Working with Typed Plans

About Typed Plans

BricsCAD® BIM uses drawing templates to customize your generated drawings. For a general understanding of how these templates are created and work, please visit the Templates for generated drawings article.

Typed Plans allow you to create customized templates for drawing types based on a set filter parameter rule against an entity type’s value or property within the 3D BIM model. This is especially helpful for customizing graphics of model entities independent of their assigned layers or layer states, therefore transferable and usable on other projects with similar entity properties.

Typed Plans can be stored in two ways:
  • At the level of the BIM project.
  • In the support folder.
  1. Typed Plans in a project can be managed in the UI of the BIM Project Browser. It is possible to create a new Typed Plan from the BIM Project Browser, to rename or remove a Typed Plan, or to edit an existing Typed Plan.
  2. Typed Plans in the support folder cannot be managed from the BIM Project Browser as they don't belong to a project. Use the TYPEDPLANS command to manage them. When running this command, a BIM Typed Plans dialog box displays, listing all Typed Plans in the support folder.

The Typed Plans are operated by 3 principles: Entity Customizations, Filter Rules & Styles. They are accessible from the BIM Typed Plan Editor dialog box.

BIM Typed Plans dialog box

  1. To open the BIM Typed Plans dialog box, enter the TYPEDPLANS command in the Command line or click on the Typed Plans icon in the Ribbon panel.


  2. Click to create a new template. By default, the template is named New Typed Plan with the text highlighted.


    Note: All the controls of BIM Typed Plan are represented as graphic icons within the BIM Typed Plan and BIM Typed Plan Editor dialog boxes, such as to create a new control item. They are repeated throughout the tool in different settings, for example Entity Customizations, Ply Customizations, but their functions and purposes remain consistent.
  3. Rename the template while the text is being highlighted. When finished, press Enter to save and apply the name.
    Note: You can duplicate, delete or rename your typed plans. To do that, hover the cursor over the desired Typed Plan and click the context menu button to expand the options.


BIM Typed Plan Editor dialog box

Click the desired typed plan in the BIM Typed Plans dialog box to open the BIM Typed Plan Editor dialog box, which allows you to edit the customizations of the selected Typed Plan.

The first step in the template brings you to Entity Customizations, where you can create the necessary entity customizations template.


There are two icons on the top right part of the dialog box: a funnel icon and a pencil icon . These are the Filter Rules and Styles tabs respectively.

The 3 principles – Entity Customizations, Filter Rules & Styles – which make up the Typed Plans as described earlier in the article, are now accessible in this dialog box.

Entity customizations

Entity Customizations refer to the visibility settings of how you would like to have your elements in your model drawing to look like.


  1. Click to create a new Entity customization template. By default, the template is called New customization with the text highlighted.


  2. Rename it while the text is highlighted as shown. When finished, press Enter to save and apply.

    As the Entity customization was newly created and not fully set up, you will find the relevant notices at the bottom of the Entity customization tab. This is a helpful mechanism to remind you if any customization settings have not been defined yet, saving you the need to check the settings manually.

  3. Create a list of templates for the entities you wish to customize.
    A list of Entity Customizations templates could look like this:


  4. After creating your desired Entity customization templates, click on the individual tabs to modify their respective settings.
    You can choose how the element should look like as a section result, or how a centerline type representation should appear, or how an external symbol representation should replace the original entity.


    You can further modify and customize a specific ply layer of your desired entity composition, but only if appropriate, for example a Wall, Slab or Roof entity.

  5. The Section result customization displays a series of controls with drop-down values from the Styles tab for more specific control of the section result graphics. You can override the entities’ hatches via the Appearance Override with preset or custom Physical Materials available in your project.


    The diagram above illustrates how you could control the visibility and customization settings of an entity with the Typed Plans. Note that the section plane is aligned with the blue square with red outline.
    • The green outline represents Background, which is essentially the elevation outline of the cut object.
    • The red outline represents Intersection Boundary, which traces over the cut area.
    • The blue hatch represents Intersection Fill, as it shows the area of being cut by the section plane.
    • The orange hexagons hatch represents Elevation Fill, which refers to the area bound by the elevation outline (see Background).
    • The pink outline represents Hidden Lines, as it is below the blue hatch.
    • The yellow outline represents Cut away geometry, as it is above the section plane.

    Appearance Override allows you to specify how an entity's hatch appearances (section and elevation) would appear, in place of the default hatch patterns already defined within the Physical Materials library. When you create any new Physical Material entry in the In Project category as part of the Typed Plan template, your desired configurations are independent of the drawing project and stored in the template instead. You can apply this template later to other project models as you wish.

    You can further ensure the customization applies to the plies within the entity composition, if appropriate, by checking the Inherit for plies box.




  6. A similar setup can be found in the Center Customization settings, where your values in the Styles section of the customization template determines the drop-down selections.


    Center customization is particularly useful in scenarios where you would like to display the center elements of various planar and/or linear entities. For example, if you were to apply the center customization settings against a planar entity, for example a wall, you would be referring to the display behavior of its center plane. However, if you were to apply the same settings against a linear entity, for example a beam, you would be adjusting how the beam's center line appears on the sheet.


    The diagram above illustrates an example of how the center elements differ between planar (wall center plane highlighted in green; slab center plane highlighted in blue) and linear entities (both column and beam center lines in dashed red lines).

    There is no default setting to adjust the visibility of these center elements, and they are not normally displayed in section results.

  7. For the Symbol Customization settings, you can find an input dialog to specify your desired external symbol drawing in .dwg format. If you would like to make any further changes to the 2D geometry itself, you can use the Edit button once the dialog is referring to your desired symbol drawing.

    Alternatively, you can begin creating one on a default symbol template by hitting the Create New button below the dialog.

