drawing (DWG or DXF) cannot be saved here, so items are placed into IFC models only. Use This file on a drawing to see what its blocks would become.

Common mistakes

• Place in the model is missing. No IFC model is open. Open one first.
• The ghost does not follow the pointer. The pointer is off the model's area, or the storey plane is out of view. Click Top.
• Wall snap says there are no walls. The storey has no walls in the IFC (some exports put walls on another storey). Pick that storey, or type X and Y.
• A file's items are the wrong size. The file has no units, or says the wrong ones. In Files… choose the units and read it again.