This is really awesome! Such a promising project. I wish I have the funds to support it so it will develop faster. The architecture world needs affordable option for BIM software as it is the future of architecture program.
Thanks for this overview! It is much easier to understand now. It would be useful to show how to convert regular blender objects to IFC with the new interface
Great update. Thanks a lot for your videos! Could you make a tutorial on how to attribute IFC properties to custom elements? For instance, if one creates an object with geometry nodes and wishes to use the bim tools with such an object.
I think the current workflow for this is: 1) Create this kind of object with modifier; 2) Assign IFC class to it in Object Information -> Object Metadata. 3) At this point object saved to IFC with its current mesh representation but you need to be aware that it won't be automatically saved to IFC on every change in modifiers (e.g. geo nodes) - so you can tweak it and then update it's IFC representation: Geometry and Materials -> Representations -> Representation Utilities -> Convert to Tesselation. Similar workflow can be used working with Archipack addon parametric geometry. If you're interested in more like procedurally creating different IFC objects on the fly you might be interested in IfcSverchok
Hi, when you resize the window by adding the parametric geometry, the parameters apply to all windows I have created. How can I resize only one window correctly?
Hi user, if you want to have different window sizes they need to be separate 'types' I thik what has happened is that you have used the same window type throughout the project, so create a new window type for each type of window you want.
amazing update! btw do you have a video on the parametric window that you show cased at the end? I would love to learn more about it as I was fighting with creating multiple windows for a project and ended up doing a separate blender nodes script and exporting each one to a type !
Hello @IfcArchitect, thank you for your videos. I've noticed that this update has lost the simple parametric stair's editor that you showed in your video Stairs & storeys. If you create an IFC stair and go to the Parametric Geometry>Array section, it's not there. What's there doesn't seem very clear for now.
Hi! It's still there in Paramteric Geometry but the catch is that object needs to be IfcStairFlight or IfcStairFlightType not IfcStair. In IFC IfcStair is used to aggregate the entire stair including stairflight, landing (IfcSlab probably), railing etc.
Thank you very much for this and all the videos you made. they are the De Facto documentation form BlenderBIM. When you add a window parameters in an existing window type, it seems it loses the materials. How can I edit the materials back to what they were?
Sorry for the late reply Alexandre, I'm glad you've found these useful. At the moment the materials are a bit fragmented and under serious development. It would be best to consider Blender materials and Ifc materials as 2 different unrelated entities that need to be independently assigned and managed Unfortunately at the moment that is how it works, but the developers are working hard to align the two systems. Any help including constructive feedback is more than welcome!
Thank you for the introduction into the amazing new update! Could you tackle the IFC schematics and how to implement these in your BlenderBIM IFC project?
it is very promising to see BlenderBIM advancing! I would like to see a demontration of precise modelling, how you do it and how much of a hassle it is compared to Archicad or Revit, for example. for me it has the potential to check IFC files generated elsewhere, and the construction scheduling capabilities look awesome, but the design authoring is something for which I rely on Archicad at the moment, it takes just way too long for me to get anything decent out of it, drawing-wise. do you plan to document an example project (some well-known and well-documented building) from scratch with BlenderBIM?
That is exactly the plan, going to do something simple at first and then maybe we will have a poll later on to decide on a more famous and complicated example.
CADSketcher is great for precision modeling. I have found that BlenderBIM's 2d line take-off from mesh objects created with CADSketcher is riddled with unwanted (or missing) lines.
i think when creating walls . it can be created using snap and vertex as it well automatically snap to the any verts of any mesh created in object mode, or lock using xyz.
Thank you for sharing. Will very much appreciated you share how to array window with boolean and material still intact. It looks like the array windows do not has boolean applied on its.
HI Danny, at the moment this is not possible but you can definitely put in a feature request here on the Github page: github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/issues This is an evolving software and arraying windows sounds very useful, the developers are very responsive
Hi Dhiren, You can find it here: 1) select the camera 2) Go to Properties 3) Go to Object information 4) Scroll down to Object property sets 5) Click on the pencil icon (enable pset editing) 6) Scroll down to 'Metric precision' 7) Make your changes and save and voila
Hello, I need to make a structural draw of my house. And for that, I'd love to use a tool made for it and not only blender modeling. But I have right now one problem, my beams and column are basicly all warren trusses. How to draw that ? ^^' I can make a normal close beam instead. But I'd love to be precise. Thank you for your tutorials.
