M by Moult on 31 Oct 2021 # +8 votes

All changes

New features:

We now support importing 3D annotations, not just 2D ones. Neat.
Invalid annotation contexts coming from Revit are now accepted
IfcOpenShell validation now handles logical data types. Thanks rbertucat!
New feature to draw system arrows showing flow direction and port connections.
New MEP utility to select and print debug information about connected system elements
Importing resources for XER and XML files from P6 is now supported. Thanks HassanEmam!
Optimistically track all object edits whenever you toggle edit mode, not just meshes. Let's see how this goes.
Optimise owner check depending on your implementation and no longer create default users on IFC4. Can result in 50% faster script running on long scripted operations like imports.
You can now manually type in start/end dates for construction sequence visualisation instead of clicking the date picker hundreds of times.
New UI "persona" presets in preferences. Thanks vulevukusej!
Moving grid axes are now synchronised automatically
Resize object to storey now works for a variable number of storeys
Adding annotation now auto enables viewport decoration drawing.
First pass at connecting to new ifcopenshell.draw for drawing generation.
New hacktastic IFC patch to fix ArchiCAD spaces being loaded into Revit.
You can now split objects using a drawn edge, especially useful when creating slab pour breaks and fixing lazily modeled walls and columns. Thanks Gorgious56!
Ifc4D XER import now supports calendars. Thanks HassanEmam!
New feature to calculate side formwork, such as for columns.
Formwork area calculation now unions objects before remeshing to account for overlapping geometry
Types in type dropdowns are now sorted alphabetically for convenience.
Spatial elements in the import filter will now be sorted by elevation for convenience.
Users copying and pasting via ctrl-c/v will now also copy IFC objects.
Using duplicate move linked in a BIM project now also triggers IFC copying
BlenderBIM: import IFC PointCloud Representation support. Thanks LaurensJN!
Support for importing Primavera XER files for construction scheduling. Thanks HassanEmam!
Added IfcTypeFilter feature into BlenderBIM Search module. Thanks chunchk!
New feature to show inherited element type psets.
Get psets utility now supports getting material and profile psets
Get psets utility can now filter only psets or qtos
Element get_psets utility now returns the pset ID for convenience.
New feature to copy properties from one object to all selected objects
Reintroduced feature to copy attributes to selected objects.
You can now toggle module visibility to customise your UI. Thanks vulevukusej!
Copying parametric geometry from any source now attempts to preserve parametric geometry when possible.
Assigning a parametric layer type (for walls for now) now attempts to switch from non parametric to parametric geometry.
New feature to conveniently add a default material in a blank project when none exists.
The type of mapped representations is now shown in the interface, with an asterisk denoting it is mapped.
When updating representations, the existing representation type is prioritised unless you tell it otherwise.
Assigning a parametric profile type now auto switches from non parametric geometry to parametric geometry
Only show type selection buttons when a type is available.
New feature to calculate the radius of a polygonal circle
Upgrade to IfcOpenShell v0.7.0. Thanks aothms!
New Ifc4D command line interface. Thanks HassanEmam!
Adding type empties now adds it to the scene collection for convenience in case your types collection is hidden (which is most of the time)
New feature to add psets to all selected objects. Thanks vulevukusej!
Documented UX guidelines. Thanks Gorgious56!
Documented MacOS build instructions. Thanks m-clare!
When assigning types, your preference of dynamic voids are now preserved.
IfcOpenShell now supports geometry caching. Thanks aothms!
New feature to resize / squash / stretch objects to their storey height. Useful for remodeling IFCs for construction simulations.
New utility function to get storey elevations with elevation attribute fallback for more compliant sorting of building storey elevations.
Unlinking an object now also unlinks materials and styles too for convenience.
New feature to unlink Blender materials and IFC materials
Spatial containers are now shown sorted by Z index order for convenience.
Building storeys now show a derived storey height so you don't need to do math
You can now copy a representation from one object to another
FMHEM classes now updated to latest draft

... continued ...

M by Moult on 31 Oct 2021 # +8 votes

... continued ...

