AEC Open Source Framework
This is a post prompted by posts like The most open-BIM CDE and Continuous Integration in IFC Git repositories using IDS and validation.
Getting inspiration from @brunopostle here are a some thoughts on how an AEC Open Source Framework would look like.
Design LifeCycle:
- Designer commits IFC (some_model_part.ifc) -> pushes branch feature/l2-floor-slab
- Forgejo CI (Action) runs validation pipeline -> posts report as comment
- Designer opens Pull Request -> feature/l2-floor-slab → shared
- Assigned reviewers (discipline leads) review diff, comment, approve
- If all required approvals met -> merge allowed → triggers “Publish” workflow
- Forgejo Action exports validated IFC + COBie?
- Forgejo creates a release artifact (with signed metadata and approval record)
Defect LifeCycle:
- CI detects error or user creates issue -> Forgejo Issue (BCF) opened
- BIM coordinator assigns to discipline lead -> Assignee + Label added
- Designer fixes IFC and pushes new branch -> New PR linked to issue
- Validator confirms fix -> CI passes, comment added
- Reviewer closes issue -> Issue marked resolved
Validation stack:
- Schema & Syntax Validation -> openshell.validate
- Geometry Validation -> Clash detection, duplicates, small gaps, etc.
- Semantic / Information Validation -> IDS
- Spatial Validation -> ?? Any tool to address this? Like elevatin levels ok, spaces are bounded or the like
- MEP -> Any tool to verify ports/connections, etc?
- Energy -> gbXML, OpensStudio/Energy+
- Structural -> what simple tool vs FEM?
- Any other?
Communication: What tools? Mail/Whatsapp/Telegram, etc?
Deployment: Multitenant/dedicated instance?
Your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Comments
An open source CDE, was discussed here as well. https://community.osarch.org/discussion/comment/23064/#Comment_23064
@theoryshaw wow! There is already a good amount of info shared! Thanks!
What is your view for handling non "git friendly" files? PDFs, ods, xls, ppt, png, jpg, mp4, blender files (for materials for example), SVG?, etc...
What about communication platforms? Users should be able to receive notifications in mobile/desktop and push approvals, photos, etc.
Thanks!
As you might have saw, the Forgejo hosted on https://hub.openingdesign.com/ we use LFS to version track blob files with git.
For communication, personally, i use https://matrix.org/
https://matrix.to/#/#openingdesign:matrix.org
For redline markup, i use things like https://excalidraw.com/ and https://gitlab.com/MeldCE/first-draft, real-time whiteboards.
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As i mentioned at the end of this tread, I would love to transition https://hub.openingdesign.com under the OSArch banner. Just needs funding. It seems we have the political will.
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I'm very much aligned and excited about what @brunopostle list's here.
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@brunopostle, @falken10vdl , any interest in getting admin access to https://hub.openingdesign.com to play around with setting up IFC validation? Perhaps, through use and demonstration, we can get enough funding to transition this Forgejo instance under the OSArch banner.
@theoryshaw I would love to help. In order not to break anything I am going to make a dedicated small instance as proof of concept putting all the blocks already available under some proxmox VM/LXC image(s)
Have you guys thought about what strategy regarding business continuity and data sovereignty? I mean namely what arquitecture to secure availability and data segmentation and the like.
Thanks!
Remember that although all these ideas together fit the definition of a CDE, actual CDEs in the industry are full of PDF drawing dumps, RFIs, meeting minutes, and other formal correspondence.
What we are describing is a Native IFC collaborative workflow alternative to the Open BIM workflow - which I would describe as "all project partners share their design work via IFC export, and consume other partners' design work via read-only IFC federation". The two ideas are not contradictory - we still don't know yet how feasible it is for an architect and an engineer to work on the same Native IFC model - maybe this will never work, or may only work where both are in-house. In any case we can have our own variation of an Open BIM workflow using git submodules or subtrees.
I saw https://gitaec.org
This is what we are looking for, right?
I have seen that many of the community members are also joined in this one.
Does anyone know what is the status of this?
Is this something to be used as base?
Thanks!
Yes, absolutely, I hadn't realised it had recent updates.
Last time I looked the difference between this and upstream forgejo was the addition of the web-ifc viewer and an action that generated a CSV file.