How to Use 3D Annotations in BricsCAD BIM

Quick answer: BIMCLASSIFY classifies a solid as an Annotation, and BIMTAG creates associative tags for it, both referenced in passing on this hub’s earlier BIM window creation and load bearing direction pages, now covered in full.

Classifying a Solid as an Annotation

1. Select a solid and choose Classify Manually in the Quad, or launch BIMCLASSIFY and choose Other from the Command line.
2. Choose Annotation from the Building Core Elements folder and click OK.
3. Open the Properties panel; you can change the Name, Description, Building, and Story. The GUID property can’t be changed, it’s a unique, automatically generated string.

Worked Example: Showing Added Information of a Finishing Material

This example adds design information to a concrete roof structure.

1. Use XFACES (under Draw in the Quad) to extract the roof entity’s face; this creates a region.
2. Classify that region as an Annotation, following the procedure above.
3. Type the text you want into the Description field in the Properties panel (a BIM Tag references the Description property by default).
4. Create a section through the region with BIMSECTION, then choose Generate Section from the Quad.
5. Open the generated section drawing.
6. Type BIMTAG, or choose Tag Automatically on the Annotate ribbon tab; the text you added now appears in the 2D drawing.

Worked Example: Showing the Surface Area of an Extracted Surface

This example displays a different property than the default Description, useful for showing calculated values like surface area (for more depth on tagging generally, see this hub’s separate article on using BIM tags).

1. Select the face you want to extract information from.
2. Choose Extract Faces from the Quad; this creates a region.
3. Classify the region as an Annotation.
4. Create a section through the solid with BIMSECTION, then choose Generate Section from the Quad.
5. Open the generated section drawing.
6. Type BIMTAG, or choose Tag Automatically on the Annotate ribbon tab. The tag appears empty, since it still refers to the (blank) Description property by default.
7. Launch BEDIT.
8. Select _AnnotationTag and click OK.
9. Select the attribute definition in the Properties panel.
10. Change its Tag property to Geometry/Area.
11. Optionally change its Prompt property too.
12. Type BCLOSE and click Save.
13. Select the viewport and choose Generate Section from the Quad again; the region’s area now displays in the tag.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which property does a BIM Tag reference by default? Description.

Why does my tag appear empty after classifying a region as an Annotation? The Description property, which the tag references by default, is likely blank, either fill it in, or edit the tag’s block definition to reference a different property instead.

Can I change a tag to display a calculated value like area rather than a text description? Yes, edit the tag’s block definition with BEDIT, select the attribute definition, and change its Tag property to the property you want, Geometry/Area, for example.

Can I edit an annotation’s GUID property? No, it’s a unique, automatically generated string and can’t be changed.