Home Builder for Blender

A by Andyrexic on 23 Sep 2020, edited 2 Mar 2024 # +23 votes

Hi everyone I wanted to share a project that I am working on called Home Builder. The goal is to provide an intuitive way of creating interior spaces while also providing builders the engineering information they need to build the physical objects.

There are some similarities between this and Archipack, but this will be more for builders and interior designers. In the end I would like Archipack and Home Builder to work together nicely, because there are helpful features in both systems.

Let me know what your thoughts are.

https://creativedesigner3d.com/2020/09/21/parametric-asset-libraries-in-blender-2-90/

M by Moult on 23 Sep 2020 #

This is fantastic! You should absolutely give a talk on this in a future OSArch monthly meetup!

A by Andyrexic on 23 Sep 2020 # +1 votes

@Moult said:

This is fantastic! You should absolutely give a talk on this in a future OSArch monthly meetup!

Yeah I would love to. It looks like the next couple of sessions might be full, but maybe December will be available.

M by Moult on 24 Sep 2020 #

In the meantime, would you mind adding it to the Wiki directory? https://wiki.osarch.org/index.php?title=AEC_Free_Software_directory

D by DADA_universe on 24 Sep 2020 #

I just saw the video on Youtube and came right over to share the good news!

This is really good work, an important boost to the ecosystem.

Z by zagadaa on 24 Sep 2020 #

Impressive work! Will there be a possibility to add more objects? Let's say one customer will use a specific brand in their project - do you have to add it, or could the designer (us) do that?

J by JQL on 24 Sep 2020 #

And would the designer need to model it in a specific way from scratch to fit the add-on or could he import already existing models, parametrize them and include them in the library?

J by jtm2020hyo on 24 Sep 2020 #

I like your add-on, i want use it for not just interior design, look useful for MEP and for this I have some questions:

1 Is there any method to add internal elements like pipes or electric devices?

2 is there any method to create an assembly animation and file presentation?

3 is there any method to create BoM and budget?

4 is there any tutorial for create custom furniture or MEP objects?

5 is there any method to export import since CSV and TXT files?

6 is there any method to create tables or list in blender or LibreOffice?

PD: I am new in blender

D by Darth_Blender on 24 Sep 2020 #

hi @jtm2020hyo

I don't think there is anything you ask about, at least not in an established way, because it is in a development state.

R by ReD_CoDE on 24 Sep 2020 # +3 votes

I really like what you do

J by jtm2020hyo on 24 Sep 2020 # +1 votes

@Darth_Blender said:

... because it is in a development state.

I would like to add a suggestion for future development:

1 add an option for create a detailled 3D of each part, such as nuts, bolts, boards, doors, handles, wheels, etc, this for a BoM and budget.

2 add assembly export import

...if the developer add this features then this add-on practically already won to Autodesk Inventor and 3D max. and the next boss is Revit and AutoCAD

A by Andyrexic on 30 Sep 2020 # +4 votes

@zagadaa said:

Impressive work! Will there be a possibility to add more objects? Let's say one customer will use a specific brand in their project - do you have to add it, or could the designer (us) do that?

The idea is that the users will maintain their own library. I will have examples that can be used as a starting point, but designers can have their own library that contain the products they use.

A by Andyrexic on 30 Sep 2020 # +1 votes

@JQL said:

And would the designer need to model it in a specific way from scratch to fit the add-on or could he import already existing models, parametrize them and include them in the library?

They can import a models. There will be a specific process to save an asset to the library. I will create docs and tutorials on this soon.

A by Andyrexic on 30 Sep 2020 # +1 votes

@jtm2020hyo said:

I like your add-on, i want use it for not just interior design, look useful for MEP and for this I have some questions:

1 Is there any method to add internal elements like pipes or electric devices?

2 is there any method to create an assembly animation and file presentation?

3 is there any method to create BoM and budget?

4 is there any tutorial for create custom furniture or MEP objects?

5 is there any method to export import since CSV and TXT files?

6 is there any method to create tables or list in blender or LibreOffice?

PD: I am new in blender

Currently I don't have elements like pipes or electric devices.

Animation of an assembly is possible. Blender has a great animation system that can be used.

Creating a BoM and Pricing reports will be available soon.

I will be creating tutorials on how to create your own assets soon.

There is currently no way to import CSV or add lists in Blender

A by Andyrexic on 30 Sep 2020 #

@jtm2020hyo said:

@Darth_Blender said:

... because it is in a development state.

