ifcopenshell scripting on IFC file loaded in BlenderBIM

A by aogino on 15 Jul 2024, edited 16 Jul 2024 #

I just started exploring BlenderBIM and I was looking if I could directly access the IFC project loaded in Blender through BlenderBIM, to be able to combine the UI from BlenderBIM and scripting whenever needed.

In particular, I want to assign ifc class to 3d objects already loaded in blender through scripting instead of UI. The UI looks like this:

M by Moult on 15 Jul 2024 # +1 votes

Sure, pull up a Python console or text editor, then you can get the active session's model by doing:


import blenderbim.tool as tool

model = tool.Ifc.get()

A by aogino on 15 Jul 2024 #

@Moult said:

Sure, pull up a Python console or text editor, then you can get the active session's model by doing:

import blenderbim.tool as tool

model = tool.Ifc.get()

When you say model, you mean the IFC project that i created ? This one for instance :

Also, now that I got the model (or project), let's say that I have a terrain mesh in my .blend project to which I want to assign the class "IfcGeographicElement" and put it into my ifc project, how do I proceed? I saw that the blenderbim.tool module contains a lot of useful classes and methods, but I'm at loss at how to use them.

S by steverugi on 15 Jul 2024 # +1 votes

asaik IFCProject is a space class instance, not the IFC model

when you read ifcopenshell 'model' is the one you use in the APIs


import ifcopenshell

# model = ifcopenshell.open("/path/to/model.ifc") one way to assign the IFC to the variable model

import blenderbim.tool as tool

model = tool.Ifc.get() # what indicated above

walls = model.by_type("IfcWall") # a method to select all IfcWall class elements into one variable

etc..

the same 'model' (at times 'file' in the example), is the one used in most of the API

sorry I am not too much of an expert, I only use the cost APIs from time to time, hope it helps

A by aogino on 16 Jul 2024 #

@steverugi said:

asaik IFCProject is a space class instance, not the IFC model

when you read ifcopenshell 'model' is the one you use in the APIs

import ifcopenshell

model = ifcopenshell.open("/path/to/model.ifc") one way to assign the IFC to the variable model

import blenderbim.tool as tool

model = tool.Ifc.get() # what indicated above

walls = model.by_type("IfcWall") # a method to select all IfcWall class elements into one variable

etc..

the same 'model' (at times 'file' in the example), is the one used in most of the API

sorry I am not too much of an expert, I only use the cost APIs from time to time, hope it helps

yes, I understand!

I found a very interesting comment of @Moult in this thread https://community.osarch.org/discussion/2201/documentation-on-blenderbim-python-library#latest and I'm trying to work accordingly. I used blenderbim.tool to get the model then ifcopenshell calls for model processing. However I'm finding it hard to pinpoint the methods and classes I need. Is there a solid documentation of the ifcopenshell python API ?

M by Moult on 16 Jul 2024 # +2 votes

https://docs.ifcopenshell.org/ifcopenshell-python.html includes code examples and a short tutorial. https://docs.ifcopenshell.org/autoapi/ifcopenshell/index.html contains extensive documentation. Also see the API and util submodule.