Views

In CreaBIM a view is a way of looking at the model, kept in the project: a floor plan, a section, an elevation, a 3D view or a schedule. Views are drawn from the model each time, so they never go out of date. They save, undo and update with it.

Kinds of views

• Floor plans: the building cut at a height above a level (the Cut height, usually about 1.2 m) and seen from above. Cut walls are drawn heavy and hatched; doors show their swing. See How plans are drawn.
• Sections and elevations: see Sections and elevations.
• 3D views: saved, parallel 3D views, such as 3D View South-East, to place on sheets. Set the angle with Altitude, and pick a Style.
• Schedules: tables of elements. See Schedules.

Opening a view

• Click it in the project browser: they are grouped as Floor plans, 3D views, Sections, Elevations and Schedules.
• Or pick it in an area's header: the view-type menu, then the view's name.
• Page Up and Page Down step to the previous or next view of the same kind.

The view opens in the area you last worked in. Several areas can show views side by side; see View areas. You can draw and select in any of them with every tool.

The view's settings

The header of the area showing a view holds its settings, and Properties (the View tab, with nothing selected) has the rest:

• Cut height (plans), Depth (sections and elevations) or Altitude (3D views);
• Style (sections, elevations and 3D views): Hidden line, Shaded with edges, or Wireframe, which draws every edge, the hidden ones too. Sheets show the view the same way. Shafts are drawn dashed;
• Hidden and In colour: elements hidden inside others drawn dashed, and tinted in their colour (see Visibility);
• X-ray: see through walls and slabs (see Visibility);
• Drawing style (plans and sections): how what is cut is drawn (see Graphic styles);
• Temporary dimensions (plans): on or off;
• Tag openings: tag every door and window that has no tag;
• Underlay (plans): another level shown faintly underneath;
• Visibility: what this view leaves out.

With nothing selected, Properties shows the same and more, such as the view's scale.

How plans are drawn

Plans follow the usual conventions of permit drawings:

• Line weights step down from heavy to light: cut walls, columns and footings are heaviest, then what is seen below the cut (slab edges, the stair), then symbols (door leaves and swings, window frames), then furniture and fixtures, then hatching. Lines overhead (beams, wall cupboards) are light and dashed. The weights suit the view's scale: heavier at 1:50, lighter at 1:100. They come from the project's style pack.
• Below the cut, furniture, fittings and imported meshes get a light tint of their material's colour under their lines.
• Joins: cut walls and footings of the same material that touch or overlap merge into one outline, with no lines inside.
• Stairs: on its own level, a stair is drawn up to a break line where the plan cuts it. On the level above, the stair is seen through its well, with DN, and the well is not crossed over it. A void's cross runs corner to corner in each part of the opening, so an L-shaped well gets a cross in each leg. On the stair's own level the well above is a dashed outline.
• Roof plans show an arrow down each sloping face with its pitch (35°, or 1:60 for shallow slopes).
• Labels: room names, notes, tags and plain labels are moved off grid lines, section lines, walls and each other to the nearest clear spot. A label moved far gets a leader back to where it was. Grid and section bubbles and dimension text stay where they are. On the command line, creabim label-clashes <model> lists any labels that still overlap.

Plan graphics

A plan's Properties has a Graphics group:

• Tint what lies below the cut, its Strength, and In grey, not material colours.
• View depth: how far below its floor the plan looks through holes in the floor, such as a stair well. Between the floor and the cut is below the cut, drawn in projection. Under the floor, down to the view depth, is beyond. By default the plan looks down to the level below.
• Line weights from the style pack: untick it to set each pen's width in millimetres on paper (cut, projection, symbols, furniture and fixtures, hatching, hidden) for this view only. Sheets, PDF and SVG use the same weights.
• The pen, colour, pattern and hatch of each category are object styles of the project's style pack, and a view can override them: see Graphic styles.
• View range: what levels a plan draws, and the roof or site plan seen from above: see View range.

Ordering the browser

Drag a view up or down in its group. The group then keeps your order (it says Your order); its sort button puts it back in automatic order (plans by level).