You can now toggle whether element filtering also affects spatial containers
Implemented point cloud export function. Thanks LaurensJN!
Use context filters during import when possible to optimise import times
New support for conversion based units with offsets, like fahrenheit.
Support auto detection of unit type when adding imperial units
Utility to print out all maintainable assets for FM paper documentation
New recipe (and essay) to fix ArchiCAD IFC4 door swings showing up in Revit
IfcCSV now supports setting properties to null values. Neat.
IfcCSV now supports editing properties that were previously null.
Add tooltips to the authoring panel. Thanks maxfb87!
You can now clear the active user for ownership history.
New usecase for adding conversion based units
You can now import and export and clear all IfcCSV attributes. Thanks vulevukusej!
Prioritise editing rendering surface styles over shading surface styles
New unassign aggregate feature.
Spatial containment now distinguishes between direct and indirect containment
Removing or changing spatial containers now supports updating more types of collection organisations
Maintain active object throughout complex IFC operations for a better user experience
Place structural items in collections for new project. Thanks Jesusbill!
Fix for structural surface items. Thanks Jesusbill!
Allow user to toggle duplicates when getting inverses in IfcOpenShell core.
You can now add and remove users for ownership history
Optimise create owner history to not rely on a person and organisation lookup, speeding up long procedures
Application data in IFC now reflects the latest IFC version tag
Removing contexts now also reassign to parent or remove references to the context.
You can now edit attributes of contexts and subcontexts.
Organisations now support null attributes.
Add support for null attributes for people, roles, and addresses.
Prevent using pset operators when no template available. Thanks Gorgious56!
Remove need for IfcConvert since we can drawing is now part of v0.7.0.
Improve UX by blocking the user from creating sub resources under a subcontract resource.
Add support for IfcBoundingBox visualisation.
New IfcOpenShell context ID filter.
Add support for IfcAnnotationFillArea.
New support for specifying collection modes.
Spatial elements now support 2D representations.
Generated construction visibility now works in renders, not just viewport view.
Improve UX where active object was swapped when adding voids. Thanks Gorgious56!
New feature to see the current frame's real life date as text during a generated animation
Editing psets can now accept user specified data types and auto-detect non-string data types
Be more accommodating when fetching properties to allow for users writing incomplete scripts.
Resource work duration can now be calculated based on counting produced products.
Resource work durations can now be calculated either daily or hourly
Optimise update owner history to speed up complex operations
Add support for specifying placement matrixes in project units or SI units.
New utility to get spatial and object decompositions from any IFC element
Create shape debugger now includes time information.
Deprecate auto detection of vendor workarounds as no longer necessary.
You can now filter imported objects by IFC class when loading a project
You can now unload a partially loaded project
You can now partially load an IFC filtered by spatial containers.
You can now load a project from the project panel.
IfcOpenShell SHA is now shown for versioning
Deleting openings or voided elements now also remove openings.
Non dynamically voided objects now auto update when their opening is removed
Assigning an opening now ensures it displays as a wire
BIMTester now runs within the BlenderBIM Add-on, implement attribute checking in IDS.
Remove create project library ability, as you should create a project first
Manual import offsets now apply on object placements for efficiency.
Immediately redraw the Library panel on load for improved UX. Thanks Gorgious56!
Notify if file already contains library element. Thanks Gorgious56!
Improve mesh IFC Representation User Experience. Thanks Gorgious56!

M by Moult on 31 Oct 2021 # +12 votes

New fixes:

Objects now sync spatial hierarchy more robustly on export, and clean the collection tree in case the user messed it up.
Fix bug where during import sometimes aggregation collections don't match object names
Fix bug where imported grids were not linked and didn't auto track edits
Fix bug where auto geolocation offset didn't occur if placements were relative
Fix bug where copying a type also copied its type relations which is invalid.
Fixing bugs for Scheduling Module IFC4D, where P6XML Parser failing on calendar type. Thanks HassanEmam!
Fix regression bug where you couldn't add a grid.
Fix bug where imported types with representations but no instances were not fully linked.
Fix bug where switching to an object with modifiers applied would double the effect of modifiers.
Fix bug where large resizing of walls could result in broken geometry.
Fix bug where copying elements didn't ensure that material usages were unique
Fix terrible bug #1819 where duplicating mapped elements didn't actually copy the geometry mapping.
Fix bug where you could reassign class to another product type and create invalid relationships
Fix bug where BCF header file info was not loaded. See #1816.
Fix geometry bug for some types of IfcIndexedPolyCurve. Thanks aothms!
Fix bug with invalid initialization of local variable "data" in bcf. Thanks Nitschi!
Fix bug where auto assignment in the collection hierarchy failed if you had filtered out aggregates and you were assigning a subelement of an aggregate
Fix bug where you couldn't bulk copy non-geometric elements to other spatial containers
Fix bug where when deleting representations it could sometimes overreach and delete geometric, style, or layer data of other elements.
Fix bug where copying objects may sometimes result in incorrect location in the Blender collection tree
Fix bug where copying objects did not necessarily retain the existing context assignment
Fix minor bug where Python warnings showed up when delete operations were called
Fix bug where importing multiple assets sharing an already imported material fails.
Fix bug where the derived placements interface didn't take into account rotations
Fix deep magick bug where copying elements without having one of them active didn't actually copy them in IFC too
Fix bug where you couldn't filter imported subelements without also selecting their parents
Fix bug where copying elements shared a placement. This fix speeds up copying parent elements in the decomposition significantly, like when copying a storey.
Fix bug where copying a container also copied its contents
Fix bug where duplicating a collection messes up the collection tree.
Unassigning the last unit now cleans up empty unit assignments
Changing aggregation now ensures spatial containment is mutually exclusive to prevent invalid IFC data
Assigning aggregations now protects against various invalid aggregation combinations
When assigning containers, ensure aggregates and containers are mutually exclusive
Fix bug where assigning a spatial container didn't work with non local placements
Changing spatial container now guards against invalid containment operations
Unlinking elements is now a bit more stable.
Upon element removal, empty aggregates prioritise null if possible. Fixes a variety of invalid IFC bugs.
Fix bug where removing addresses and roles could leave other elements in invalid states
Fix bug. Removing an organisation now properly handles references appropriately.
Fix bug where removing a person no longer has the potential to leave files in an invalid state.
Fix bug where 2D contexts were not created with the right dimensionality.
Fix bug where you could accidentally add a context other than what you selected in the UI
Fix possible invalid scenarios when adding fillings. Thanks Gorgious56!
Fix error when displaying a selected but inactive object's properties with the pin feature. Thanks Gorgious56!
Fix error when filling has no IFC type. Thanks Gorgious56!
Fix bug where you could add a filling twice or to multiple openings.
Fix bug where you could add an opening twice to the same element.
Fix bug where copying an opening didn't copy relevant boolean modifiers too.
Fix bug where copying a filled opening would create an invalid relationship
Fix bug where structural member data was not updated correctly.
Fix bug where demolition animations were not generated properly.
Fix bug where nested task resource-based durations failed to calculate
Fix task duration calculation bug where hourly work greater or equal to 24 hours were incorrectly parsed
Parametric object gizmo scale now follows scene unit, and fix miles and thou-inch units. Thanks Gorgious56!
Fix bug where assigning a new container would shift object placements incorrectly due to SI unit conversion
Fix bug when shifting object placements and their children.
Fix bug where IFC patch didn't work on case insensitive file extensions
Fix bug where filtering did not work for indirectly spatially contained elements
Fix bug where aggregates break with filtered elements during import.
Fix bug where editing styles didn't work if factors were stored instead of RGB colours
Fix bug where openings were not unlinked or renamed if they were removed from a non-dynamic object
Fix bug where removing an opening might remove an element twice
Fix bug where project libraries were not legal.
Add transaction support for adding elements. This fixes a variety of undo bugs.
Fix bug where project library browser could self reference.
Fix bug where element replacement would sometimes fail leading to various problems.
Fix typo in material style assignment code. Thanks Gorgious56!
Fix bug when copying objects, don't copy their decomposition to prevent invalid IFCs.

