Blender + Bonsai Tutorial Series Launched — Looking for Contributors

theoryshaw

As you might have saw, I'm excited to have finally launched the Blender/Bonsai tutorial series — built around a real-world pocket neighborhood project. The series is designed to help others learn practical Blender + IFC + Bonsai workflows from the ground up, and I’d love for it to become a shared resource for the OSArch community.

As mentioned in the readme, I’d really like to see this evolve into a broader library of tutorials — contributed by other experts here. Topics like:

• 4D/5D workflows
• Clash detection
• IFCgit - IfcMerge
• Sverchok IFC nodes
• Simple MEP routing
• Environmental/Energy analysis
• Structural workflows
• BCF workflows
• Geo location

...would all be excellent additions.

...
Yes — it’s important we figure out a fair way to share revenue for those who contribute tutorials. I’m open to suggestions, but one idea to start with:
Revenue could be distributed based on the proportion of total video minutes each person contributes — assuming videos are kept concise and to the point (i.e., not watching someone model the same wall ten times 😄).
And again, as mentioned previous and probably the most important part, we will contribute 20% of all revenue to the Bonsai / IfcOpenShell development fund, to support ongoing growth of the platform.
...

The core tutorials are built around a versioned IFC model of a small house: House.ifc

My hope is that contributors can continue to extend and refine this model, whether through prefabrication logic (e.g. wall/floor panels), detailing, systems, costing and/or construction sequencing.

Longer-term, this could become an open-source housing prototype — adaptable to different sites and geographies. With each redevelopment, lessons learned could feed back into the model, improving both design quality and supply chain integration.

It’s not just a learning tool — it could grow into a practical, shared asset for real-world housing delivery. Perhaps, if lucky, a small, but meaningful way to help address the housing crisis.

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Would love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers,
Ryan

theoryshaw

Hi @Nigel,
Would love your perspective on the following…

What are your thoughts on implementing this Wisconsin project in a New Zealand context, using Kāinga Ora’s existing single-family projects (Mosgiel, Ruakākā, Gisborne, Hastings, Tūrangi, Taupō) as reference points for typology, layout, and workflow lessons? Beyond modeling, this pilot could serve as a learning platform for architects, engineers, and consultants, and a way to evolve shared libraries and templates for materials, assemblies, drawing standards, etc.

Things to potentially explore....

• Scaling the Wisconsin model into compact neighborhood clusters
• Adding prefabrication logic (wall/floor panels, roof trusses) to generate construction-ready, reusable plans
• Testing open-source workflows that avoid vendor lock-in while creating fully editable, data-rich models
• Demonstrating lifecycle benefits: long-term maintenance, asset tracking, and retrofit planning
• Encouraging cross-discipline collaboration in real-time, reducing errors and rework
• Rapid prototyping of layout, material, or prefab options for efficiency and sustainability
• Engaging communities and stakeholders with visual, interactive models
• Feeding lessons learned back into the tutorial series and evolving model for future projects
• Opening opportunities for private sector collaboration: By providing a practical, open-source pilot, private contractors, suppliers, and design firms could safely explore prefabrication systems, contribute to libraries/templates, and test alternative construction workflows — with lessons feeding back into the shared model and tutorials, creating a continuous improvement loop

I’d be keen to hear ideas from anyone in the community as well, on how this could evolve collaboratively. Perhaps there are other communities or municipalities that might be open to exploring this approach, as well?

Cheers,
Ryan

Nigel

@theoryshaw Hi, I will need a couple of days to think this through so I can respond intelligently (that being a relative state😉) I do appreciate the challenge, thank you

steverugi

@theoryshaw said:

As mentioned in the readme, I’d really like to see this evolve into a broader library of tutorials — contributed by other experts here. Topics like:

• 4D/5D workflows

I might be interested, I just need 48-hour long days in my life :)

falken10vdl

@theoryshaw I will be happy to contribute one for Solar analysis (once PR https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/pull/6763 is finalized so it reports accurate numbers in all cases).
Cheers!