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BlenderBIM documentation on the wiki

duncanduncan
in General

I just had a chat with @Moult about ways to better organize the BlenderBIM pages on the wiki. He agrees with me that using the wikimedia 'wikibooks' functionality would be good. It allows for organizing pages in a hierarchy and makes automatic lists of content. Here's an example from a book I started many years ago: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Straw_Bale_Construction

So this means we'd need to think a bit about how to organize pages/subpages. Here are the pages we have in the category https://wiki.osarch.org/index.php?title=Category:BlenderBIM_Add-on

Keep in mind: this is not IfcOpenShell documentation, it is also not Blender documentation.

I was going to look at how to fit the pages we have into a structure, but actually I think it's better to design the structure first. So here's a start, what do you think?

BlenderBIM Add-on introduction

  • Installation

  • First steps

    • Why Blender?
    • Mesh modelling for BIM
    • What is IFC & Native IFC?
    • Tutorials (BIM Voice etc)
      The toolkit

  • What is IfcOpenShell?

  • Toolkit overview

    • IFC Project
    • IFC Links
    • IFC Project Library
    • ... etc through the interface. What we have we add, what we don't we add a stub. This makes it easy for new content to start in exactly the right place.
      Producing drawings
      ... maybe this is just a placeholder for later documentation?
      OpenBIM workflows

  • Working with FreeCAD

  • Working with DXF files

  • Working with Inkscape & Krita
    Bringing Open Source BIM to proprietary software

  • Working with Revit

  • Working with ArchiCAD
Tagged:
CoenMassimoCadGiru

Comments

  • CoenCoen

    Keep in mind: this is not IfcOpenShell documentation, it is also not Blender documentation.

    I think it would be quite a challenge separating and making a clear distinction between Blender documentation and BlenderBIM add-on documentation. They are so integrated. Especially the use of modifiers/scaling/rotating and exporting to IFC with the BlenderBIM add-on.
    I think sometimes it's unavoidable.

  • duncanduncan

    @Coen but the distinction must be made - even though it's hard. Of course there would be a lot of linking to Blender documentaiton about how to do geometry. But BlenderBIM is agnostic about geometry (please feel free to correct me) and is all about adding functionality for data & documentation to the modelling tools Blender already has.
    In my view any time there needs to be explanation of non-trivial modeling issues then we should refer to the relevant section of the Blender documentation. We cannot duplicate documentation from other projects.
    I don't see it as the role of BlenderBIM to teach people Blender. Am I making sense?
    (hey it would be nice to see you matrix ... )

    Coenjchkoch
  • CoenCoen

    @duncan
    You are making a lot of sense, talking from my own personal experience. I would have never bothered learning Blender if the BlenderBIM add-on didn't exist. Then I discovered there is so much possible with Blender: Archipack, PointCloud Visualizer, Python API etc.
    It would make indeed sense that the distinction between Blender and other helpful add-ons is made.

    duncan
  • NigelNigel

    good discussion, there is some middle ground between BlenderBIM and Blender generic. I would call this Blender architectural modelling and documentation. This is where Spreadsheet Writer, Archipack, Construction Lines and other Addons as well as building related geometry node set ups would reside. As a novice to Blender, I have found a wealth of great tools but the search for these was often difficult, I would like to think that could be easier for others in the future. Also, I have discovered some good Youtubers who have helped me learn Arch modelling, it would be great if we can direct people to specific videos and/or parts of videos that teach how to do specific arch modelling tasks. I have watched hours of videos to find some gems of knowledge.

  • duncanduncan

    @Nigel said: Blender architectural modelling and documentation.

    You're so right there is a lack of organization around that topic as well. It might be that is a book for itself or part one of the BlenderBIM book. @Moult what's your take on this? Is BBIM going to be integrated into what we can call architectural modelling in Blender? That's the idea right?

    I feel like for now we should promote a guide to the relevant Add-ins that specialize in this field. For now there is the BlenderAdd-on page with some links

  • NigelNigel

    Hi @Duncan I was looking at https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Shelf:Computer_software I see several Blender based books in various stages of development. Is wikibooks what we are using for this project?
    Would a single book be sufficient? Blender - Architectural Modelling & Drawing that is broken down by architectural tasks then each task has one or more suggested method/solution that may or may not include Addons, Node Trees, YouTube links, scripts etc.
    as an example...
    Stairs
    Archipack with a link to video demonstration
    Geometry Nodes stair design with link to .blend for download
    and so on
    We can add solutions we find to each task so anyone needing a solution can find some options and it will also highlight 'missing' solutions so developers can address these.

  • duncanduncan

    @Nigel I feel like whatever catches peoples enthusiasm is the way to go. If the book becomes too big then it can be split at some point. There are a few similar projects out there for architecture. So I feel that lots of links would be fine (if this is not duplicating effort) but I think maybe we should focus on BBIM? Lots of people are getting exciting about architecture and making content, but BIM doesn't really figure on their radar from what I've seen. It's mostly design proposals and sketch projects.

    I like your example with stairs and being quite specific.

    Wikibooks is mostly just using standard mediawiki systems. There is an extension I haven't looked at much which gives more control of tables of contents and things like that. To be honest I'm not at all sure that wikibooks is the best way forward - but it's the technology I know so I'm using it to organize what we already have. I would not be at all surprised if there is a much better solution out there from a technical perspective. But I am a firm believer that the best tool is the one people can use. Notice also in that wikibook the PDF and print versions which collect everything on one page & PDF. That's also a great option for refactoring and tidying up.

    @tetov we should think about making a new namespace on the wiki "Books"?

    Maybe we should try and get the different people who are working with Blender for Architecture together for a chat to find common ground? Are you up for making a list here or somewhere of resources and the people behind them? How about a subpage of [[Blender]] about "Blender in AEC" and starting to collect things there? There are things in other places on the wiki already that just need to be better organized.
    There are some structural and organizational issues we should thing hard about before we jump ... but starting a list is always good and takes time.

  • duncanduncan

    @Nigel re stairs: https://abaga.gumroad.com/l/BbGVh https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6894454476409856000/

  • NigelNigel

    Hi @Duncan I am making a geo node tree for stairs that comply with NZBC as a learning experience so the link will be helpful.

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