Update all this data when changes in the building happen?
Compared to old school quantity take-off from pdf or 2D dwg Bonsai allows you to model the project and extract quantities, it takes less time.
As a bonus at the end you have your data AND a shareable model with some BIM/IFC schema etc. knowledge along the way
Model update? press Shift-Q again ;)
Just don't expect that to happen in a day, a bumpy but doable journey full of surprises!
@JQL said:
How easy is it, either in FreeCAD or Bonsai, to:
"Easy" is quite a subjective word, but I'll try...
I'm assuming you've already set up your titleblock template, and rendering settings.
Create page layouts for plans and sections?
Click a few buttons to select a plan/elevation/section/perspective view to define a Drawing. Tweak the framing and options till happy. Maybe 5 minutes.
"Create" Drawing to check it. One click. Seconds.
Add a new Sheet (page). One click. Set the title and ID. Seconds.
Add the drawing to the Sheet. Select Drawing and Sheet, and click a button. Seconds. Repeat as necessary.
Adjust layout. Click a button, launching Inkscape (or similar SVG editor, your choice). Now arrange the temporary drawing images to set the layout, and save. A few minutes, maybe longer if you want to be artsy.
"Create" sheet to check it. One click. Seconds.
(Worth noting that there are options to bulk generate drawings and sheets, so you can generate many Drawings or Sheets with a couple of clicks.)
Tag meaningful objects on them, like windows, doors, closets, names for spaces?
Easy (if I understand you mean these labels like "D01" on drawings. Part of the annotation tool. A few clicks, probably less than a minute each.
Create dimensions and symbols for slopes, foor heights, areas?
Easy. Part of the annotation tool. A few clicks, probably less than a minute each.
Reference plans and sections to each other in different sheets?
Automatic. When you create a section for example, the annotation is added to the other drawings for you, and will automatically have the page and drawing reference filled into the end bubbles.
Those are the ones I feel able to answer.
Are there tutorials that I might follow that tell us how to do that, or at least videos that show that kind of work being done?
I believe I already provided links to YouTube IfcArchitect. All these things are done in those tutorials.
Adjust layout. Click a button, launching Inkscape (or similar SVG editor, your choice). Now arrange the temporary drawing images to set the layout, and save. A few minutes, maybe longer if you want to be artsy.
So, the output is SVG and if the model changes these SVG drawings are going to change with it?
If we link the SVG to some software that is able to load them as references, are we going to be able to keep refreshing/reloading them?
"Create" sheet to check it. One click. Seconds.
(Worth noting that there are options to bulk generate drawings and sheets, so you can generate many Drawings or Sheets with a couple of clicks.)
Nice! Redoing the model will allow us to refresh the svg files for each drawing? Or will it create new files?
Easy (if I understand you mean these labels like "D01" on drawings. Part of the annotation tool. A few clicks, probably less than a minute each.
Create dimensions and symbols for slopes, foor heights, areas?
Easy. Part of the annotation tool. A few clicks, probably less than a minute each.
A minute each type, like a minute to place all dimensions?
Reference plans and sections to each other in different sheets?
Automatic. When you create a section for example, the annotation is added to the other drawings for you, and will automatically have the page and drawing reference filled into the end bubbles.
Nice!
Those are the ones I feel able to answer.
Are there tutorials that I might follow that tell us how to do that, or at least videos that show that kind of work being done?
I believe I already provided links to YouTube IfcArchitect. All these things are done in those tutorials.
Thanks! I missed those...
@steverugi said:
Compared to old school quantity take-off from pdf or 2D dwg Bonsai allows you to model the project and extract quantities, it takes less time.
As a bonus at the end you have your data AND a shareable model with some BIM/IFC schema etc. knowledge along the way
Model update? press Shift-Q again ;)
Just don't expect that to happen in a day, a bumpy but doable journey full of surprises!
I know the journey will be long. I'm just trying to feel what to expect in the end.
I'm starting to get really convinced this shoud be the way forward!
Adjust layout. Click a button, launching Inkscape (or similar SVG editor, your choice). Now arrange the temporary drawing images to set the layout, and save. A few minutes, maybe longer if you want to be artsy.
So, the output is SVG and if the model changes these SVG drawings are going to change with it?
If we link the SVG to some software that is able to load them as references, are we going to be able to keep refreshing/reloading them?
You make changes to the model. Decide you want to see the updated sheets, so you click a couple of times, and your SVG files in the drawings and sheets subfolders are overwritten with the new svg. How your other app watches and refreshes and external references is up to it. As an IT guy, I can think of a few ways this might break, but I would expect them to be able to auto-detect an updated file and either refresh automatically, or ask if you want to pull the updates.
"Create" sheet to check it. One click. Seconds.
(Worth noting that there are options to bulk generate drawings and sheets, so you can generate many Drawings or Sheets with a couple of clicks.)
Nice! Redoing the model will allow us to refresh the svg files for each drawing? Or will it create new files?