I would like to add a suggestion for future development:

1 add an option for create a detailled 3D of each part, such as nuts, bolts, boards, doors, handles, wheels, etc, this for a BoM and budget.

2 add assembly export import

...if the developer add this features then this add-on practically already won to Autodesk Inventor and 3D max. and the next boss is Revit and AutoCAD

Thanks yeah I will create more detailed assets that include joinery hardware.

Blender has a lot of import export options. I will need more information what format you are looking to export to?

J by JQL on 30 Sep 2020 #

It would be great if your BOM data could be retrieved by BlenderBIM. That way, IFC schedules data would contain objects from your plugin too.

A by Andyrexic on 30 Sep 2020 # +4 votes

@JQL said:

It would be great if your BOM data could be retrieved by BlenderBIM. That way, IFC schedules data would contain objects from your plugin too.

Yeah I am sure that will be possible. I will be doing more research into BlenderBIM soon to ensure it works well with Home Builder.

R by ReD_CoDE on 30 Sep 2020 #

I saw some videos from @Andyrexic (from your YouToub page and also your company) so I like the idea behind your works

So, based on your approach, each data that can be imported into Blender can become a "template/prefab" object/entity, which is great and also the UX/UI is pretty straightforward

So, can your approach recognize variables and build templates/prefabs "automatically"?

A by Andyrexic on 30 Sep 2020 # +2 votes

@ReD_CoDE said:

I saw some videos from @Andyrexic (from your YouToub page and also your company) so I like the idea behind your works

So, based on your approach, each data that can be imported into Blender can become a "template/prefab" object/entity, which is great and also the UX/UI is pretty straightforward

So, can your approach recognize variables and build templates/prefabs "automatically"?

Thanks. I am not sure I understand what you mean by recognize variables and build templates/prefabs automatically. I will be creating a detailed video soon that explains the concepts behind Parametric Assemblies. Once you see the video it will probably answer your question.

M by Moult on 1 Oct 2020 # -1 votes

@Andyrexic a heads up that the BlenderBIM Add-on currently does not support the costing and bill of quantities entities in IFC. Once they do, we should definitely collaborate - so that your data can be compatible with the IFC standard :)

This has been on the to-do list for a while :)

A by Andyrexic on 2 Oct 2020 # +2 votes

@Moult said:

@Andyrexic a heads up that the BlenderBIM Add-on currently does not support the costing and bill of quantities entities in IFC. Once they do, we should definitely collaborate - so that your data can be compatible with the IFC standard :)

This has been on the to-do list for a while :)

Nice. I will be curious to know how this will be handled in BlenderBIM. The property system that I use in Home Builder is pretty flexible so I think they should work well together. I will be creating documentation on this works in Home Builder soon.

P by pixelpartner on 4 Oct 2020 #

Flexible Properties would also mean - it's easy to mess up compatibilty to BIM.

How about a global switch to force properties to stay ifc / openBIM compatible?

@Andyrexic I especially admire your generics since I saw your parametric drawers!

R by ReD_CoDE on 4 Oct 2020 #

@pixelpartner IFC is just a schema between some other schemas in different areas

So, the best approach could be a "hyper modeling language" on top of these schemas that has the best ontology, semantics, ...

Some have started to follow RDF/OWL approach

But personally, I have another plan which will introduce in the near future

R by ReD_CoDE on 5 Oct 2020, edited 5 Oct 2020 #

@Andyrexic I like DnD idea, so is it possible to add another feature too?

If we hold a key, for instance, Shift, and click on an asset, it automatically applies to object

For instance, if I select an object, and hold Shift and click on the material A, material A will apply to the object, instead of drag & drop way, which will speed up workflow even more than now

M by Moult on 6 Oct 2020 #

@Andyrexic I had a play with Pyclone and Home Builder. It looks fantastic! I have a few questions though:

Only Windows builds of PyClone seem to be available. Any plans for binaries for the other OSes?
The Home Builder assets have intelligent snapping. Is there a way to create a snappable asset through the UI? I see it uses a few empties to mark the extents, but I wasn't quite sure how to assign this
The cabinets seem generated purely from Python. Can people who don't know Python create parametric assets?
The assets are self contained. E.g, if one carcass is positioned next to another, they double up on the end board (not sure the word). One example where this won't apply is in parking space assets - where the boundary line of one will overlap with another. I guess not a huge problem, but just wondering if there was thought given to these scenarios in the asset snapping.