How to Use the Details Panel in BricsCAD BIM

Quick answer: The Details panel lets you view, manage, and propagate details, confirming its brief mention on this hub’s BIM workspace page from earlier. It also finally resolves the “Save detail to Library” option that appeared in every Propagate variant’s accept prompt across this hub’s whole Propagate cluster. Open it by running DETAILSPANELOPEN, or right-click a ribbon panel or toolbar and choose Panels > Details.

Creating Details

Use BIMCREATEDETAIL, or click Create Detail in the Details panel.

Viewing a Detail

1. Click the category of the detail you want; every detail assigned to it displays.
2. Click the detail itself; the View detail dialog opens.

Managing Detail Tags

1. Click the detail you want to adjust; the View Detail dialog opens.
2. Go to General Tags to manage general and user-defined tags.
3. Click the blue plus button to add a new tag.
4. Type a name and press Enter; the new tag adds to General Tags, shown in orange.
5. Repeat to add more.
6. Go to Solid Reference Tags to manage those instead.
7. Click the X button next to a tag to delete it. Solid reference tags generate automatically, so you can only delete them, never add new ones.
8. Click Save; the View Detail dialog closes.

Searching Details with Tags

1. Click the filter icon to open the filter options.
2. Click Add detail tags and select one from the dropdown; it adds as a filter (add several at once for a more specific search).
3. Optionally click the close button next to a filter to remove it.

Editing a Detail DWG File

1. Click the detail you want to edit; the View Detail dialog opens.
2. Click Open; the detail’s DWG file opens in a separate drawing tab.
3. Make your adjustments.
4. Save the file; the detail updates in the Details panel.

Existing details already placed in your drawing don’t update automatically, propagate the detail again (below) to replace them with the new version.

Propagating a Detail

Propagate a detail to every similar connection in your project.

1. Click a detail in the library; the View Detail dialog opens.
2. Click Propagate.
3. Press Enter to apply every suggestion, or click a checkmark to reject one (it becomes a red cross, click it again to re-accept). If several alternatives exist for a location, hovering the checkmark reveals them, choose the one you want.
4. Press Enter to accept every currently checked suggestion.

BIMPROPAGATEFROMFILE propagates detail files that aren’t in the library at all, useful for one-off details you haven’t saved as a reusable resource.

Saving and Sharing Details

Details save as DWG files, shareable by sharing the details folder or library. Every detail you create saves automatically into the folder set by DETAILSPATH (and its subfolders), defaulting to C:\ProgramData\Bricsys\Details.

Editing the details path:

1. In the Details panel, choose Menu > Manage libraries to quickly open the Settings dialog to DETAILSPATH.
2. Click Browse to open the Path List dialog, where you can change the location or add additional paths.
3. Click New, then Browse on the new row to add a path; select an existing path and click Delete to remove it.

Sharing a folder:

1. In File Explorer, navigate to the details folder (containing only .resources if you haven’t created any details yet, or the same folders visible in the Details panel otherwise).
2. Copy the folder you want to share and compress it into a ZIP file to send to others.

Receiving a folder: unpack the ZIP and copy the folders containing the details into C:\ProgramData\Bricsys\Details. Make sure they sit inside a subfolder of the Details folder, DWG files placed directly in the Details folder itself won’t appear in the panel.

Loading new details: in the Details panel, choose Menu > Generate thumbnails; the new details folders then appear in the panel.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does “Save detail to Library” actually do when accepting a Propagate detail volume? It saves that detail into the Details panel’s library, making it reusable and propagatable to other projects later, rather than just applying it once.

Can I delete a solid reference tag from a detail? Yes, but you can’t add new ones, they’re generated automatically and are delete-only.

How do I propagate a detail file that isn’t saved in my library? Use BIMPROPAGATEFROMFILE, which propagates detail files from outside the library entirely.

Why doesn’t editing a detail’s DWG file update the copies already placed in my drawing? Existing placements don’t update automatically, propagate the detail again to replace them with the newly edited version.