H by HaukMorten on 17 Nov 2021, edited 17 Nov 2021 # +1 votes

@Moult : Do you know if blenderbim has been tested with the real-time collaborative addons Mixer or Multi-User for blender? It would be awesome if they can be combined in order to get real-time IFC-editing and engineering capability for multiple users using blender. See this post for info on them.

T by thunderbolt_132 on 19 Dec 2021, edited 19 Dec 2021 #

Hi, I have an issue setting up BlenderBIM. I am using Blender 3.0 so that could be causing the issue.

I tried following Dion's quick demo but I don't have any of the circled options

I do have BlenderBIM checked in addons and I do have the IFC Derived Placements option, so it seems that BlenderBIM is installed. Any ideas?

EDIT: Seems I missed the create IFCProject step, it's solved now

M by Moult on 10 Jan 2022 #

@HaukMorten unfortunately those real-time collaborative add-ons work only with Blender, but there's a missing step to get it to synchronise with IFC edits. So without testing, I can tell you that out of the box it won't work (yet).

H by HaukMorten on 10 Jan 2022 # +1 votes

Thank you for your response @Moult . Well, it's a wish for later then. BlenderBIM still isn't mature enough for us to use in a production environment yet in either case, but perhaps some day in the not too distant future I can wish for some development funding internally to try to at least figure out what needs to be in place for us to begin to use in for engineering. I've already used it for geometry editing of IFC's that wouldn't open i Revit at all. Once one gets the hang the shortcuts, editing in blender is so much smoother than in Revit!

J by JanF on 10 Jan 2022 # +2 votes

@HaukMorten said:

@Moult : Do you know if blenderbim has been tested with the real-time collaborative addons Mixer or Multi-User for blender? It would be awesome if they can be combined in order to get real-time IFC-editing and engineering capability for multiple users using blender. See this post for info on them.

I've tested all the collaboration add-ons I could find and none of them completely support even the standard Blender functions, let alone any add ons.

M by Moult on 30 Jan 2022 # +18 votes

BlenderBIM Add-on v0.0.220130 has been released with 252 new features and fixes. It's our built environment, help support the BlenderBIM Add-on: 100% free and open source software that lets you author and document BIM data fully to ISO standards. It's built by the AEC community, for the AEC community. Get it today: https://blenderbim.org/

It's been 3 months since the last release. Unfortunately, development had been put intermittently on hold due to various factors, including presentations being prepared for the Boao Forum for Asia ISTIF conference, FOSDEM 2022, and the 1-month online course on OpenBIM and Python programming by E-Zigurat. In addition, there was a one month break from development during the holiday period. It's a marathon, not a sprint! :) Happy 2022, and we're back!

Let's get into the details.

Optimisations to authoring and geometry caching

A huge kudos to the exceptional optimisation work by Thomas Krijnen. Especially when modifying large files, expect operations to be in the scale of 100x faster, especially when dealing with proprietary BIM exports. Bulk movement checks are a minimum of 5 seconds faster. Importing files with booleans can be 2x to 3x faster. New performance logging in the core means that optimising is far from over.

A new geometry cache is now implemented, so reopening the same project will be much faster.

Increased stability

Native authoring stability was a huge priority for this release. An additional 450 tests were written since the last release, and 76 bugs were fixed. This is the return on investment in the new testable code architecture which was revealed in the previous release.

