How to Select BIM Entities in BricsCAD BIM

Quick answer: Hovering over an entity highlights it (only one at a time); left-clicking a highlighted entity selects it (any number at once). Most BIM modeling just needs highlighting plus the Quad, without selecting first.

This page resolves something flagged on this hub’s Selection and Grip Settings page: bitcode 8 of SELECTIONMODES was referenced elsewhere for enabling vertex selection but never explained in that source’s own table. Here it’s confirmed directly, Select vertices is a genuine fourth selection mode alongside edges, faces, and boundaries.

Accessing Selection Modes

Open Settings > Program options > Selection > Selection Preview > Selection Modes, run SELECTIONMODES at the Command line, toggle it on the Status Bar, or find it on the Modeling > Controls > Selection modes ribbon panel or the Selection Modes toolbar (right-click a toolbar, choose Toolbars, then Selection Modes to display it).

The Selection Modes

• Select edges: whether 3D solid edges highlight during selection preview and can be selected.
• Select faces: whether 3D solid faces highlight and can be selected.
• Select detected boundaries: whether closed boundaries in the current coordinate system’s XY-plane, or on a solid’s face, are detected and selectable.
• Select vertices: whether 3D solid vertices highlight and can be selected.
• Disable selection modes: turns off every mode at once, also toggling the Status Bar activation.
• Display Sides and Ends: a separate toggle controlling BimSides and BimEnds visibility on linear elements, only available on classified linear elements with an attached library profile.

Changing Selection Mode Settings

SELECTIONMODES defaults to 0 (no detection enabled). Edit it via the Settings dialog (SETTINGS, then find Selection Modes, its value is the sum of whichever options are checked), directly at the Command line, or hold Ctrl to temporarily cycle between modes. DISPLAYSIDESANDENDS is a separate variable, set to 1 either in the Settings dialog or the Command line, to show BimSides/BimEnds.

Selecting Sub-Entities

With Select edges off, Select faces on, and Select detected boundaries on:

• Face: hover to highlight it in orange, then click to select; click additional faces one by one for multiple.
• Solid: hover over one of its faces while holding Ctrl; the whole solid highlights in blue, click to select.
• Edge: hover over it while holding Ctrl; it highlights in orange, click to select.
• Boundary: hover over a detected boundary on a solid’s face; by default its interior highlights green and its outer edge blue. Change this with BOUNDARYCOLOR (default 95, confirming the value covered on this hub’s selection methods page).

Modifying Solid Thickness

1. Make sure Select faces is enabled.
2. Hover over the solid’s face (press Tab if it’s obscured).
3. Once highlighted, choose Push/Pull from the Model command group of the Quad.
4. The face drags with the cursor; the dynamic dimension field shows its displacement relative to its original position.
5. Optionally press Tab to switch which face serves as the reference for that dynamic dimension.

If a composition with locked (non-variable) thickness is applied and the solid’s thickness doesn’t match the composition’s total thickness, the solid displays with red hatches; run BIMUPDATETHICKNESS to reapply the composition correctly.

Modifying Wall Height

A single wall:

1. Make sure Select faces is enabled.
2. Hover over the wall’s top face (Tab if obscured).
3. Once highlighted, choose Push/Pull from the Model command group; the face moves dynamically, with the dynamic dimension field showing incremental height.
4. Either type a value and press Enter, or press Tab to use a different reference face (like the bottom face) before typing a value.

Multiple walls at once: use SELECTALIGNEDFACES (in the Quad’s General group) to select the top face of every solid sharing the same horizontal plane.

1. Make sure Select faces is enabled.
2. Hover over the top face of one wall (Tab if obscured).
3. Once highlighted, choose SELECTALIGNEDFACES; every coplanar face selects.
4. Continue with the same steps as modifying a single wall.

Ply by ply: with a solid’s Display Composition property set (LEVELOFDETAIL = 2, optionally RENDERCOMPOSITIONMATERIAL = 1) and Select faces enabled, individual composition plies can be modified separately.

1. Hover over the ply you want and choose Push/Pull from the Model command group once it highlights.
2. Type a value in the dynamic distance field.
3. Press Enter to accept it.

Selecting Obscured Sub-Entities

With Select edges off, Select faces on, and Select detected boundaries on, press Tab repeatedly while keeping the cursor in the same position to cycle through everything stacked beneath it, hidden faces, entire solids behind the one on top, and faces of solids further back, until the entity or sub-entity you want highlights. Left-click it to select.

Selection Boxes

Left-click an empty area and drag to draw a selection box:

• Blue box (dragged left to right): selects only entities entirely covered by the box.
• Green box (dragged right to left, a crossing window): selects entities entirely covered, plus anything the box edges intersect.

By default, selection boxes select whole entities (solids, lines, polylines, blocks) rather than sub-entities. Press Ctrl once during a window selection to switch to selecting faces instead, or twice to switch to edges, an icon beside the cursor indicates the current mode. With the blue box, only faces or edges entirely inside the window get selected; with the green box, faces or edges that are entirely or partially inside get selected.

Selecting BIM Sides and Ends on Profiles

1. Click Display Sides and Ends on the BIM Toolbar.
2. Hover over a linear solid near its top or bottom; its BimEnd face highlights yellow, and its BimSide face highlights red.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I highlight more than one entity at a time? No, highlighting only ever applies to one entity, though you can select as many as you like by left-clicking each highlighted one in turn.

What’s the difference between the blue and green selection boxes? The blue box (dragged left to right) only selects entities entirely inside it. The green box (dragged right to left) also picks up anything its edges intersect.

How do I select the top face of every wall at the same height at once? Highlight one wall’s top face, then choose SELECTALIGNEDFACES from the Quad’s General group to select every coplanar face at once.

Why does my solid display with red hatches after I change a wall’s dimensions? Its applied composition has locked thickness that no longer matches the solid’s actual thickness; run BIMUPDATETHICKNESS to reapply it correctly.