FCB Lounge FreeCAD tutorials

This tutorial provides an overview of IFC modes in FreeCAD. First released in FreeCAD 1.0, users can utilize these modes with regard to IFC modeling:

  • Native FreeCAD mode
  • Strict IFC mode (Locked mode)
  • Hybrid IFC mode (Unlocked mode)

Tagged:
emiliotassoShegssteverugipaulleeGerardTF_RosaCadGiruMeetlatAceDarth_Blenderand 1 other.

Comments

  • This video follows the previous one and explains options that the user has of opening or importing an IFC file to FreeCAD.

    steverugipaulleeMeetlatemiliotassoDarth_Blender
  • This is how I search for the correct IFC classes of objects:

    ShegspaulleesteverugiNigelKoAraMassimoGorgiousCadGiruemiliotassoDarth_Blender
  • Tutorial on placing doors and windows in FreeCAD:

    bitacovirsteverugiDarth_Blender
  • This is a tutorial for FreeCAD BIM beginners. Creating a small garage building is demonstrated. Among the covered topics are:

    • Creation of exterior and interior walls
    • Wall alignment
    • Creation of project structure – Site, Building, Storey
    • Creation of floor slab
    • Placing windows and basics of window presets
    • Placing doors basics of door presets
    • Placing sanitary equipment from separate file
    • Creation of gable roof
    • Extending walls to the roof
    • Creating BIM objects based on sketch – driveway and the lawn
    • Changing colors of BIM objects
    • Assigning correct IFC classes to objects

    steverugipaulleeDarth_BlenderemiliotassoMassimozoomeratomkarincaNigelbitacovir
  • This video provides a theoretical overview of the two main available workflows for FreeCAD BIM users to create 2D construction documents from their 3D model.

    Darth_Blendersteverugiemiliotassobitacoviratomkarinca
  • This tutorial provides a basic overview of creating a very simple site plan drawing from a 3D model in FreeCAD using the Tech Draw workbench tools.

    bitacovirsteverugipaulleeviktoratomkarincaAceDarth_Blender
  • FreeCAD Tech Draw workbench currently (as of FreeCAD 1.0) does not provide many symbols, which are typical in the AEC world. This video shows how to create a custom elevation height symbol for use in FreeCAD. The software used for the SVG symbol creation is Inkscape.

    Massimopaulleeaditio123steverugicarlopavatomkarincaDarth_Blender
  • This video provides an overview of architectural section plane in FreeCAD BIM. This is very powerful tool, which can be used a basis for creation plans, sections and elevations.

    viktorsteverugipaulleebitacovirDarth_Blender
  • Wall alignment in FreeCAD BIM is explained in this quick tip video.

    steverugiduarteframosDarth_BlenderbitacovirAce
  • edited March 4

    This tutorial shows how to create a floor plan drawing from a 3D model in FreeCAD BIM.

    steverugiAcepaulleeNigelDarth_Blenderemiliotassowalpaatomkarinca
  • This video shows basics of editing of Slab object in FreeCAD:

    steverugipaulleeatomkarinca
  • This short video shows how to move and edit doors and windows in FreeCAD BIM.

    paulleeAcesteverugiatomkarinca
  • Another video in the "move and edit" series - this time about editing walls in FreeCAD BIM.

    paulleesteverugiDarth_BlenderatomkarincaGerardT
  • This video shows how to create spaces, such as rooms, in FreeCAD BIM.

    paulleeShegssteverugiemiliotassoDarth_BlenderatomkarincaAce
  • My new tutorial shows how to work with IFC Attributes, IFC Properties and IFC Property sets in FreeCAD BIM. Both basic overview and practical example are provided.

    steverugiAceemiliotassopaulleeatomkarinca
  • This video shows how to use classification systems to classify elements in FreeCAD BIM.

    Note: I was not always successful in exporting/converting the classification data to IFC in FreeCAD 1.0. I think there may be bug, but it's not confirmed yet.

    steverugiAcepaulleeemiliotasso
  • edited April 1

    I recently watched a great Bonsai tutorial for beginners by @Ace and I thought to myself: How would I model the same structure in FreeCAD BIM? The result where I show how to model the same house in FreeCAD BIM is in this tutorial. Hopefully you can gather a basic comparison of modeling techniques of these two programs. In my opinion there are some things that are easier to model in Bonsai and some in FreeCAD BIM. The important thing is that both of these software packages get the job done.

    This is the Bonsai tutorial, thanks for the inpisration @Ace :)

    brunopostleatomkarincaNigelzoomerpaulleeMassimosteverugicarlopavAcebruno_perdigao
  • @semhustej said:
    I recently watched a great Bonsai tutorial for beginners by @Ace and I thought to myself: How would I model the same structure in FreeCAD BIM? The result where I show how to model the same house in FreeCAD BIM is in this tutorial. Hopefully you can gather a basic comparison of modeling techniques of these two programs. In my opinion there are some things that are easier to model in Bonsai and some in FreeCAD BIM. The important thing is that both of these software packages get the job done.

    thanks for the amazing video
    are you going to make one where the final output is more IFC-esque?
    I noticed that most of elements are meshes, they don't use types, like walls with a thickness or beams from profiles
    or is it something that FreeCAD is yet to implement?
    please keep it up

    carlopav
  • Great Vid!

    semhustej
  • @steverugi said:

    are you going to make one where the final output is more IFC-esque?
    I noticed that most of elements are meshes, they don't use types, like walls with a thickness or beams from profiles
    or is it something that FreeCAD is yet to implement?
    please keep it up

    Thanks, Stefano,

    I plan to do more tutorials including IFC functionality, but at this point IFC support in FreeCAD 1.0 is quite buggy (1.0 was the first release with native IFC functionality).