Not 100% sure of the exact mechanism, but technically it is probably a new file in the same folder, with the same filename. (Deep in the weeds here... most apps "open" a file for writing ("w" mode), which is a "new" file. In rare cases they open for appending ("a" mode) then truncate the file to byte 0, and write the new data.)
Easy (if I understand you mean these labels like "D01" on drawings. Part of the annotation tool. A few clicks, probably less than a minute each.
Create dimensions and symbols for slopes, foor heights, areas?
Easy. Part of the annotation tool. A few clicks, probably less than a minute each.
A minute each type, like a minute to place all dimensions?
LOL! No, it's not psychic. Bit more complicated than that. Let me try again. Less than a minute for each annotation, with one caveat. A "dimension" annotation can be a multiple dimensions. You just extrude one of the points out, and you get multiple segments, each of which is a length dimension. So for a typical row of dimensions along one wall, you could do all of them in minute or so, as you just hit E, then X or Y to constrain the direction, and move the mouse and click to place each new dimension stop point. This took like 30 secs:
With snapping you can place them easy and quickly. I haven't used anything else for comparison, but it seems fast and easy to me.
There may be other streamlined annotation workflows that I simply haven't run into yet. Remember, this is written by architects, for architects. If anyone is going to be motivated to make the software fast and easy, it's going to be these guys.
Comments
@JQL
I can only answer to the last two questions
Compared to old school quantity take-off from pdf or 2D dwg Bonsai allows you to model the project and extract quantities, it takes less time.
As a bonus at the end you have your data AND a shareable model with some BIM/IFC schema etc. knowledge along the way
Model update? press Shift-Q again ;)
Just don't expect that to happen in a day, a bumpy but doable journey full of surprises!
"Easy" is quite a subjective word, but I'll try...
I'm assuming you've already set up your titleblock template, and rendering settings.
Click a few buttons to select a plan/elevation/section/perspective view to define a Drawing. Tweak the framing and options till happy. Maybe 5 minutes.
"Create" Drawing to check it. One click. Seconds.
Add a new Sheet (page). One click. Set the title and ID. Seconds.
Add the drawing to the Sheet. Select Drawing and Sheet, and click a button. Seconds. Repeat as necessary.
Adjust layout. Click a button, launching Inkscape (or similar SVG editor, your choice). Now arrange the temporary drawing images to set the layout, and save. A few minutes, maybe longer if you want to be artsy.
"Create" sheet to check it. One click. Seconds.
(Worth noting that there are options to bulk generate drawings and sheets, so you can generate many Drawings or Sheets with a couple of clicks.)
Easy (if I understand you mean these labels like "D01" on drawings. Part of the annotation tool. A few clicks, probably less than a minute each.
Easy. Part of the annotation tool. A few clicks, probably less than a minute each.
Automatic. When you create a section for example, the annotation is added to the other drawings for you, and will automatically have the page and drawing reference filled into the end bubbles.
Those are the ones I feel able to answer.
I believe I already provided links to YouTube IfcArchitect. All these things are done in those tutorials.
Thanks for still bearing with me guys! I hope others are interested in this too.
So, the output is SVG and if the model changes these SVG drawings are going to change with it?
If we link the SVG to some software that is able to load them as references, are we going to be able to keep refreshing/reloading them?
Nice! Redoing the model will allow us to refresh the svg files for each drawing? Or will it create new files?
A minute each type, like a minute to place all dimensions?
Nice!
Thanks! I missed those...
I know the journey will be long. I'm just trying to feel what to expect in the end.
I'm starting to get really convinced this shoud be the way forward!
Thanks!
You make changes to the model. Decide you want to see the updated sheets, so you click a couple of times, and your SVG files in the drawings and sheets subfolders are overwritten with the new svg. How your other app watches and refreshes and external references is up to it. As an IT guy, I can think of a few ways this might break, but I would expect them to be able to auto-detect an updated file and either refresh automatically, or ask if you want to pull the updates.
Not 100% sure of the exact mechanism, but technically it is probably a new file in the same folder, with the same filename. (Deep in the weeds here... most apps "open" a file for writing ("w" mode), which is a "new" file. In rare cases they open for appending ("a" mode) then truncate the file to byte 0, and write the new data.)
LOL! No, it's not psychic. Bit more complicated than that. Let me try again. Less than a minute for each annotation, with one caveat. A "dimension" annotation can be a multiple dimensions. You just extrude one of the points out, and you get multiple segments, each of which is a length dimension. So for a typical row of dimensions along one wall, you could do all of them in minute or so, as you just hit E, then X or Y to constrain the direction, and move the mouse and click to place each new dimension stop point. This took like 30 secs:
With snapping you can place them easy and quickly. I haven't used anything else for comparison, but it seems fast and easy to me.
There may be other streamlined annotation workflows that I simply haven't run into yet. Remember, this is written by architects, for architects. If anyone is going to be motivated to make the software fast and easy, it's going to be these guys.
Awesome @sjb007 , those doubts are clear! Thanks once again!