How to Use Spot Elevation Levels in BricsCAD BIM

Quick answer: The Spot Elevation tag displays the absolute elevation of a selected point on a BIM object in a section view, based on the World Coordinate System (WCS). As an associative tag type, it only works in the paper space of a drawing sheet, and it’s chosen from the same set of four tag types (Tag, cOmposition, Load-bearing directions, Spot-elevation) confirmed on this hub’s BIM tags page.

Placing a Spot Elevation Tag on a Section Sheet

1. Open a section sheet; right-click the section in the Project Browser and choose Display Section Result.
2. Type BIMTAG, or click Tag in the Draw menu of the Quad.
3. You’re prompted to choose Manual, Box selection, or selection options; type M and press Enter.
4. You’re prompted to choose Auto, Current mleader style, or change Tag type; type T and press Enter.
5. You’re prompted to choose Tag, cOmposition, Load-bearing directions, or Spot-elevation; type S and press Enter.
6. Click a point on the edge of a BIM object to display its elevation, measured relative to level 0 of the model (turn off ESNAP if you don’t want to restrict yourself to snap points only).
7. If several tags are possible at that location, hold Ctrl to cycle through the options while the Hotkey Assistant (HKA) appears at the bottom of the screen.
8. Move the cursor to position the tag and left-click to place it.

Worth knowing: the spot elevation value is non-dynamic, moving the tag doesn’t always update it, and when it doesn’t, the Command line reports the value as dissociated.

9. Update the section (select it, open the Quad, and choose Update Section on the Model tab) to make sure the correct values display. If a tag has been displaced, it can behave unpredictably once updated, turning red or losing its displayed value entirely, whether you moved just the leader’s arrowhead or the whole tag.

Placing a Spot Elevation Tag on an Elevation Sheet

1. Open an elevation sheet; right-click it in the Project Browser and choose Display View.
2. Follow the same steps as the section sheet procedure above (Manual, then change Tag type, then Spot-elevation) to place and position the tag, then update the section the same way.

Worth flagging: the source describes this tag as one that “should not” behave irrationally or lose its value when displaced here, yet the very same red-tag and disappeared-value illustrations that appear for section sheets follow immediately after this claim, a genuine inconsistency worth being aware of rather than assuming elevation sheets are actually more stable in practice.

Placing Spot Elevation Tags on Floor Plans or Reflected Ceiling Plans

1. Open a floor plan or reflected ceiling plan from the Project Browser.
2. Follow steps 2 through 7 of the section sheet procedure above.
3. Two distinct tag layouts are possible here: with MLeader, the same annotation style used on section and elevation sheets, useful for entities that don’t reach or align with the floor or ceiling level (a window sill, for example); without MLeader, a different layout that appears when you tag an entity that does reach the floor or ceiling plane, displaying that plane’s elevation directly.
4. Placing a tag on a wall in plan view can give different results depending on which ply you select, because of how BricsCAD measures elevation levels: in plan view, a tag refers to the lower level of the selected ply; on a ceiling plan, it refers to the upper level. Since plies can differ in length at detail junctions, the displayed value can differ depending on which ply you tag.
   • With an unedited construction detail (where interior and exterior plies share the same height), every spot elevation tag on that wall in plan view shows the same value (-250, for example, if Floor 0 is defined as the upper side of the ground floor in that particular model).
   • With an edited construction detail (where the wall’s connection to a floor slab has been adjusted so its plies now differ in height), the value shown depends on which ply you select, an interior ply that doesn’t reach the floor’s base level shows a higher elevation value than one that does.

Adjusting the Tag’s Layout

1. Double-click the spot elevation tag’s value; a dialog opens for editing its attributes.
2. Click the three dots to open the Text Formatting dialog.
3. Edit the displayed value’s attributes here, adding prefixes or suffixes (FFL or SSL, for example) to clarify exactly which level you’re referencing.
4. For commonly used prefixes or suffixes, create or edit the tag blocks directly with BEDIT instead of repeating step 3 every time.
5. For a detailed explanation of attributes generally, see the MText command article.

Adjusting the Leader’s Layout

1. Type MLEADERSTYLE and press Enter; the Drawing Explorer opens.
2. Click SpotElevationSectionTypeStyle in the Multileader Styles list.
3. Edit the leader’s settings in the Edit MLeader Style dialog.
4. Click Regen, close the Drawing Explorer, and update the section to load the new settings (if they don’t load, type BIMTAG, select the viewport, type R for Regenerate All, and press Enter).

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my spot elevation tag’s value not update after I move it? The value is non-dynamic, moving a tag doesn’t always update it, and when it doesn’t, the Command line reports it as dissociated.

Why do spot elevation tags on the same wall show different values in plan view? It depends on which ply you tag, since plan view measures from the lower level of the selected ply (and ceiling plans from the upper level), and plies can differ in height at detail junctions.

How do I add a consistent prefix like FFL to every spot elevation tag without retyping it each time? Create or edit the tag block directly with BEDIT so the prefix is built in.

What’s the difference between the “with MLeader” and “without MLeader” tag layouts on a floor plan? The MLeader version suits entities that don’t reach the floor or ceiling level (a window sill, for example); the non-MLeader version appears automatically when tagging an entity that does reach that plane.