Custom Properties

Command: BimProperties

Overview: In this lesson, you learn how to organize properties in property sets and assign them to the building elements.

Lesson Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Create, edit, and delete properties and property sets.
• Assign the customized property sets to the desired building elements.
• Specify values for the custom properties.

About

BricsCAD provides a way to assign your own properties to desired building elements in a single command. This is called assigning custom properties. The approach is first to create a custom property set, then assigning it to the building elements to which the property set is to be applied. The method is carried out by the BIMPROPERTIES command, which allows you to create, edit, and delete the custom property set in a dialog box. This dialog box also allows you to add properties to the currently selected property set. Important to note is that these custom properties are also included in IFC export.

For more information about this command, visit the Command Reference article BimProperties.

To learn more about creating user-defined quantity definitions, visit the Procedure article for Customizing BIM Quantities.

Using the BIM properties dialog box

1. Open the BIM Properties dialog box by typing BimProperties in the command line.
   The dialog box displays for specifying and editing properties of BIM projects.
   The following illustration shows the dialog box.

   

   (1) Namespace	Groups property sets in namespaces.
   (2) IFC 2X3 namespace	Shows the IFC2x3 properties.
   (3) Quantity namespace	Shows some hardcoded quantities (Note: these have been deprecated and replaced by the Quantities in the IFC2x3 namespace).
   (4) User namespace	Shows the custom properties.
   (5) Add property set button	Creates a new property set.
   (6) Add property button	Creates a new property definition.
   (7) Add value button	Creates a new value definition.
   (8) Remove button	Removes the selected property set, property definition or value definition.

2. To create a custom property set, select the User option in the namespace drop-list, then click the Add Property Set. A new property set is added to the User space. To edit the property set do the following:
   • Type a name in the Id (9) field.
   • Type a name in the Label (10) field.

   The Label name appears in the properties tree. If the Label name is not defined, the Id name displays. The Id must be unique.
   Optionally, you can choose to have the custom property be only applied to specific instances (11), and choose the visibility (12).

   • Select the building element categories (13) the property set applies to.

   When you expand one of the categories, a different type of building elements (14) displays, check the box next to its name to associate with the property set. The following illustration shows the BIM properties dialog box after inserting a new property set.

   

5. To add a property to the currently selected property set, first, select a property set, then click the Add Property button to add a new property.
   To edit the property do the following:
   • Type a name in the Id (15)
   • Type a name in the Label (16)
   • Optionally, type a description in the Description (17)
   • Select the property type. The options are Boolean, Integer, Real, and String (18)
   • Optionally, define enumerated values

   The following illustration shows the BIM properties dialog box after inserting a new property.

   

6. To remove the property set/property, select a property set/property in the tree, then click the Delete button to remove.
7. Press OK button to accept it.
   Now if you select a building element, which is associated with the property set, you will see its newly assigned properties (20) are placed in a new category (21) in the properties panel.
   To assign a value to your custom property, select it in the properties panel, then type a new value in its field (22).
   The following illustration shows the custom properties in the properties panel.