Brickschema integration

Brickschema is a way of describing system topologies for building management systems (BMS). When we talk about digital twins and clear away the marketing buzzwords, we're really talking about things like Brickschema and live building sensor data that Brickschema can reference. The BlenderBIM Add-on is the first in the industry to start providing a graphical Brickschema authoring environment that integrates with IFC.

It is now possible to create a 2-way link between IFC BIM models and Brickschema BMS models. This is possible due to new support for managing IFC libraries. Brickschema authoring is still very new, but it's ready for basic testing!

New bulk property editor

In our quest to help clean OpenBIM data in the industry, an incredibly suite of bulk property editing tools are now available by developer Vukas Pajic. Includes bulk renaming, data type changing, removal, and adding properties.

Chipping away at drawing generation and MEP support

Drawing generation is a huge task that still isn't ready for user testing, but all the same work has been done. Including improved section cutting booleans, geometry caching, fixing "the torus problem" for steel sections, new 2D elements in the demo library, paper scale annotations in the viewport, performance testing, native IFC roundtripping for annotations, associating objects for smart annotations, annotation variables, drawing sheets, and improved UI.

Also ... more rabbits!

MEP is one of the areas not really supported by the BlenderBIM Add-on but that is now changing. Support is now added for different types of building systems, selecting different types of systems, and displaying distribution ports.

Better docs and building for developers

A number of fixes to the build system makes life easier for developers on different environments to build IfcOpenShell thanks to Thomas Krijnen. Also really exciting is the new super secret demo module tutorial and improved developer guide for new developers who want to learn how to build your own BIM application on Blender and extend the BlenderBIM Add-on.

So much more

Other notable improvements include new UI grouping, IFC to P6 XML export support thanks to developer myoualid, viewing IFC metadata prior to loading with one-click IFC4 file upgrades thanks to developer Gorgious56. Blender 3.0 is now officially supported. In addition, new support for parsing EXPRESS schemas in the interface has been added, in preparation to support IFC4X3. The testing process for IFC4X3 support has begun, with the hundreds of tests in the suite being redirected to check IFC4X3 support, with very promising initial results.

A huge thanks to the growing volume of new contributors who are joining the team and changing the industry. You can too!

M by Moult on 30 Jan 2022 # +11 votes

All changes

New features:

