BBIM2ARM - open-source solution BIM/Visualization tool

N by Naxela on 27 Feb 2023, edited 2 Mar 2023 # +13 votes

BBIM2ARM - Open-source BIM/visualization tool

I've been working a bit on my own open-source solution BIM/Visualization tool that is supposed to work on top of BlenderBIM and Armory3D, sort of a mix between Twinmotion/Solibri.

What does it do?:

It cleans/converts/prepares your BBIM/IFC file for either HTML5/Web or standalone platform binaries (such as .exe, etc.) and setups your scene, complete with lighting, controls, effects as well as an optional BIM-inspector for inspecting object properties for objects that have had this exposed.

Below is an example of a lightmapped building detail made in BlenderBIM, exported to HTML5 through Armory3D/BBIM2ARM. Online demo and source files below:

Online demo

IFC Source

Documentation:

Absolutely none as of now, but I've made a small GIF animation describing the process for a very basic IFC file:

Basically:

1. Import your IFC file (either through BlenderBIM or with the BBIM2ARM button)
1. Prepare the file (There's a few options you can toggle, depending on your file)
1. Configure for Armory3D (Camera, lights, graphics, commands/scripts get's setup automatically)
1. Click Start Armory3D (Might take a few minutes for heavy files), a window should pop-up
1. Deploy either as HTML5 or binary (.exe), everything is packed and ready to go

Installation/Requirements (It needs the following Blender addons installed):

BlenderBIM: https://blenderbim.org/download.html
Armory3D (Free): https://armory3d.org/
BBIM2ARM (Free): https://github.com/Naxela/BBIM2ARM

I'm not sure how many would actually benefit from this, but you're free to use it if you like. It's in very early stages, but feel free to let me know if you run into problems

There's still a few bugs that I've yet to fix solve, including stuff not showing/working in advanced mod - but it should be in a somewhat useable state now

A few online demos:

laboratory.naxela.info/experiment_22 (A small art gallery; Heavy)
laboratory.naxela.info/experiment_21 (An example foundation detail)
laboratory.naxela.info/experiment_14 (Some random details)
laboratory.naxela.info/experiment_19 (An interactive apartment; Takes a while to load)
laboratory.naxela.info/experiment_20 (Conceptual development plan)

M by Moult on 27 Feb 2023 # +2 votes

Fantastic! This is AMAZING!

Have you heard of Enscape? It is a proprietary one-click way of packaging models as an exe so that clients can view it (or view in VR). It's quite a popular software and I think this would be able to replace Enscape!

Can I ask what prompted you to develop this? What is your job? Do you need this for your work, or is it just a side hobby? Do you see this as just a proof of concept or are you going to develop this in the long term?

I think this is a really big gap in the market (i.e. easy client-side viz, easy creation of interactive environments without the full power of a game engine, web-based interactive viewers) that desperately needs filling!

N by Naxela on 28 Feb 2023 # +2 votes

@Moult said:

Fantastic! This is AMAZING!

Have you heard of Enscape? It is a proprietary one-click way of packaging models as an exe so that clients can view it (or view in VR). It's quite a popular software and I think this would be able to replace Enscape!

Hi,

I have indeed heard of Enscape, although out of the 3 "main arch-viz" niche products, including Twinmotion and Lumion, Enscape is the only one I haven't tried. I think it's also the only one of these capable of exporting to Web/HTML5 if I remember correctly? - In my office we use Twinmotion (and Lumion before that).

Can I ask what prompted you to develop this? What is your job? Do you need this for your work, or is it just a side hobby? Do you see this as just a proof of concept or are you going to develop this in the long term?

It started as a side-hobby-project and an extension of my involvement with the Armory3D (I'm mainly the maintainer of it's lightmapping module), but I quickly found use cases for it during my work as an architect, where BIM/IFC/BCF is becoming an increasingly important part of the work. I do have some long terms plans for it, although my roadmap is mainly a bunch of scribbled notes being all over the place (apart from those at the bottom of the github page). I think for now, it's mainly better support for IFC properties, a working plan alignment tool and preliminary BCF support.

I think this is a really big gap in the market (i.e. easy client-side viz, easy creation of interactive environments without the full power of a game engine, web-based interactive viewers) that desperately needs filling!

I did intend for it to fill some spot where there currently wasn't some other tool capable of the same. I found that most tools available now was either too BIM/BCF focused, or too solely archviz focused. But as mentioned, at this stage it's too far from being a good alternative to any tools on the market - maybe with time, but at this stage I'm just happy if any people other than me find a use for it.

M by Moult on 28 Feb 2023 # +2 votes

Would you be interested in writing a >=300 word article to be published on osarch.org with a couple images? It would be great to increase visibility of projects like these and hopefully more people join and contribute.

N by Naxela on 1 Mar 2023 #

@Moult said:

Would you be interested in writing a >=300 word article to be published on osarch.org with a couple images? It would be great to increase visibility of projects like these and hopefully more people join and contribute.

Sure thing! - I think I might be able to find some time during the weekend to have an article and a couple of images ready

C by ChubbyQuark on 1 Mar 2023 #

This looks great. Do you need to bake the light-maps manually or is there some automation built in? I've been experimenting with glb/gltf exports for web viewing and sharing but to create visually compelling models requires quite a bit of work, essentially re-working an entire scene for web optimisation. Apps would also require quite a bit of customisation to include waypoints, comments etc.

N by Naxela on 2 Mar 2023 # +1 votes

@ChubbyQuark said:

This looks great. Do you need to bake the light-maps manually or is there some automation built in?

The lightmaps do need to be baked, but when using The Lightmapper (which is integrated in the Armory3D addon), it's largely just a 2-click situation (you just assign that you want to bake the scene, and select Build Lightmaps). It also takes care of the denoising and additional postprocessing.

I've been experimenting with glb/gltf exports for web viewing and sharing but to create visually compelling models requires quite a bit of work, essentially re-working an entire scene for web optimisation. Apps would also require quite a bit of customisation to include waypoints, comments etc.

While the addon itself is mainly oriented towards using Armory3D, if you'd prefer to use third-party web libraries (whether babylon.js, three.js, or even Godot), the "Prepare" function should still prove useful in cleaning/sorting and converting materials for use if you want to export .glb/.gltf

C by ChubbyQuark on 2 Mar 2023 # +2 votes

Amazing, will make some time to check it out later. I agree with you that there currently isnt a good we-based solution which combines high fidelity models , data access and commenting for AEC now. So much of the design process is based on feedback and iteration, having a streamlined workflow from blender would be a huge step forward. Looks like you've made huge inroads in adresing this already, great work!