Live Projects - an exploration. :)
@bruno_perdigao and I are trying our hand on using BlenderBIM on a real project.
The project is small and simple--a barebone permit set for a clothing shop.
If anyone's curious, our project chatroom will be here, and the repo is here.
Through this project we're looking to explore.
- general 2d documentation
- massaging and creating custom title sheets, stylesheets, templates, etc.
- using a LIDAR scan of the existing space, and converting it manually to a BIM model
- explore using @brunopostle's ifc-git plugin to work concurrently on the 'same model'--through merging and revision tracking.
- explore pulling content in from OpeningDesign's revit template, via IFC.
Wish us luck. :)
Happy to take any suggestions or fun little pull requests if you'd like to suggest a tweak to the model.
Cheers.
and 25 others.
Comments
Cool! Good luck the both of you! Hope it will be a smooth ride. Already looking forward to what you will learn and conclusions.
Thanks for the opportunity @theoryshaw. It's exciting to use this workflow in a real project. Hopefully we'll have great insights to share
wow, this is very interesting!
GOOD LUCK! Exciting stuff! I've used it on a few small small projects now but It's just been me, no need for coordination yet hahah so excited to see!
All the best! As always, we're standing by to fix bugs as best as we can, and working hard to build all the features needed to go from alpha to beta!
Using it on actual commercial-standard projects is the best way to drive project development. There is no substitute, and I am a strong believer that Blender succeeded because it had a room of artists sitting next to a room of devs creating their animated shorts (e.g. Elephant's Dream, etc).
This is great @theoryshaw . I was trying out building a retail apparel store project with blenderbim sometime back, couldn't finish it though.
Full admiration here for you willing to invest extra time for the benefit of all!
will be watching closely! (and probably use the files as a testbed for FreeCAD's nativeIFC workflow..)
Good luck! I'm sure you'll do it.
Amazing initiative, good luck!
Any interesting outcomes so far? ?
So far 43 bugs have been reported and 26 have been solved: https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/issues?q=is:issue+author:theoryshaw+created:>2023-04-08+is:open
Transparant 3D spaces! ???
Was relatively simple, just apply an ifcmaterial to them, and give that material somewhat of a transparency.
Would be interesting to codify 'display as wire' into the ifc file somehow, if desired.
Has been an absolute pleasure working with you, @bruno_perdigao, @Andrej730, @Massimo, @brunopostle, and @Coen on this project so far. If this is not what the future of our industry looks like, i'm not sure what does.
Other than that list of github issues, @Moult refers to above (sorry there was so many:)), for other lessons learned, it's best to just read the live conversations we've been having here.
https://app.element.io/#/room/#OD_Clothing_Boutique:matrix.org ( i think if you login, you can see further back in history (forgot to set the correct public history setting in the beginning)
Again, the evolving files, are here:
https://gitlab.com/openingdesign/clothing_boutique
If you're new to git, and gitlab, etc, and use Windows, this workflow might help you dip your toes...
https://hub.openingdesign.com/OpeningDesign/OD_Library/src/branch/master/BIM/Workflow/OD Workflows.md#file-management-on-windows
@theoryshaw
You could write a handbook now with all the knowledge gained ;-)
In the style of the late Chuck Eastman's BIM Handbook.
On this point:
Do you know about git LFS? Could be useful maybe. Especially because they are going to be large files.
Been slowly adding to the book, here, and here.
I can't write it alone. :)
Yes @yorik and I explored this quite a bit awhile back, but unfortuately it does not work well with git-crypt, which we use a lot, to encrypt sensitive material from clients and/or consultants.
If you want to go down the rabbit hole:
Github has a low file size limit to stop people uploading movies. Git itself seems to be ok with larger IFC files.
Thanks to all of you! Working on a real project in this collaborative way has been very exciting and i hope it will be done again in future!
It's impressive how far BlenderBIM has been developed. Despite all the challenges of working with an alpha software, it definitely feels like it's closer to be a viable option for authoring BIM. For true power users like @theoryshaw it already is!
It was, thank you for the support! If interested, @bruno_perdigao and I started another very small, simple project--adding a deck and porch onto an existing residence.
Here's the chat room and the repo is here.
Just thought I'd share some stats for those interested. But first, here's the finished sheet you can see in their repository! The demo plan, new construction plan, and details were done from the BlenderBIM Add-on.
In total, 52 bugs were reported and 36 were fixed (69%). Naturally, even though the project has finished, we'll continue to hunt and fix those remaining bugs. Bugs were roughly split 40-40-20 into improvements (e.g. feature requests), actual bugs (existing features that didn't function the way it was meant to), and other (not a bug, or who knows).
Let's see a breakdown of those bugs. Of the improvements requested, most were new feature requests. A few were already planned or known that it needed to be implemented, but it was great to learn about what were missing things that really needed to be implemented to make users able to achieve commercial output. Some of these features were just usability improvements - not that they are any less important, usability plays a huge role in whether a tool is practical to use.
Of the bugs, a few were actually critical bugs - things that were showstoppers like crashes, freezes, data loss, or just so ridiculously important that they needed to be fixed immediately. These were all fixed. The remainder were evenly split between regular old bugs, and bugs of features that were not yet battle-tested and work-in-progress during this release cycle.
Finally, there were a few "not a bug". These can't really be ignored either, because it implies there is a "Huh!?" moment somewhere - either a usability issue, misleading UX, or something else that is not so easy to pin down, but still needs to be resolved somehow.
All funds received ($200) will 100% go towards further development of the BlenderBIM Add-on.
This looks like a really great project! - It's really interesting to look inside the source files and see how things are done. I was wondering if it would be ok if I used this project to make some demo/showcase files for my BBIM2ARM addon? Especially since the size and scale is perfect for tutorials too
Of course, it's all open source! Actually look forward to the spinoffs! Makes it fun.
If interested, the following is another project we just started where we're using BB. It's another small project where we're converting an existing commercial tenant into a dwelling unit (apartment)
I'm working with @chopinregis, whom I've worked with many years. He's got mad Blender skills, but he's new to BB. If you read the chat channel there's a lot quick video tutorial snippets to help him get up to speed... which might help others too.
@chopinregis and I started another small project-- a renovation of a salon renovation.
Also working with @bruno_perdigao and @chopinregis on the following restaurant renovation
An animation of the evolving design...
A few snapshots of the evolving drawings, from the various projects...
Incredible work, impressive how much can be achieved despite the alpha nature of things! How much was pure BBIM and how much was other software? How much was "the sorta BIM way" and how much was "ahh it doesn't work let's hack it together"? :) Just a gut feel :)