Hi Florent, you can import those geometries and reclassify them as beams and columns using Blenderbim, that would be the most efficient method if you have already modelled everything
How can I change the thickness of a slab with this new interface? I've been following your excellent Basic Office Unit, but I got stuck in changing the thickness of the roof slab, I cannot find the option in the new Blender Bin UI. Can you help?
Great Video, thank you. My UI does not look like yours? I am using Blender v. 3.6.2 Blenderbim v. 0230915 on Windows 10 64. I am missing all the door types and windows etc. I tried to re install both blender and blenderbim no luck. any suggestions. thanks.
Hi the door and window types are part of the 'template' that is included when you start a 'demo' file, So when you create the ifc file, which I show here: ua-cam.com/video/tpQjRjB1wnU/v-deo.htmlsi=jLk_-2I4UbIb6cof&t=196 Where it says 'template' you need to select the "Ifc4 demo Library" Hope that helps
The only thing seems tedious is creating walls, it would be much easier if you could extrude walls instead of moving 3d cursor everytime and know the exact dimensions of wall that is needed
I agree that having options is great and coming from a cad background extruding walls makes sense, the current method does work quite well and is very fast, If you have ideas in mind to develop the workflow why not create a proposal on the OSArch forum: community.osarch.org/
For myself as an Architect I use BlenderBim and other free tools and they have replaced Autocad, Sketchup and Revit completely. Regarding FreeCAD it's not really competing but complementing in my opinion. There are a few other professionals on the OSArch forum who are using Blenderbim in there day to day aswell: community.osarch.org/discussions So short answer is yes, Medium answer is, it already has but only for those who have the knowledge (which is why I make these videos, to grow the number) Long answer is, eventually it might create it's own niche and be a huge player in the market, it might completely out compete the other software but that would require industry take up, which has to do with regulations and coordination more than price, I believe.
@@IfcArchitect question: when modeling in blender how can you then create later the construction drawings? In Revit I know that you can define wall types and the app produces the drawings for you. I very agree with industry upstate - I would love for sketchCrap to be dropped and blender be embraced. I teach in interior and industrial design.
@@cekuhnen Essentially you take the geometry and classify it as the correct IfcClass and type, it's not parametric but it should cut and display it correctly. eg: 1) model a wall shape 2) select and classify it as an Ifcwall -> elemented wall 3) assign an Ifc material 4) print the drawing and it should work I will make a video on classifying elements as IfcClasses to show the process but it is as simple as that.
@@IfcArchitect wow that is huge - so BlenderBIM has its down drawing module build in like REVIT where you model and based on specifications later it creates correct drawings.
Hello. It's impossible to creat a drawing. I'm a begginer with CAD. I started Freecad 3 month ago and it's always working like it should. Not quite the same thing with BlenderBim
Hi Fabien, Blenderbim is a constantly updating program, if you would like to try again, I'd reccomend using Blender 4.1 and Blenderbim 24.06.02 (the last stable release) It should give you a more responsive experience, let me know if that helps I use these tools everyday so I can confirm that with familiarity you can produce consistent results, but I completely understand how daunting a changing software is to learn. Good luck with freecad, it is also an excellent tool
Ok wait - is this different from the normal Blender. Or is it simply just creating new UI workspace under that BIM tab at the top of a normal Blender version?
It's the latter, it's just creating a new UI workspace, that will load by default, changes the save function to prioritize Ifc files and loads all the Blenderbim functions under the Scene properties tab
Hi Franz, you can modify the wall by adjusting the 'x' angle in the wall tool, if you want Portuguese Blender tutorials Alan Britto is a great resource: www.blender3darchitect.com/profile/admin-2-2-2/
Hi fun, BIM stands for Building Information Modelling and IFC stands for Industry Foundation Classes, these are AECO (Architecture, Engineering, Construction & Operations) terms and it is totally ok if you aren't familiar with them, if you want a sort of deep dive you can watch the first 10mins of this video to get an explanation: ua-cam.com/video/ZyRzAX4x-FQ/v-deo.html It is a full course, but I start with simple explanations and examples of Bim, Open source and IFC
Competing with big CAD systems will be hard I think, since this all seems like they are just laying the ground work. But even Revit is nothing without 3rd party Add-Ins. I wonder how well a plugin for a plugin would work. 🤔
Why not? Blender has bunch of default plugins that define some "custom" operators and they can be easily reused in other plugins. BlenderBIM is no different.
