The BimCraft screen

The BimCraft screen has a bar across the top and three areas under it: a panel on the left, the stage in the middle and the Properties panel on the right. What appears in each area depends on what you opened: an IFC model, a project or family file, a drawing or a folder.

The app bar

The thin bar across the top belongs to the CadCraft site, not to BimCraft itself. From left to right:

• The CadCraft mark: goes to the CadCraft home page.
• The app name and a version menu. In the staff build it shows which build you are running and lets you switch to a released version.
• About BimCraft: the app's page on the site.
• Settings: BimCraft's own settings and the ones every app shares. See BimCraft settings.
• Full screen: cycles the screen modes. See Screen modes below.
• Paper and Model: the light and dark themes. The 3D view and the 2D drawings follow the theme you pick.

The left panel

The left panel always starts with Open a file or folder:

• The drop area, Choose a file, or drop a file or folder here. Click it to choose one file, or drop a file or folder on it (or anywhere on the page).
• Open a folder: choose a whole project folder. See Open a whole project folder.
• Recent folders: appears in Chrome and Edge after you open a folder with the folder picker or by dropping it. Click Reopen and the folder name to open it again, or the small × to forget it.

Under it, sections appear as they apply:

The stage

The middle of the screen shows the open file.

• Empty: "Open a building model." with Choose a file and Open a folder, and a short description of each format.
• IFC model: the 3D view with a toolbar above it: Fit, Top, Front, Side, then Edges and Spaces; the edit commands Undo, Redo, Copy, Paste and More (see Copy, paste and duplicate library items); then Library, Equipment, Updates and Credits for library items, and Section (see Cut an IFC model with a section plane). A view cube sits in the bottom-right corner. See Open an IFC model and look around in 3D. Settings, General chooses icons, labels or both on these buttons and their order.
• Project or family file: the file card, with the preview picture, project information and linked files. See Read a project or family file.
• DWG or DXF: a row of tabs (Model, then one per sheet, then Equipment when the drawing has tagged equipment, 3D, Fit and Print view), the drawing, and live X and Y coordinates in a corner. See View a DWG or DXF drawing and See a DWG or DXF drawing in 3D.
• Folder: the folder report, with the Start here box and tables of models, links, IFC models and drawings. See Open a whole project folder.

The status line at the bottom of the stage tells you what BimCraft is doing ("Reading the model…", "Building geometry: 1200 of 5400 elements") and what went wrong, in red, when something fails. Messages about success fade after a few seconds.

The Properties panel

The right panel shows:

• For an IFC model: the element you clicked, with its name, type, tag, GlobalId and every property set. Values you can change look like buttons. See Properties panel fields.
• For a drawing: how to move around, the drawing's linked drawings and images and whether each was found, and a list of what is Not drawn yet.
• For a file card or folder: a short note on what to open next.

On a small screen

When the window is narrower than a laptop screen, BimCraft stacks its areas: the stage on top, then the panels underneath. Scroll the page to reach the panels. On a phone they form one column; on a tablet, two.

Screen modes

The Full screen button in the app bar, or ⌃⇧FCtrl+Shift+F on every platform, cycles three modes:

1. Normal.
2. Full screen, with the bars still showing.
3. Full screen with the app bar hidden. Move the pointer to the top edge, or tap there, to bring it back.

Press EscEsc to go back to normal. Browsers without full screen support (such as on an iPhone) switch only between normal and hidden bars.

Related

• Keys and mouse
• Files BimCraft opens and saves