IFC element names no longer treat the Blender name suffix as significant
Object names now guard against duplicate IFC prefixes when assigning.
All element's spatial containment collections are now synced when assigning a class.
Structural items in the collection hierarchy are now auto synced.
Remove legacy unassign class feature in favour of just deleting objects. Thanks theoryshaw!
1692 get_info_2() logical now supported Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
You can now specify a target view when creating a new drawing. See #1153.
Drawing collection hierarchy is now auto fixed if shuffled around manually. See #1153.
Drawings list now reads data from IFC, not Blender. See #1153.
Removing sheets now works in IFC. See #1153.
You can now create drawing sheets in IFC. See #1153.
You can now show and hide distribution ports of an element.
New diagrams on the developer guide.
Finish building minimum viable product of the IFC2P6 converter. Thanks myoualid!
Fix #1514. You can now customise the default names of occurrences create from a type.
New software architecture section in the developer guide.
New demo module to teach developers how to hack on the BlenderBIM Add-on.
Updates to space boundary geometry now auto updates on export.
IfcCSV now loads the selector by default so its much more fun to use a lib.
You can now remove bricks from a Brickschema model.
New utility function for getting ports of an element
Implement assign and unassign ports in IfcOpenShell API
Dynamically update section shader backface color (#2000) Thanks Gorgious56!
Nodes are now offset nicely for cutaway shader (#2000) Thanks Gorgious56!
Smart annotation variables for drawings now reimplemented. See #1153.
1993 vs2022 hdf5 Thanks aothms!
Editing task times no longer tries to be clever with actual dates because you know what you're doing.
Fix #1576. Managing IfcSystem subtypes is now possible.
1993 msvc 2022 config Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Nicer looking gantt charts and make it easier to print to PDF.
Code licensing clarifications. See #1082.
Fix #1908. Extracting elements using IfcPatch now includes all properties.
Fix #1962. You can now easily append product assets using the API.
You can now reset and restore your API owner settings.
Header data previews for IFCZIP are now supported as well.
Fix #1956. One-button upgrade from IFC2X3 to IFC4.
Minor improvement to the sequence UI to always allow you to cancel editing mode.
ADD_COMMIT_SHA in build scripts Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
You can now associate annotations with objects for smart annotations in IFC. See #1153.
define the vector sass [0] as a std::vector<std::unique_ptr<ShapeAnalysis_Surface>> Thanks Benjamin Dahl!
Remove broken and obsolete Blender clasher which is incompatible with the geom.tree broadphase approach.
Improvements to 2D booleaning Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Implement adding plain bricks not based on IFC
Support type-based class checking for converting IFC2X3 models to Brickschema
The IFC Class panel now shows inherited predefined types
New utility to get predefined type
Show ifc specs in file selector (#1980) Thanks Gorgious56!
UI Simplification with Panel Groups (#1979) Thanks Vukas Pajic!
Implement auto and manual refresh of the Brick model navigator
You can now create a new blank Brick project
New debug feature to purge HDF5 cache in case the cache is corrupted.
Implement human readable rdfs labels in Brickschema navigator
Display IFC schema in file selector right hand side panel (#1978) Thanks Gorgious56!
New utility to get IFC all elements that are relevant in Brickschema
Basic implementation to bulk convert relevant IFC classes to a Brick model
New IFC to Brick class mapping utility
You can now select all system objects from the object panel for convenience.
Optimise all editing API functions to be 100x faster when you're dealing with proprietary BIM exports with loads of shared owner histories. See #1904 and #1905.
Schema versions are no longer locked to IFC4 and 2X3. You can now load express schemas at run time.
Purge obsolete IFC types mappings
Install to system local root Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Fix: shift count negative or too big Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1960 BRepBuilderAPI_MakeFace on non-overlapping 2d subtraction Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Log performance aggregates as logger messages Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Logging statement for total file conversion Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Update template.py main.schema_identifier doesn't exist Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1969 take uppercase in register_schema() Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
build-deps.cmd typo 0.7.0 branch Thanks jakob-beetz!
The IfcOpenShell API now supports automatic primitive casting for editing properties. See #1943.
Primary measure type lists are now dynamically generated based on the schema.
Write documentation to help developers get acquainted with testing
fix umlauts not showing up correctly in dynamic enums #1941 (#1945) Thanks Vukas Pajic!
Fix #1717 : Disable task editing if task was deleted as a result of deleting its parent (#1936) Thanks Gorgious56!
Optimize logic for bigger number of tasks (#1936) Thanks Gorgious56!
New bulk property editor (#1896) Thanks Vukas Pajic!
Updated README.md for IfcOpenShell build instructions Thanks ssg! Thanks garylzimmer!
BlenderBIM Feature - Filter By Building Storey Thanks bosonprojets!
Good news everyone! Option to process wall opening subtractions in 2D. Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Small changes to iterator settings Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
changes in ifc2ca standard case Thanks Jesusbill!
ifc2ca - possibility to exclude zero length springs in point connections Thanks Jesusbill!
changes in ifc2ca bonded case Thanks Jesusbill!
Optimise operations on large files. #1807 method mapping proposal Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
minor changes in ifc2ca scripts Thanks Jesusbill!
OCC7.5 to OCC7.6 support -> deprecated Poly_Triangulation Nodes() Thanks fichter!
Switch to libocct for yml workflows Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Prevent searching for invalid IDs in IFC debugger (#1924) Thanks Gorgious56!
New descriptions, labels, and debug output in IFC debugger (#1924) Thanks Gorgious56!
Debug op to select highest meshes by polygon percentile (#1924) Thanks Gorgious56!
bimtester: if lang argument is not set use feature file lang for output messages, improves #1910 Thanks Bernd Hahnebach!