Hi Dhiren I don't work in imperial so I'm not as aware of the imperial bugs like this defaulting to feet, but it seems it is a bug and it's being worked on, it has been reported here: github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/issues/3731
impressive improvement, kudos to the developers and many thanks to you for showcasing it
Awesome video! This is definitely my favorite update of BlenderBIM so far. The cleanup of the right-side menu, is most welcome.
Very cool update... and very cool tutorial !
i'll produce a tutorial on it in italian....as soon as possibile ...
Please do!
This is really awesome! Such a promising project. I wish I have the funds to support it so it will develop faster. The architecture world needs affordable option for BIM software as it is the future of architecture program.
the teaching passion of your about BBIM is reflected in how simple you explained the things.
Awesome progress! I hope they give special care with documentation in some point. Your videos are the best for BlenderBIM.
Thanks for this overview! It is much easier to understand now. It would be useful to show how to convert regular blender objects to IFC with the new interface
Great video, thank you! I just had a recording on the same topic but with a bit different approach. I hope you'll enjoy it :)
It's a great video and It's linked in the description ;)
Wow! Awesome leap forward!
thats awesome features ill go check blender hehe
Great update. Thanks a lot for your videos! Could you make a tutorial on how to attribute IFC properties to custom elements? For instance, if one creates an object with geometry nodes and wishes to use the bim tools with such an object.
Great suggestion!
I think the current workflow for this is:
1) Create this kind of object with modifier;
2) Assign IFC class to it in Object Information -> Object Metadata.
3) At this point object saved to IFC with its current mesh representation but you need to be aware that it won't be automatically saved to IFC on every change in modifiers (e.g. geo nodes) - so you can tweak it and then update it's IFC representation:
Geometry and Materials -> Representations -> Representation Utilities -> Convert to Tesselation.
Similar workflow can be used working with Archipack addon parametric geometry.
If you're interested in more like procedurally creating different IFC objects on the fly you might be interested in IfcSverchok
Great job. Ty
This is just incredible!👍
Hi, when you resize the window by adding the parametric geometry, the parameters apply to all windows I have created. How can I resize only one window correctly?
Hi user, if you want to have different window sizes they need to be separate 'types' I thik what has happened is that you have used the same window type throughout the project, so create a new window type for each type of window you want.
amazing update! btw do you have a video on the parametric window that you show cased at the end? I would love to learn more about it as I was fighting with creating multiple windows for a project and ended up doing a separate blender nodes script and exporting each one to a type !
It's very straightforward, I will do a short video next week!
Thanks for clear tutorial 👌
Hello @IfcArchitect, thank you for your videos. I've noticed that this update has lost the simple parametric stair's editor that you showed in your video Stairs & storeys. If you create an IFC stair and go to the Parametric Geometry>Array section, it's not there. What's there doesn't seem very clear for now.
Hi Josep, thanks for the comment let me have a check and I'll report it as a bug
Hi! It's still there in Paramteric Geometry but the catch is that object needs to be IfcStairFlight or IfcStairFlightType not IfcStair.
In IFC IfcStair is used to aggregate the entire stair including stairflight, landing (IfcSlab probably), railing etc.
Thanks for the update!
@@andrey730
Thank you very much @@andrey730
Thank you very much for this and all the videos you made. they are the De Facto documentation form BlenderBIM. When you add a window parameters in an existing window type, it seems it loses the materials. How can I edit the materials back to what they were?
Sorry for the late reply Alexandre, I'm glad you've found these useful.
At the moment the materials are a bit fragmented and under serious development.
It would be best to consider Blender materials and Ifc materials as 2 different unrelated entities that need to be independently assigned and managed
Unfortunately at the moment that is how it works, but the developers are working hard to align the two systems.
