How to Create Walls in BricsCAD BIM

Quick answer: POLYSOLID, LCONNECT, TCONNECT, and BIMQUICKDRAW cover wall creation and connection. In BricsCAD BIM, you always create geometry first and add materials or compositions later, freeing you from worrying about details during a preliminary design.

About the Polysolid Tool

Polysolid creates wall solids by selecting a start point, an endpoint, and entering a height. Dynamic Dimensions and Polar Tracking are both recommended, Dynamic Dimensions specify the wall’s length, Polar Tracking controls its direction.

Creating a Simple Wall

1. Launch Polysolid.
2. Select a start point; the wall’s footprint displays automatically. Move the cursor in the direction you want; the current length shows in the dynamic entry field.
3. Select an endpoint, or type a value and press Enter; the adjacent wall’s footprint displays. Continue selecting endpoints or typing values to create adjoining wall segments.
4. Press Enter again or right-click; the wall’s height displays dynamically and is editable, along with a width field, press Tab to switch between them.
5. Press Ctrl to bring up the Polysolid justification Hotkey Assistant widget and change the wall’s justification.

The width and height you set become the default for the next Polysolid you create.

Creating a Curved Wall

1. Launch Polysolid.
2. Select a start point, then move the cursor to set the length or click to set the endpoint.
3. Type A and press Enter to choose Draw arcs, or select it from the prompt menu.
4. Move the cursor to curve the wall, type a value in the dynamic entry field to set the arc’s degree and length, then press Enter.
5. Continue creating curved, adjoining segments by clicking or typing values. Type L and press Enter, or select Draw lines, to switch back to straight segments.
6. Press Enter again or right-click to set the height and width, the same way as a simple wall.

Using an Existing 2D Plan to Create Walls

With Polysolid’s Entity option:

1. Click Polysolid from the Quad, then type E at the Command line, or select Entity from the prompts menu, letting you build 3D geometry from a 2D layout.
2. Choose the 2D linear entity to use as the base: lines, open or closed polylines, arcs, circles, ellipses, elliptical arcs, and splines are all accepted.
3. Move the solid up or down and left-click to set the wall’s height, type a value in the dynamic entry field, or right-click to accept the default.
4. The current width shows in the Width field; press Tab to switch between Height and Width.
5. The Hotkey Assistant shows the available justification options; press Ctrl to cycle through them.

With BimQuickDraw (see this hub’s separate BIM Quickdraw coverage for more depth):

1. Open Quickdraw from the Quad, or type BIMQUICKDRAW.
2. The cursor snaps automatically to your 2D drawing’s lines; left-click to place the first corner.
3. Hover to the opposite corner and left-click, or type the side lengths in their fields and press Enter.
4. Quickdraw always uses the default height and width, changeable in the Quick Draw command context panel.
5. To finish an L-shaped form, draw a second rectangle on the remaining part of the figure; the wall shared between the two rectangles is automatically removed if the second one starts from the interior side of the first.
6. While drawing that second rectangle, the wall about to be deleted displays in red.

Connecting Two Walls with L Connect

Selecting two wall elements and applying L Connect creates a mitered connection by default when the walls intersect.

The LConnect Hotkey Assistant widget shows the selected connection type with a blue frame; press Ctrl to cycle through four options:

• Bisector L-connection (miter): connects the walls at a 45-degree angle.
• Parallel L-connection 1 and Parallel L-connection 2: both connect the walls at a 90-degree angle.
• Disconnection: removes the existing connection between the walls.

Press Enter to accept the current connection type.

Connecting Walls to Other Elements

The Connect With Nearest tool connects a wall’s minor face to another element’s major face, regardless of face orientation, useful for connecting a wall’s top face to a roof, its bottom face to a slab, or a slab’s side face to a wall. Make sure Select Faces is enabled in the selection mode settings first.

Creating a T-connection between two walls:

1. Highlight the face you want connected to the other wall.
2. Choose Connect With Nearest from the Quad; it automatically creates a T-connection by extruding the first wall’s face to the other wall’s face.

Connecting Multiple Wall Faces at Once

Select Aligned Faces highlights every face coplanar with your current selection, letting Connect With Nearest apply to multiple faces at once, the same shortcut covered on this hub’s BIM entity selection and solid connecting pages.

Connecting multiple wall faces to a roof slab:

1. Highlight the top face of one wall, then click Select Aligned Faces on the General tab of the Quad; every coplanar top face highlights too.
2. Launch Connect With Nearest; every wall’s top face attaches to the roof.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between the two Parallel L-connection options? Both connect walls at a 90-degree angle; cycling through them with Ctrl shows the specific layout difference for your walls’ geometry.

Does an L-connection always default to a mitered joint? Yes, when the two selected walls intersect, the default connection type is the mitered bisector connection.

How do I connect a wall’s top face to a roof automatically? Select the wall’s top face and choose Connect With Nearest from the Quad, with Select Faces enabled beforehand.

How does BimQuickDraw handle a shared wall when drawing an L-shaped floor plan? It removes the wall shared between two rectangles automatically, as long as the second rectangle starts from the interior side of the first.