bimtester: update log and smartview, they still are deactivated by default, fixes #1892 Thanks Bernd Hahnebach!
You can now add feed relationships in a Brick model from IFC elements
From an IFC element, you can now add a new Brick element in a Brick model
Assigning a brick reference now adds a 2-way IFC reference in the Brick model
Little utility to help printing out maintainable classes and other classes in contractual documentation.
bimtester: improved language support #1928 Thanks Bernd Hahnebach!
bimstester: feature cleanup and more german support Thanks Bernd Hahnebach!
get_total_inverses now efficiently gets the full number of references to an entity to optimise editing. See #1904.
bimtester: gui, initialize ifc file and feature file text Thanks Bernd Hahnebach!
Allow to assign IfcRelSpaceBoundary to an object (#1902) Thanks Cyril Waechter!
Allow to manually update boundary connection geometry (#1899) Thanks Cyril Waechter!
bimtester: fix gui, works with feature file now instead of feature directory Thanks Bernd Hahnebach!
Converting brickschema projects to IFC libraries now works on IFC2X3
Assigning library references now works on IFC2X3.
Editing object placements is now 3x faster on large files. See #1807.
1785 HdfSerializer read-only option Thanks aothms!
Added information for debugging level parameter Thanks Felipe Mesquita!
1895 don't signal element ready when result is empty Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Fix #1889. Allow explicitly overriding data types when editing psets.
1153 draw.py timing Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1153 update draw.py with two new options Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1153 option to preprocess shape into sets of profile edges Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1885 consider schema type when copying attribute values Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
bimtester: Fix numerous language issues with french, italian, and dutch Thanks Bernd Hahnebach!
(slightly) Optimise batch removing objects Thanks Gorgious!
More slow progress in getting annotations round-tripping. See #1153.
You can now associate IFC elements with Brick elements and navigate to them
You can now assign and unassign library references
New UI to add / edit / remove library information and references.
Raise default section height from storey from 1.0 to 1.2 Thanks Bruno Postle!
A whole bunch of new usecases for managing IFC library information and references
New utility to get layers of an element. See #1869.
Rebuild text annotations to have leaders in the same object and use text literals. See #1153.
Viewport annotation decorations now scale based on paper size. See #1153.
Drawing annotations now are stored in IFC using ObjectType conventions. See #1153.
Reimplement roundtrip of most annotation elements for drawings. See #1153.
New experimental OBJ2IFC script
tree.protrusion_distances() Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Purge old 2D element drawing system, so we don't get double the symbols on drawings.
Swapping a Blender material for another is now auto synchronised.
Optimise object placement change checking, so medium sized project exports are 5 seconds faster at minimum, but can be much higher since false positives are culled.
Load CJIO on execution instead of initialisation Thanks Laurens Oostwegel!
show property description in pset_template ui Thanks Vukas Pajic!
Geometry caching is now enabled for model importing
Changes are now synchronised prior to switching representations.
[BlenderBIM] Tools to load IfcRelSpaceBoundary (#1864) Thanks Cyril Waechter!
Scale changes are now auto synchronised on export.
Improve support for Powerproject 14.0 import (#1865) Thanks ecke101!
Integrate ifccityjson in BlenderBIM (#1859) Thanks Laurens Oostwegel!
Implement cache updating for drawings. See #1153.
Resolve #1836. Scaling in Blender is now auto resolved when representations are updated.
Purge old dumb door and dumb window tool to prevent confusing users
Add annotation symbols for doors, windows, and bunny to the demo library
New IfcOpenShell utility to get instances of an element type easily
1785 omplete stored_settings / requested_settings check Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Consistent setting type Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Resolve #1860. Brickschema is now optional.
Drawing module now is in sync with latest C++ upgrades. See #1153.
Allow tree.select(BRepElement) Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1785 check settings in cache and upgrade to world coords Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Fix casts in XML serializer Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
ifccityjson: it is now easier to extract one LOD Thanks Laurens Oostwegel!
ifccityjson: prevent interior holes in faces as there is a bug in the geometry generation Thanks Laurens Oostwegel!
New feature to select all objects in same container
New feature to select the container of an object
Resolve #1750. You can now save IFCs under a relative path to your Blend file.
only call expensive wstring_convert() when necessary Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1785 geometry caching caching Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Resolve #1749. You can now save as another IFC filename.
Rename some files with more sensical names Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1153 #1852 project points to form SVG HLR cut plane Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1153 evenodd SVG styling. Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
IfcConvert : SEW_SHELLS on svg serializer Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1153 boolean subtraction on parts Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
--cache and subtraction in draw.py Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Add schema caching to Brick schema loading.
Implement new Brickschema project browser.
Slightly more robust deletion tracking.
ifccityjson: Fix bug dependency updated CJIO where cityjson vertices got transformed automatically Thanks Laurens Oostwegel!
1153 another small hack to get boolean projection working more generally Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1850 Process extrusions of comp profiles seperately Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1743 don't consider bbox in opening subtractions Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1785 geometry caching on multi threaded iterator Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1153 svg subtraction settings Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1785 quick identity check to keep trsf form at identity Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Add tutorial to ifccityjson Thanks Laurens Oostwegel!

