How to Check Spelling in BricsCAD

Quick answer: SPELL checks the spelling of text in the current drawing, either a selection of text entities or the entire thing, matching words against the current main and custom dictionaries. Only the English dictionary ships by default, since it can be freely distributed while other languages can’t, though you can download additional ones for free separately.

Dictionary Settings

DCTMAIN and DCTCUST define which main and custom dictionaries SPELL uses. Custom dictionaries are useful for discipline-specific vocabulary that wouldn’t otherwise be recognized.

Opening the Spell Checking Dialog

Choose Check Spelling from the Tools menu, click Check Spelling on the Annotate/Text ribbon panel, or run SPELL.

Checking Spelling

1. Open the Spell Checking dialog.
2. Optionally click Select to build a specific selection set; skip this, and the entire drawing gets checked instead. The dialog closes temporarily while you select, right-click to finish, and the Where to check field then reads “Current Selection” instead of “Entire Drawing”.
3. Optionally change your dictionaries (see below).
4. Click Start; the first possibly misspelled word appears in the Current word section, and the Context field shows the containing text entity’s content.
5. Choose how to handle it: Ignore (leave this instance unchanged), Ignore All (leave every instance unchanged), Change (replace this instance with whatever’s accepted or selected in Suggestions), Change All (replace every instance the same way), Add (add the word to your current custom dictionary), or Lookup (list words similar to the current Suggestions entry).
6. Repeat until the “Spelling check is complete” message appears.

Changing Dictionaries

1. Open the Spell Checking dialog.
2. Click Change Dictionaries…; the Change Dictionaries dialog opens.
3. Click the Main dictionary list button.
4. Select a new main dictionary.
5. Optionally click Browse… to select a new custom dictionary.
6. Optionally type a word into the Custom dictionary words field and click Add to include it in the current custom dictionary.
7. Click Apply & Close.

Custom dictionaries are best saved in the Support folder of the Roamable root folder. To share a dictionary with Microsoft Word, point step 5 at Word’s own custom dictionary instead, by default, CUSTOM.DIC at C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Proof\CUSTOM.DIC.

Adding a New Main Dictionary

1. Open the Spell Checking dialog.
2. Click Change Dictionaries…
3. Click Download…; your browser opens to https://extensions.openoffice.org/dictionaries.
4. Scroll to your language of choice and click its link.
5. Click Download extension to get the .oxt file.
6. Rename the .oxt extension to .zip.
7. Extract the .aff and .dic files from that ZIP into C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD Vx\Support.

The new dictionary then appears in the Main Dictionary list in the Change Dictionaries dialog.

Adding a New Custom Dictionary

1. Open a text editor, such as Notepad.
2. Optionally type your custom words, one per line.
3. Save the file with a .cus extension, in the Support folder of the Roamable root folder.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does BricsCAD only ship with an English dictionary? Licensing, the English dictionary can be freely distributed, while other languages can’t be included the same way. You can still download additional languages for free separately.

How do I permanently ignore a specific instance of a flagged word without adding it to a dictionary? Click Ignore for just that instance, or Ignore All to skip every instance of that word for the rest of the check.

Can I use the same custom dictionary in both BricsCAD and Microsoft Word? Yes, point BricsCAD’s custom dictionary setting at Word’s own CUSTOM.DIC file to share vocabulary between the two.

What file format does a custom dictionary use? A plain text file with a .cus extension, one word per line, saved in the Support folder of the Roamable root folder.