Components Panel

Commands: -BmCreateComponent, ComponentsPanelOpen, ComponentsPanelClose

Overview: In BricsCAD BIM, the Components panel is used to access your component library. The Components panel comes with a standard library of components but you can also make your own.

Lesson Objectives:

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Create your own components folders.
• Create components, name them and save them in a library to the required category.
• Manage the display in the Components panel.
• Drag-and-drop a component into your drawing.

About

The Components Panel is a quick way to keep your BIM component designs at your fingertips or access predefined ones. You can add any CAD model to the Components Library. You can also fully customize the name and category to make it easier to find. You can then insert a component in your drawing by dragging and dropping. Keep your library clean by deleting the items you no longer need.

Content of the Components Panel

The content of the Components panel is retrieved from two built-in libraries:

• Bricsys Design Library: Mechanical components, such as sheet metal features and standard parts.
  (C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD Vxx en_US\UserDataCache\Support\en_US\DesignLibrary)
• Bricsys BIM Components: building-related components such as windows, doors, furniture, ...(C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD Vxx en_US\UserDataCache\Support\en_US\Bim\Components)
• and your User-defined libraries, specified in the COMPONENTSPATH (Components Directory Path) system variable.

Available libraries for the Components Panel can be found and checked in the hamburger menu.

The content of the Components panel can be different in each workspace and is saved in a .ccf (Components Configuration File) in the BricsCAD Support folder (see SupportFolder command).

• Bim.ccf: used in the Bim workspace
• Mechanical.cff: used in the Mechanical workspace
• Default.cff: used in the other default workspaces and user-defined workspaces.

Creating a user-defined library

1. Create a folder for the new library.

2. In the hamburger menu, choose Manage libraries
   
   
   
   The Settings dialog displays.
   The COMPONENTSPATH system variable is selected.

3. Click the Browse button at the right-hand side of the settings field.
   The Path List dialog displays.
   
   

4. Do one of the following:

   • Click the New icon.

   • Double click the empty path field.

5. Click the Browse button at the right-hand side of the path field.
   The Choose a Folder dialog displays.

6. Select the library folder, then click the Select Folder button.
   The path to the selected folder is added.

7. (Optional) Repeat steps 4 through 6 to add more folders.
   
   

8. (Optional) Select a path, then click the Up and Down arrow buttons to move the selected path up or down in the list.

9. (Optional) Select a path, then click the Delete button to remove the path.

10. Click the OK button on the Path List dialog.

11. The newly added folders are added In the hamburger menu.
    
    

12. Available libraries are ticked. Click a library to toggle its availability in the Components panel.

Note: When the COMPONENTSPATH system variable is empty (all paths deleted), the default path C:\ProgramData\Bricsys\Components is added automatically when you close and reopen the Settings dialog.

Adding a component to the Components Library

1. (Optional) Click a folder tile in the Components panel:

   • This allows creating a subfolder in step 5 of this procedure.

   • Or The new item will be created in the selected folder.

2. Select the entities you want to include in your new component (1).

3. Click on the Create component (2) button in the Components panel.
   
   

4. Give your component a name (3).
   
   

5. Select the desired category (4).
   Do one of the following:

   • Click the down arrow and select an existing subfolder.

   • Type a name for a new subfolder in the selected library or library folder (see the option in step 1).

6. You can now use your component at any time in any project by simply dragging-and-dropping it from the Components palette into place.

Note: See also the -BmCreateComponent command.

Deleting an item from the Components Library

Right-click on the component you want to delete and press the Delete button (5).

Note: Deleting a component erases the component source file in the library.

Searching the Components libraries

1. Type into the search bar (next to the magnifying glass icon) to search all available libraries for a component, by name (6).

2. Use the tiles to navigate through the Components Library, using the component categories (7). You can customize this tile view by clicking on the stripes in the upper-right corner of the Components Panel. Here you will find the following options:

   Grid view	Arranges the component tiles in a grid view.
   List view	Arranges the component tiles in a tile view.
   Generate thumbnails	When the thumbnails of the components are missing, click on this button and the thumbnails will be regenerated.

   

Inserting a window component into your drawing

1. Click the Windows category tile in the Components Panel.

2. Select a window (8).

3. Drag and drop the window onto the wall (9).
   
   

4. If Dynamic dimensions (DYN) is switched on, set the component location by entering the dimensions into the DYN fields (10). Press the Tab key to cycle through the DYN fields (10).
   
   

5. To edit the dimensions of the window press Ctrl (11) once and then use the Tab-key to cycle through the DYN fields (12).
   
   
   

6. Press Enter. The window is created. This same technique can be used for most of the components in the Components Library.
   
   

7. (Optional) Once you have a window you can adjust the position by selecting the window and then clicking on the dimension lines and editing the dimensions (13).
   
   

8. (Optional) To adjust the dimensions of the window after the window has been created, go to the Properties Panel. Scroll down to the Parameters section and change the parameters as required. All windows and doors in the Components Library are parametric.