New fixes:

Fix bug where drawing objects could be added to the wrong context.
Fix bug where editing then switching to the current representation crashes.
Fix bug where syncing an object removed from the collection tree breaks.
Fix #2002. Fix bug where sometimes shape IDs wouldn't be pure integers.
Fix #2001. Fix bug where you could not undo deletions.
Fix #1998. Fix bug where colours don't show if styling is applied to the mapped item instead of the actual representation item.
Fix error when updating representation on object data with no BIMMeshProperties Thanks Gorgious!
Fix bug where you couldn't select properties with a dot in the name for IfcCSV
Prevent error if last temporary section has been removed (#2000) Thanks Gorgious56!
Fix shader glitch when user deletes last cutaway object (#2000) Thanks Gorgious56!
Fix bug where zero durations were not allowed in task times.
Fix #1995. Bug where section cutaways didn't work in Blender 3.0.
Fix bug where you could not add properties to projects themselves.
Improve boolean reliability. #1948 clear tmp list Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
1985 Fix bug with selecting objects via geometry tree. Consolidate and correct shell count checks in tree Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Fix propagation of kernel settings (affects multi threading) Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Fix #1934. Fix bug with improper nesting of subfolders when exporting IfcZip.
Fix #1954. Fix bug where importing MSProject XMLs with no project names failed.
Fix IfcCSV import bug.
Fix #1989. Fix bug where you couldn't export to IfcJSON, since it couldn't be imported again.
Fix bug where you could assign a product twice to a process.
Fix #1931. Fix bug where duplicated type products should not share material associations.
Fix bug where annotation decorations didn't show correctly in Blender 3.0
Fix #1925. Fix bug where nested collection deletions were not synchronised properly.
Fix bug in BCF. Correct HeaderFile (#1942) Thanks molitoris!
Boundary geom creation : fix math + small ui fix (#1938) Thanks Cyril Waechter!
Fix bug where IfcPatch IFC4 migration could break on Revit files
Improve boolean reliability significantly. Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Fix booleaning bug. #1914 only proceed with 'face addition check' when first operand contains open shells Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Fix #1692 memory leak in get_info_2() Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Fix #1917. Fix warning where the relating type classes data couldn't be accessed.
See #1917. Refactor and fix warning message when you haven't got any contexts in a project yet.
Fix #1923. Fix bug where creating a new structural analysis model broke.
Fix #1913. Fix bug where filtering by decomposition didn't work on IFC2X3.
Fix #1921. Document issue with installing on outdated Ubuntu distributions.
Prevent error if id has no geom representation in IFC debugger (#1924) Thanks Gorgious56!
Fix bug where libraries didn't work in IFC2X3
Fix #1816. Fix bug where cameras weren't allowed to be optional in BCF 2.1.
Fix bug with missing system arrows in visualising offset models and sink/source mixed flows.
bimtester: do not break bimtester if translation files are missing, fixes #1910 Thanks Bernd Hahnebach!
Fix bug where Blender name wouldn't match IFC Name when reassigning class. See #1902.
Fix segfault thanks to aothms.
Fix percentage loading implementation with the new more accurate progress number.
Prevent crash on export for obj with no material (#1903) Thanks Cyril Waechter!
Fix bug where selecting type occurrences did not work
Fix bug where updating owner history may not work if you were using it outside Blender.
Fix model segfault. #1897 handle nesting in get_decomposing_entity_impl() Thanks Thomas Krijnen!
Fix bug in FM utility for grabbing classes from the draft FMHEM standard
Fix bug in convert length unit recipe where IFC2X3 ownership history fails.
Fix #1886. Fix getting layers for IFC2X3 files.
Fix bug where subelement coordinates were incorrectly calculated in non SI units
Fix bug where you couldn't copy quantities to other elements
Fix bug where unlinking a style that was invalidly linked didn't work.
Fix minor error in console when changing drawings. See #1153.
Fix bug where annotative grids did not sync.
Fix #1857. Fix bug where deleting from the outliner was not tracked.
Fix #1872. Bug where duplicating an object didn't duplicate its styles.
Fix bug where style colours were not auto synchronised.
Fix bug #1854. Materials are now auto replaced in Blender when you assign a new IFC material.
Fix bug where an added default material was not linked and auto synced.
Fix bug in IFC2X3 where updating style colours didn't work.
Fix bug where diffuse colour was not correctly extracted from nodes
Fix #1856. Bug where you lost your existing container or aggregation when you added a new aggregation assembly.
Fix #1764. Bug where OpenLCA UI would freeze if it couldn't connect to OpenLCA.
Fix #1855. Bug where authoring type dropdowns didn't refresh.
Fix bug where removing a representation from a typed instance didn't remove all data users.
Fix representation where removing a representation left objects with an empty mesh. Now a proper empty is used.
Fix bug where non-geometric objects caused the representations UI to not display
Fix bug where assigning a type did not use existing representation data in the scene if the context had changed
Fix bug where adding a representation to a type instance didn't share meshes
Fix bug where you couldn't add a plan representation to something with no context identifier
Fix interface bug where representations assigned directly to a context aren't shown
Fix bug where existing meshes were not deleted when switching representations.
Fix bug where adding a representation to type instances didn't ensure it was added to a geometric type
Fix bug where pie update container didn't work.
Fix bug where copying an instance did not auto link the meshes.

B by bitacovir on 30 Jan 2022, edited 30 Jan 2022 # +1 votes

(\ (\

( ' · ' )

0 ( '')( '') Great work!

(\ (\

( ' · ' )

0 ( '')( '') Fantastic!

(\ (\

( ' · ' )

0 ( '')( '') Superb!

P by paulcaicedo on 12 Mar 2022 #

Hello,

I installed Blender version 3.1.0 and it doesn't work with BlenderBIM Add-on v0.0.220130. I didn't have a previous version installed.

Is it necessary to use different versions?

C by Coen on 12 Mar 2022, edited 12 Mar 2022 # +1 votes

I just downloaded blenderbim-220309 developer build from:

https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/releases

I tried to install the blenderbim-220309-py39-win.zip on Blender 3.0.1.

I get the following error.

No module named 'blenderbim.core.document'

T by theoryshaw on 12 Mar 2022 # +1 votes

@paulcaicedo said:

Hello,

I installed Blender version 3.1.0 and it doesn't work with BlenderBIM Add-on v0.0.220130. I didn't have a previous version installed.

Is it necessary to use different versions?

https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/issues/2083

P by paulcaicedo on 12 Mar 2022, edited 12 Mar 2022 #

Thanks @theoryshaw

I installed version 3.0.1 and it works all ok. I am not sure how to change the python versions and where for version 3.1.0. This is good for now.

C by Coen on 16 Mar 2022 #

https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/releases

The blenderbim-220316-py39-win.zip is not working on Windows with Blender 3.1.0

B by Bimlooser on 16 Mar 2022, edited 17 Mar 2022 # +1 votes

I think you have to use the "-py310-.zip" file

J by JanF on 31 Mar 2022 #

I've split the discussion into relevant topics:

https://community.osarch.org/discussion/944/blenderbim-generate-openings-while-placing-doors-windows#latest

https://community.osarch.org/discussion/943/generating-2d-elevations-with-blender#latest

https://community.osarch.org/discussion/945/blenderbim-creating-walls#latest

S by swathi on 10 Apr 2022 #

The Ifc demo Library is really helpful. Can we add some ifc materials samples like brick concrete etc linked with demo wall objects

M by Moult on 16 May 2022 #

@swathi great idea! The new Australian library that is a work in progress now contains more materials.

