Trace a level, set pens per view, sketch a stair, open an OBJ

Trace a level

Choose Trace in the Build menu, then a view in the list: another level's plan, a level's ceiling plan or a callout (cut to its crop). Its walls, columns and floors show dashed under the plan you are drawing on. Move it by clicking a base point on the reference and then where that point should go, or type X, Y and an angle (it turns about its own centre). Reset puts it back, Hide removes it. It is a reference only: nothing picks it, it is not printed and not saved in the IFC. BimCraft remembers it for each level in this browser.

Pens per view

Choose Pens. Say what the pen is for: all walls, all doors, all windows, the type of the picked element, or the picked elements. Choose a weight, a line (solid, dashed, dotted) and a colour, then Apply. The change is only for this level's plan. A pick beats a type, and a type beats a whole category. Clear all removes them. They are kept in this browser. Tick Pen colours in 3D to paint the colour pens on the model in the 3D view (a weight or a dash is a line's, so only the colour shows there); untick it to go back. Print draws them on the PDF of the plan: the weight scales from the screen (the default wall pen of 1.75 pixels is 0.5 mm), dashes stay dashes and a colour prints in its paper-theme value.

A stair from a sketch

Choose Sketch stair and click the corners of the walking line, bottom step first. One line is a straight stair, two lines meeting at a right angle are an L, and three lines (up, across, back) are a U. Press LL to draw a landing: click its corners and press ReturnEnter, and its short side sets the stair's width. Press ReturnEnter to place the stair. Each tread is worked out from the length of your line and the number of risers the height needs. After that it is an ordinary stair: change it in Properties, and the stairwell and handrails follow.

Tick Make it a family in the tool's row (or press FF) before ReturnEnter to place the stair as a family instead (a straight, L or U stair). It comes in as one element and opens in the family editor with its width, tread, total height, the treads in each flight and the gap of a U as parameters, so you can add sizes, a plan symbol or hotspots. Steps and the riser height follow from them. It has no handrails or stairwell: those belong to an ordinary stair.

Open an OBJ

Open a .obj file like any other file. An OBJ has no units, so BimCraft reads metres with Y up, as most programs write it. Every object or group becomes one mesh element on a single level, and you can then view, measure, section, place it in a model and save it as IFC. Lines, curves and surfaces are left out, and the status line says so.

An object that is exactly a straight prism (a closed mesh with two parallel, identical end faces and flat sides square to them: a slab, a post, a wall block, a plate with holes) is saved in the IFC as IFC's own extruded solid with its outline and depth, not as a list of triangles. Other programs read it as a real solid, it stays small, and its depth and outline can be edited later. The status line says how many objects were kept that way. Anything that is not exactly a prism (a tapered shape, a mesh with one vertex moved, a mesh with a gap) stays as triangles. A STEP file is read the same way.