Any help including constructive feedback is more than welcome!
Thank you for the introduction into the amazing new update! Could you tackle the IFC schematics and how to implement these in your BlenderBIM IFC project?
it is very promising to see BlenderBIM advancing!
I would like to see a demontration of precise modelling, how you do it and how much of a hassle it is compared to Archicad or Revit, for example.
for me it has the potential to check IFC files generated elsewhere, and the construction scheduling capabilities look awesome, but the design authoring is something for which I rely on Archicad at the moment, it takes just way too long for me to get anything decent out of it, drawing-wise.
do you plan to document an example project (some well-known and well-documented building) from scratch with BlenderBIM?
That is exactly the plan, going to do something simple at first and then maybe we will have a poll later on to decide on a more famous and complicated example.
CADSketcher is great for precision modeling. I have found that BlenderBIM's 2d line take-off from mesh objects created with CADSketcher is riddled with unwanted (or missing) lines.
i think when creating walls . it can be created using snap and vertex as it well automatically snap to the any verts of any mesh created in object mode, or lock using xyz.
ty for the overview =)
wouuu..excelent work..thanks.
Thank you for sharing. Will very much appreciated you share how to array window with boolean and material still intact. It looks like the array windows do not has boolean applied on its.
HI Danny, at the moment this is not possible but you can definitely put in a feature request here on the Github page:
github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/issues
This is an evolving software and arraying windows sounds very useful, the developers are very responsive
where is Unit precision (Measurement round off)?
It was available in previous version.
Hi Dhiren,
You can find it here:
1) select the camera
2) Go to Properties
3) Go to Object information
4) Scroll down to Object property sets
5) Click on the pencil icon (enable pset editing)
6) Scroll down to 'Metric precision'
7) Make your changes and save and voila
@@IfcArchitect Great, thanks
awesome
Hi.I would like to ask where I can get an add-on 3d view CAD transform?
Hi you can get it here:
blender-archipack.gumroad.com/l/nQVcS
Hello,
I need to make a structural draw of my house. And for that, I'd love to use a tool made for it and not only blender modeling.
But I have right now one problem, my beams and column are basicly all warren trusses. How to draw that ? ^^' I can make a normal close beam instead. But I'd love to be precise.
Thank you for your tutorials.
Hi Florent, you can import those geometries and reclassify them as beams and columns using Blenderbim, that would be the most efficient method if you have already modelled everything
thank you!
i get error with installing blenderim and it says: "Warning: Policy violation with sys.path: .\libs\site\packages" . how do i resolve this?
Had the same issue with Blender 4.2. Installed Blender version 4.1 and installed BlenderBIM and the error did not occur.
This is the right approach, because of how Extensions work on 4.2 I would recommend using blender 4.1 for now until the next stable release
How can I change the thickness of a slab with this new interface? I've been following your excellent Basic Office Unit, but I got stuck in changing the thickness of the roof slab, I cannot find the option in the new Blender Bin UI. Can you help?
Hi Septruiz, The slab thickness can now be changed in:
Geometry and Materials
/ Materials
/ Object Material
@@IfcArchitect Thank you for your help; that worked; I am still confused by new UI.
Great Video, thank you. My UI does not look like yours? I am using Blender v. 3.6.2 Blenderbim v. 0230915 on Windows 10 64. I am missing all the door types and windows etc. I tried to re install both blender and blenderbim no luck. any suggestions. thanks.
Hi the door and window types are part of the 'template' that is included when you start a 'demo' file,
So when you create the ifc file, which I show here:
ua-cam.com/video/tpQjRjB1wnU/v-deo.htmlsi=jLk_-2I4UbIb6cof&t=196
Where it says 'template' you need to select the "Ifc4 demo Library"
Hope that helps
Very helpful, thank you. I appreciate your prompt reply. I am new to all this there is so much to learn. Keep up the good work. Cheers,
The only thing seems tedious is creating walls, it would be much easier if you could extrude walls instead of moving 3d cursor everytime and know the exact dimensions of wall that is needed
I agree that having options is great and coming from a cad background extruding walls makes sense, the current method does work quite well and is very fast, If you have ideas in mind to develop the workflow why not create a proposal on the OSArch forum:
community.osarch.org/
good job
I am curious to what degree blenderBIM can replace Autocad / FreeCAD or Revit and if yes to what degree.