    FreeCAD 1.0 does not have types. FreeCAD 1.1 will introduce IFC Types, but I have not tested yet, how it works, especially with regards to the native FreeCAD elements. In FreeCAD native, there is no global concept of 'Types', each element works in a different way. So you could achieve having wall type using multi-material, beams and profiles have extensive library from which you can choose, doors and windows have pre-sets. I am not sure what the development plans are.

    Elements in FreeCAD are usually not meshes, but solids. All of those in the tutorial are solids. When converted to native IFC project (that is just a one click in FreeCAD's interface), IfcOpenShell handles the geometry so on the back-end it is the same as in Bonsai - so from my understanding the geometry can be Boundary Representation, Sweep Volume or Constructive Solid Geometry.

    You can read more about native IFC in FreeCAD on Yorik's blog: https://yorik.uncreated.net/?blog/2025/002-nativeifc-tutorial
    The goal is to have 1:1 functionality working with IFC as one has with native FreeCAD objects.

    paulleesteverugifalken10vdl
  • This tutorial shows how to create wall material quantity takeoff in FreeCAD BIM. A few other uses of the Schedule tool are also demonstrated.

    Darth_BlendersteverugipaulleeemiliotassoatomkarincaAce
  • It is not easy to create a typical door and window schedule using the default FreeCAD BIM tools. With Reporting workbench it is a peace of cake. This video shows how. The reporting workbench uses SQL queries to extract data from the BIM model, so it can be used for much more than creating door schedule.

    NOTE: The workbench was created seven years ago, but for the past two years it is without a maintainer, so if you would like take care of this tool there is nothing stopping you :) - https://github.com/furti/FreeCAD-Reporting/issues/29

    paulleeatomkarincaAce
  • This tutorial shows how to create curtain walls in FreeCAD BIM.

    steverugipaulleeatomkarincaAce
  • This is a follow up on the last tutorial showing how to create custom curtain wall mullions in FreeCAD BIM.

    paulleesteverugizoomerMassimoatomkarincaemiliotassoNigelAce
  • @semhustej said:
    My new tutorial shows how to work with IFC Attributes, IFC Properties and IFC Property sets in FreeCAD BIM. Both basic overview and practical example are provided.

    Hi there, I am trying to get my feet wet with FC1.0
    importing a IFC4 model I can't show elements to see their properties in the panel


    any help would be very appreciated, thanks in advance

    PS I love your videos ;)

    KoAra
  • @steverugi said:

    Hi there, I am trying to get my feet wet with FC1.0
    importing a IFC4 model I can't show elements to see their properties in the panel

    Hi,

    I did a test with FreeCAD 1.0 and I can reproduce the bug of FreeCAD not showing IFC properties in the 'Manage IFC Properties' dialogue.
    It works in development unstable version 1.1. The latest weekly develpment builds can be downloaded here if you are interested playing with FreeCAD: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD-Bundle/releases/tag/weekly-builds
    For windows there is no need to install, it is just possible to download the zip file, uncompress it, find bin/FreeCAD.exe and run.

    Few heads up:

    • I did not test using IFC Quantity Sets, but it mostly seems to be in ToDo state, so for experimenting it's better to start only with Properties
    • I am getting problems with IfcTypes when opening/importing IFC files.
    • if you plan to work with IFC properties in FreeCAD, I recommend to use 'Preload Property Sets' when opening the IFC file. This loads all property sets. Otherwise you have to double click an object in the Project Tree to be able to access the property sets.

    • for small file I also recommend setting 'All Individual IFC objects' and 'Load the Shape' too

    • in my experience the IFC implementation is in very rough state and there are lot of bugs and ToDo things. I would not recommend FreeCAD at current state for practical IFC projects management or direct modelling.
    • with all of this I hope you will stay FreeCAD curious. I believe it will get there with being useful using IFC functionality earlier or later
    • I will report few bugs that I ran in to when trying to answer your question :)

    Tom

    emiliotasso
  • edited May 16

    @semhustej I tried to use FC1.1 unstable (running from the unzipped folder) but it triggered an error (attached), hopefully stable FC1.1 will be released soon
    thanks for your reply, much appreciated

  • @steverugi said:
    @semhustej I tried to use FC1.1 unstable (running from the unzipped folder) but it triggered an error (attached), hopefully stable FC1.1 will be released soon
    thanks for your reply, much appreciated

    I don't think FreeCAD 1.1 will be released soon. FreeCAD has usually roughly 1 year release cadence, which would mean release in this winter.

    This is a known issue. To install typing_extensions on you machine, open python console in your FreeCAD (right-click any toolbar and turn 'Python conosole' on) and than copy, paste and run this command into it. The command is in five lines lines, you copy and paste it at once as it is here:

    import subprocess
    subprocess.run([
    "C:/Users/steve/Downloads/FreeCAD_weekly-builds-41694-conda-Windows-x86_64-py311/bin/python.exe",
    "-m", "pip", "install", "typing_extensions"
    ])

    This should install typing_extensions. More info is here: https://forum.freecad.org/viewtopic.php?p=810032&sid=efb2c6dd734e0c83ba7b2661b9b94444#p810032

    steverugi
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