Using BIM Quickdraw

Command: BimQuickDraw 

Overview: In this lesson, you 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.

About: Quickdraw

The Quickdraw tool allows you to easily get started with conceptual modeling and automatically turns this concept design into a BIM. You can use the Quickdraw tool to create a room or a whole building. Once in use, Quickdraw will remain active until further commands are executed. If you snap to an existing wall and drag the cursor inside/outside of the building you can create L shaped rooms.

Setting the Quickdraw system variables

1. Open the Settings dialog. 
2. Under BIM options, expand the General settings category.
3. Specify a new value to the system variables (e.g. Default Room Height, Default Wall Width, and Default Slab Thickness) of Quickdraw to change its default value.

Figure 1, Quickdraw system variables in the Settings dialog.

Procedure: Creating an L shaped house

1. When the Quad cursor is in the 'No Selection' state, select Quickdraw in the Model tab or type bimquickdraw in the command line.

You are prompted: Select first point or [room Height/wall Width/slab Thickness/Auto adopt sizes]:

Note: Use either the prompt menu or the command line, to change the room height, wall width, and slab thickness of the room before you create the first corner of a room.

2. Select any point in the drawing area to start creating the first corner of the room.

Note: To start from the origin, use the magnetic snapping feature of Quickdraw.
When the command is active move the cursor close to the origin. This will automatically snap to the origin.

Figure 2, origin snapping in Quickdraw

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

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

Figure 3, the footprint of the room.

Specify the values of the room width and length in the Dynamic dimension field and press Enter.
To execute the command press Enter again or continue to create more rooms.

4. Create more rooms by placing the Quickdraw cursor inside the existing room.

When you place the Quickdraw cursor inside the existing room the dynamic dimension fields displays the distances between the adjacent walls (3,4,5,6).

Figure 4, the dynamic dimension fields when the Quickdraw cursor is inside the existing room.

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

Figure 5, Left: the Quickdraw cursor aligns with two existing walls (7). Right: the Quickdraw cursor aligns with one existing wall (8).

5. To remove a section of wall from the existing room, first, align the Quickdraw cursor with an existing wall inside the room. Then click and drag the cursor outside of the existing room.
   The outer wall will turn red (9) to indicate the part of the slab that will be removed.
6. Select a second point. The wall will automatically be deleted and an L shaped room will be created.

Figure 6, Left: the Quickdraw state while moving a part of a wall (9). Right: after selecting the second point to create an L-Shaped room.