I am not an architect but I am curious.
For myself as an Architect I use BlenderBim and other free tools and they have replaced Autocad, Sketchup and Revit completely.
Regarding FreeCAD it's not really competing but complementing in my opinion. There are a few other professionals on the OSArch forum who are using Blenderbim in there day to day aswell:
community.osarch.org/discussions
So short answer is yes,
Medium answer is, it already has but only for those who have the knowledge (which is why I make these videos, to grow the number)
Long answer is, eventually it might create it's own niche and be a huge player in the market, it might completely out compete the other software but that would require industry take up, which has to do with regulations and coordination more than price, I believe.
@@IfcArchitect question: when modeling in blender how can you then create later the construction drawings?
In Revit I know that you can define wall types and the app produces the drawings for you.
I very agree with industry upstate - I would love for sketchCrap to be dropped and blender be embraced.
I teach in interior and industrial design.
@@cekuhnen Essentially you take the geometry and classify it as the correct IfcClass and type, it's not parametric but it should cut and display it correctly.
eg:
1) model a wall shape
2) select and classify it as an Ifcwall -> elemented wall
3) assign an Ifc material
4) print the drawing and it should work
I will make a video on classifying elements as IfcClasses to show the process but it is as simple as that.
@@IfcArchitect wow that is huge - so BlenderBIM has its down drawing module build in like REVIT where you model and based on specifications later it creates correct drawings.
Hello. It's impossible to creat a drawing. I'm a begginer with CAD. I started Freecad 3 month ago and it's always working like it should. Not quite the same thing with BlenderBim
Hi Fabien, Blenderbim is a constantly updating program, if you would like to try again, I'd reccomend using Blender 4.1 and Blenderbim 24.06.02 (the last stable release)
It should give you a more responsive experience, let me know if that helps
I use these tools everyday so I can confirm that with familiarity you can produce consistent results, but I completely understand how daunting a changing software is to learn. Good luck with freecad, it is also an excellent tool
Ok wait - is this different from the normal Blender. Or is it simply just creating new UI workspace under that BIM tab at the top of a normal Blender version?
It's the latter, it's just creating a new UI workspace, that will load by default, changes the save function to prioritize Ifc files and loads all the Blenderbim functions under the Scene properties tab
why I can't create drawing?
Como puedo modificar el ancho del muro 😢😢😢😢
Hi Franz, you can modify the wall by adjusting the 'x' angle in the wall tool, if you want Portuguese Blender tutorials Alan Britto is a great resource:
www.blender3darchitect.com/profile/admin-2-2-2/
an we change the color of the icons?
At the moment I think not, but in the future we could definitely make a feature request
Am I the only one thinking what is a BIM; what does IFC stand for?
Hi fun, BIM stands for Building Information Modelling and IFC stands for Industry Foundation Classes, these are AECO (Architecture, Engineering, Construction & Operations) terms and it is totally ok if you aren't familiar with them, if you want a sort of deep dive you can watch the first 10mins of this video to get an explanation:
ua-cam.com/video/ZyRzAX4x-FQ/v-deo.html
It is a full course, but I start with simple explanations and examples of Bim, Open source and IFC
Competing with big CAD systems will be hard I think, since this all seems like they are just laying the ground work.
But even Revit is nothing without 3rd party Add-Ins. I wonder how well a plugin for a plugin would work. 🤔
Why not? Blender has bunch of default plugins that define some "custom" operators and they can be easily reused in other plugins. BlenderBIM is no different.
🤩🤩🤩🤩
Umm it is nice but I like blenders default interface. Because I am used to with that.
it doesn't force BIM layout though, so you can still stick to the layout from your default blender scene
When units set to inches
12" shows as 1'-0"
all other dimensions are OK
Hi Dhiren I don't work in imperial so I'm not as aware of the imperial bugs like this defaulting to feet, but it seems it is a bug and it's being worked on, it has been reported here:
github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/issues/3731
@@IfcArchitect OK,
However, this only affects 12"
and do not affect 24" or 36" so on
This is just to inform
Thank You
This looks verry promissing
❤❤❤❤