    You can further apply your saved Styles to specific layers within your external symbol source, thereby allowing you to retain a general symbol drawing across several customization templates with different output results.


    You could also choose not to specify any External Symbol Source, if you already have your desired 2D layers inside the model, usually as a 2D graphical representation that comes alongside the 3D geometry of a Component.

    In this instance, simply add a new symbol layer customization value containing part of the desired layer name. If they are part of the default BRX_2D layers, adding "BRX" as a name value will suffice. Typed Plans will now search within the component entity that the customization template is applied to. This method, however, will not allow any exchanging or sharing of 2D symbols across entities, for example replacing a Column with a symbol derived from a BRX layer stored within a (table) Furnishing Element.



    For more information on how BRX layers operate, please visit the chapter Procedure: Understanding the BRX_2D layers in the Templates for generated drawings article.

Drawing customizations styles

  1. Click the pencil icon to access the Styles tab.


  2. To create a new style, click on the bottom right of the dialog box and a new Style template tab will appear.


  3. By default, the tab is named Style. Rename it while the text is highlighted as shown. After you are finished, press Enter to save and apply.
  4. Create a list of desired styles that you wish to use for the desired typed plan.
    An example of the style templates:


    Each tab contains its individual styles settings, such as the style’s color, line type, line weight and line type scale.

  5. To edit any of the styles template available, click on its relevant tab to access its settings.
    Note: Similar to the BIM Typed Plans dialog box, hover over the styles template tabs to reveal the context menu button to duplicate, rename or delete.
    Style settings include the options to define Color, Line Type, Line Weight and Line type scale in their respective drop-down dialogs. Once done, click OK to save and apply the changes.


  6. To leave the Styles page, click Back at the bottom left side of the dialog box to return to your previous page. From there, you can navigate to modify the Entity Customizations or Rules templates.

Filter rules

To apply the right customization styles to specific entities, you have to set the appropriate filter rules to target those entities correctly in the Filter Rules tab located as a funnel icon on the top right-hand part of the dialog box, next to the Styles icon.


  1. Filter rules can be further classed into sub rules, which falls as a sub-set of the parent rule, e.g. Fire Equipment as a Filter Rule, whereas Fire Extinguisher is classed as a sub rule.
    also appears respectively and accordingly at each rule level. At the end of each rule, regardless of it being a subset or otherwise, it has to end with an Entity Customization.


  2. You can edit the filter parameters by clicking on the Filter button.


  3. The filter Operation values are also available as a drop-down list.
    Note: You can also start typing a certain keyword to search a specific property that you want to filter on.
  4. You can specify a string manually in your check value if your Check type is a Literal. If you have selected a Property value for Check type, your Check property value will refer to the same values found in the Filter property drop-down.
  5. To end and legitimize a filter rule, the Entity Customization value must be added and filled in. The options available in the drop-down selection reflects the existing customizations tab available in the Entity Customization page.


Tag customizations



  1. Click to create a new Tag customization. By default, the template is named New customization with the text highlighted.


    Rename it while the text is highlighted as shown. After you are done, hit Enter to save and apply.

  2. Hover over the tag customization tabs to reveal the context menu button to duplicate, rename or delete.
    Note: The default tag customizations cannot be deleted.
  3. You can edit filter rules for Tag customizations. It is similar with changing the filter rules for Entity customizations described above.
  4. Click on a tag customization to change its properties, such as Style, Auto rotation, Auto placement and Offset:


Typed Plans at the level of the Project browser

From the BIM Project Browser panel you can create new Typed Plans or import Typed Plans. To do that, click at the bottom right of the panel to reveal it options.


You can also Edit, Rename, Duplicate and Delete Typed Plans. Right click on the desired Typed Plan to reveal these options.


Note: Typed Plans in the support folder can not be managed from the Project Browser as they don't belong to a project.

Applying templates to viewports on sheets

With your Entity Customizations, Filter Rules and Styles all set, your Typed Plan template is now ready.
  1. To apply the template, navigate to your sheet drawing with your desired viewport.
  2. Open the Properties panel and select the viewport to view its properties.


  3. Navigate to the Drawing Customization property and click on the drop-down selection to the right.


  4. Select your desired Typed Plan.
  5. Once done, hover over your selected viewport to access the Quad. Click Update Section in the Quad under Model tab.


  6. You should see a refreshed Viewport with the graphical changes as per your Typed Plans settings.

Accessing customization templates

By default settings, these templates are stored in the Customizations folder within your Support folder in the following path, under the Bim folder and then Sections subfolder:

C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\Bricsys\BricsCAD\V22x64\en_US\Support\Bim\Sections\Customizations

The AppData folder is hidden by default, so you may have to unhide it first. This path can also be accessed by entering SECTIONSETTINGSSEARCHPATH in the command line.

You can specify a different path if your Customization files are stored elsewhere in an accessible folder. Simply redefine the path in the Section settings search path in the Settings dialog box, or in the command line:


New customizations created with BIM Typed Plans will be stored in a Customizations subfolder in the specified path. Each customization template is saved as an individual folder which contains in its basic form Settings.dwg, a Filter.json and a New customization.json files. The folder will also contain any external symbol sources which you have created new using the Create New buttons.

Settings.dwg contains the values created in the Style tab in the form of layers and if you have created any custom properties that you wish to use as a Filter parameter, you have to ensure they are also reflected in the Settings.dwg.


Note: As these Customization folders are stored locally in the machine you have created it with, you need to ensure the folders and their contents within are copied and pasted into the same location on other machines, should you wish to share it with other users on other machines. This is the current, temporary procedure to do so, as a dedicated function to streamline the sharing process within the Typed Plans will be released shortly in an update.