Using BIM Quickdraw

Command: BimQuickDraw

Overview: In this lesson, you will learn how to use the QuickDraw tool to easily create and edit, rectangular and L-shaped, rooms and buildings.

Lesson Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Use the magnetic snapping feature.
• Define the room height, wall width, and slab thickness.
• Align the rooms with existing walls.
• Make a story
• Make a flat roof

About

The Quickdraw tool allows you to get started with conceptual modeling easily. It also automatically adds BIM data. You can use the Quickdraw tool to create a room or a whole building. Once in use, Quickdraw will remain active until you explicitly exit the command or until another command is executed.

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

The magnetic snapping feature

With the magnetic snapping feature, you can align the QuickDraw cursor. When the command is active move the cursor close to the object you want to align to. The QuickDraw cursor automatically snaps to the object.
You have the following options:

1. Aligning to the origin
2. Aligning to existing walls	To the wall itself
	To the extents of the wall
3. Aligning to lines	To grid lines Note: If you copy a story using Quickdraw, the gridlines will automatically get copied too. This way you don't need to copy the grid manually for every story of the building.
	To X- and Y- aligned lines and line segments
	To parallel lines

Setting the Quickdraw system variables

You can set the Quickdraw system variables by using the Quickdraw Settings:

1. When the Quad cursor is in the 'No Selection' state (nothing is highlighted or selected), select Quickdraw () from the Model tab or type BIMQuickdraw in the command line.

2. You are prompted: Select first point or [quickdraw Settings]:

3. Enter S for the Quickdraw Settings.

4. Specify a new value to the system variables of Quickdraw to change their default values (e.g. Default Wall Width, Default Slab Thickness, and Default Room Height).
   When the "auto adapt sizes"-option is turned on, the dimensions of the walls and slab of the new room will be the same as the walls and slab you snap to.

   

Procedure: Creating an L - shaped house

1. When the Quad cursor is in the 'No Selection' state (nothing is highlighted or selected), select Quickdraw () from the Model tab or type bimquickdraw in the command line.

   You are prompted: Select first point or [quickdraw Settings]:

   Note: Use the Quickdraw Settings to change the wall width, wall height and slab thickness of the room before you click and specify the first corner of a building.

2. Select any point in the drawing area to set the first corner and start creating the building.

   Note: To start from the origin, use the magnetic snapping feature of Quickdraw.

3. Drag the mouse cursor to define the footprint of the building.

   Note: If the Dynamic dimension (DYN) option is on, the current values of the room width (1) and length (2) are displayed in a dynamic dimension field.

   

   Specify the values of the room width and length in the Dynamic dimension field and press Enter Or you can just click freely. Press Enter again to leave the Quickdraw command Or you can continue to create more rooms.

4. You can create more rooms by placing the Quickdraw cursor inside the existing building.

   When you place the Quickdraw cursor inside the existing building the dynamic dimension fields display the distances from the Quickdraw cursor to the adjacent walls (3,4,5,6).
   When the "auto adopt sizes"-option is turned on, the dimensions of the walls of the new room will be the same as the wall you snap to.
   

   If the cursor aligns with one or two existing walls in the model, the layout of the cursor will adapt and depict the alignment.

   

5. To remove a section of a wall from the existing room, first, align the Quickdraw cursor with an existing wall at the inner side of the building. Then click and drag the cursor outside of the existing building.
   The outer wall will turn red (9) to indicate the part of the wall that will be removed.

   Note: you can also remove a part of the slab by aligning your cursor with an existing wall at the outer side of the building. Then click and drag the cursor inside of the existing building.

6. Select a second point. The wall highlighted in red will automatically be deleted and an L shaped room will be created.

   

Procedure: Creating a story and a roof

Start with something like this:

The following steps will create two extra stories, a floating part, and a flat roof.

1. When the Quad cursor is in the 'No Selection' state (nothing is highlighted or selected), select Quickdraw () in the Model tab or type bimquickdraw in the command line.

2. Click on the icon () to see the options:

   • Full copy of the top floor. All features will be copied (windows, doors, interior walls, and furniture, excluding doors on the outer walls of the ground floor).
   • Copy the slab and the outer walls of the top floor.
   • Finish the building with a flat roof.

3. For the first story, choose the first option. Note that the interior wall and interior door are copied over. The door in the outer wall on the ground floor is not.
   
   Note: The furniture is in this case not copied over because it is not assigned to the ground floor (see the Properties panel). If you want to copy the furniture, use Bimify to assign the furniture to a spatial location. The new furniture will be automatically assigned to the new spatial location.

4. Repeat step 2. Choose the second option to create the last story.
   

5. Now to make the overhang. Remove sections of the outer walls from the second floor. First, snap the Quickdraw cursor in the corner of the two outer walls, inside the building. Then click and drag the cursor outside.
   The outer walls will turn red to indicate the sections of the walls to be removed.
   

6. Finish the building with a flat roof by using the same method as in step 2, selecting option 3.
   

Procedure: Using Quickdraw starting from a 2D layout

1. Open a 2D floorplan of a rectangular or L-shaped building.
   
   
2. When the Quad cursor is in the 'No Selection' state (nothing is highlighted or selected), select Quickdraw () in the Model tab or type bimquickdraw in the command line.
3. Hover over one of the outer walls with the cursor.
   
   
   Note: The thickness of the wall automatically adapts to the thickness that you drew in the 2D drawing.
4. Draw the outer walls, using the magnetic snapping feature to snap to the lines of the 2D drawing.
   
   
5. Hover over one of the inner walls with the cursor, using the magnetic snapping feature to snap to the lines of the 2D drawing.
   
   
   Note: The thickness of the wall automatically adapts to the thickness of the 2D drawing.
6. You get the following result:
   
   
   
   Note: you can still add floors or finish the building with a flat roof by using the same method as in step 2 and step 6 of the previous procedure.