The Library Panel

Commands: LIBRARYPANELOPEN, LIBRARYPANELCLOSE, CREATELIBRARYBLOCK, -CREATELIBRARYBLOCK

Overview: In BricsCAD BIM, the Library panel is used to access your Bricsys BIM library. BricsCAD comes with a standard BIM library, but you can also create your own.

Lesson Objectives:

After completing this lesson you will be able to:

• Create your own libraries.
• Create library blocks, name them and save them in to the required category.
• Manage the display in the Library panel.
• Drag-and-drop a library block into your drawing.

About

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

Content of the Library panel

You can control the content of the Library panel in the Option menu.

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

Creating a library block

1. Open or create the drawing which contains the geometry for the new block.
2. Do one of the following:
   • Click the Home icon ().
     This allows you to select the destination category; or you can create a new category.
   • Click the Category thumbnail.
     The new item will be created in the selected category or in a subcategory of the selected category.

• Launch the CREATELIBRARYBLOCK command.
  The Add block to library dialog displays.
• Select the entities or choose the Entire drawing option.

• Type a name for the block.

• (Option) Type a new category name or choose a category from the list.
• (Option) Click Show Options and set the block creation options.
• Click the Create button.

Managing library blocks

1. In the Grid view display, hover over the block icon.
2. Click the Menu icon (...)
   
3. (option) Click the File Open icon (1) to open the block file .
   Edit the file, then save the changes.
4. (option) Click the Delete icon (2) to delete the block file.
   Click Yes to confirm.

Searching the block libraries

Type a search string in the search field.

Only matching library blocks in the current category display.

Inserting a BIM window into your 3D model

1. Click the Windows category tile in the Library panel.

2. Click the a window (8).

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

4. If Dynamic dimensions (DYN) is switched on, set the window location by entering the dimensions into the DYN fields (9). Press the Tab key to cycle through the DYN fields (10). A DYN field turns red to indicate the distance is locked.
   
   

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 blocks in the 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 Library are parametric.