BIM Mode is where you build and edit the building elements of your model: walls, floor slabs, flooring, ceilings, roofs, columns, beams, doors, windows, staircases, mass objects and furniture. Elements have types and properties, and they feed the project's quantities, so you can track what your design contains as it evolves. Use BIM Mode once your massing is settled, or whenever you want to draw building elements directly.
Before you start
Plan: BIM Mode is available on the Pro, Organization and Enterprise plans. It is not included in the Free or Starter plans. See Managing Licenses and Billing for plan details.
Modes: Snaptrude has four modes, shown as tabs in the centre of the top bar: Program, Design, BIM and Present. Projects open in Design Mode, where you work with spaces. Building elements such as walls, slabs and roofs are drawn in BIM Mode.
Note: Older videos and tutorials may refer to BIM Mode as Automate.
Switch to BIM Mode
Open your project.
In the top bar, click BIM.
BIM-only tools become available: Draw Void (V) and Sketch to BIM in the top toolbar, Doors (D) and Windows (W) in the vertical toolbar on the right edge of the canvas, and the Take-Off tab in the right panel.
Draw a BIM element
In BIM Mode, activate the Draw tool.
In the Object Type panel, choose the element you want to draw, for example Wall, Floor Slab or Roof.
Choose a type for the element (for example Generic Wall) and adjust settings such as thickness if needed.
Click on the canvas to draw. Each element type has its own drawing options; see the element's article for details.
Tip: The Draw tab stays open while you draw, so you can change the object type, thickness or offset mode mid-draw without stopping.
Turn a massing model into BIM
If you have modelled your design as spaces in Design Mode, you don't need to redraw it. Use Sketch to BIM in the top toolbar in BIM Mode to generate building elements such as walls, floor slabs, flooring, roofs, doors and windows from your spaces. Default element types for this conversion are set under BIM settings in the Properties tab of the right panel (External walls, Internal walls, Parapet walls, Floor slab, Plinth, Roof, Flooring and Ceiling). See Sketch to BIM for the full workflow.
Edit BIM elements
Properties panel: Select an element and open the Properties tab in the right panel to change its type, dimensions and story. Floor slabs, flooring, ceilings and roofs also support custom properties.
Construction layers: Walls, slabs, flooring, ceilings and roofs are built from construction layers. The thickness shown in the Properties panel is the sum of the layers, and editing it changes the structure layer. See Construction Layers and Custom Properties.
Right-click menu: Includes Boolean operations, which also work on mass objects in BIM Mode.
Parametric walls: Walls created from spaces with Sketch to BIM stay connected, so moving one updates adjoining walls, junctions and floors. Walls drawn directly or imported from Revit are not parametric, and changing a wall's type, thickness or height makes it non-parametric.
Track quantities and changes
Take-Off: Open the Take-Off tab in the right panel (BIM Mode only) to see quantities of the BIM elements in your model, grouped by category (for example, roofs are their own category). You can also export it from the project menu under Export > Take-off.
Change Logs: A log of changes in the project, available from the project menu under Export > Change Logs.
Doors, windows and families
Doors, windows, staircases and ramps are built on Snaptrude's family system. Each door or window belongs to a family, and editing the family's type parameters updates every matching element while each one keeps its own position. Use Duplicate Family to make an element into its own family, which you can keep in the project or save to your library. Like spaces, BIM objects can be set as an Instance or Unique.
Note: Doors and windows from older projects that predate the family system are not supported and have been removed from the team libraries section. To find doors and windows, click Families in the vertical toolbar on the right edge of the canvas and filter by category.
Element guides
Each BIM element has its own article covering how to draw and edit it:
Walls
Floor Slabs and Roofs (Flat and Sloped)
Flooring and Ceilings
Columns and Beams
Doors and Windows
Staircases and Ramps
Mass Objects (Facade Elements, Pergolas, In-Place Furniture)
Placing and Editing Furniture
Smart Layouts
Construction Layers and Custom Properties
Sketch to BIM
Related articles
Sketch to BIM
Construction Layers and Custom Properties
Managing Licenses and Billing
Keyboard Shortcuts