M by Moult on 16 May 2022 # +25 votes

BlenderBIM Add-on v0.0.220516 has been released with 352 new features and fixes. It's our built environment, help support the BlenderBIM Add-on: 100% free and open source software that lets you author and document BIM data fully to ISO standards. It's built by the AEC community, for the AEC community. Get it today: https://blenderbim.org/

Support for Blender 3.1!

Blender moves fast, and we've got new builds available. Did you know the BlenderBIM Add-on supports all Blender versions from version 2.8 onwards? There are now official builds for Python 3.7, 3.9, and 3.10.

Basic drawing generation is now available

A huge amount of work was done on 2D drawings with over 50 fixes. Almost all drawing data (notable exclusions include rendering styles) are

now part of the Native IFC dataset, and so most of the drawing and sheet features which were broken in previous releases are now working again. If you wanted to test drawings, now is the time! The UI also got a refresh, distinguishing between drawing types and linking drawings and

schedules into sheets. It is now easier to create new drawings with preset directions for project N/S/E/W.

You can now specify custom stylesheets, smart tags are now linked in IFC, new angular, radius, and diameter dimensions, fills, and custom tags on built-in annotation types (such as when annotating levels). Schedules are also now implemented as associated IFC documents. 2D annotation now also has support for Z index so you can change the draw order of linework.

Drawings now also have automatic reference generation. So instead of having to draw annotations manually for objects like grids, sections, and elevations, these annotation symbols are now auto generated and synchronised when the base object is updated. So if you move a grid, the grid on all drawings are also updated. These references keep track of drawing names and sheet numbers, so if you change sheets or reshuffle drawings, the references will also update.

A brand new CAD module allows 2D CAD drafting, especially useful when drawing details. Standard features like trim, extend, intersect, fillet, arc by 2 points, arc by 3 points, and offset are available with hotkeys for rapid editing.

Updates on Information Delivery Specification

BuildingSMART has been developing a new technology known as Information Delivery Specification. This is a standardised approach to auditing IFC models. For example, you can check whether or not properties are assigned, or materials exist. Originally, IfcOpenShell provided support for it during a previous Google Summer of Code project. However, IDS has evolved since then and the IfcOpenShell codebase has been recently updated with a comprehensive test suite that addresses many of the ambiguities in IDS. This addresses many concerns like inheritance,

overrides, and filtering by classifications, properties, attributes, materials, and more.

Unfortunately, IDS is not yet ready for end-users, so this code is only available for developers who want to explore this standard. When stable, this will likely supersede BIMTester.

New documentation for users and developers

Lack of documentation has always been a problem. This release sees a new documentation website with the basics documented for both users and developers.

Users can access the new documentation here: https://blenderbim.org/docs/

Enough docs are written to give users a guide of how to explore models. The docs are still horrendously incomplete, but at least this sets a standard of documentation expected and a structure for how to present it.

Developers can access the new documentation here: https://blenderbim.org/docs-python/

This addresses long-time concerns that many of the IfcOpenShell utilities and API were hidden, which is a shame as IfcOpenShell actually has a crazy number of features. Check out the API docs here: https://blenderbim.org/docs-python/autoapi/index.html

Support for distribution ports

For MEP modeling, all distribution elements (like ducts, pipes, equipment) have connection ports to allow them to connect within a distribution system (chilled water, supply air, etc). Many IFC viewers do not show these distribution ports, which is a shame, because they are critical to ensuring the correct connectivity and topology of a distribution system.

New features involve showing ports, hiding ports, and basic port editing. You can now move, copy, add new ports, or delete existing ports. You can change the location of ports, and the attributes of a port. You can also connect, disconnect, or set the flow direction of ports.

Of course, editing ports by itself is not enough for complete MEP modeling, but it is a critical step in the right direction. Very minimal features have been implemented to do with automatically drawing ductwork from parametric widths and heights, but it is still too early to be productive with.

Construction sequencing improvements

You can now export schedules to Microsoft Project. Importing from MS Project is also improved with a number of critical bugs that broke importing (including calendar and duration calculation) fixed. A number of critical import bugs were also fixed for P6 XML versions <8.1. For those using IFC to XML conversions with IfcConvert, schedule, task, and calendar data is now also converted thanks to Christian Martínez de la Rosa!

Date calculations have been improved, handling cases where tasks are edited without enough date information, infinite loops in invalid calendars, recursive calendar removal, or editing start times with no finish. Date calculations now follow working days, and handle a 9-5pm day as a 1 day durection, instead of calculating from midnight.

Gantt chart presentation is also now much better, showing ISO durations and task captions on the chart bars.

Support for rendering styles and textures

The BlenderBIM Add-on now suports rendering styles and (certain types of) textures. The colours you see in a BIM model are typically the on-screen basic shading colours. However, IFC also stores rendering materials, rendering colours, and textures. These materials (i.e. lighting modes or rendering modes) are actually compatible with glTF and X3D. This means that modern physically based materials are supported. Textures like diffuse, normal, metallic, emissive, are also supported.

With better support for rendering, this gives BIM authors more control over basic model presentation, and with support for texturing, this can be used instead of previous hacks where textures were represented as unnecessary geometry (especially for models which tesselate text, signage symbols, or things like grilles and grates).

New material and style manager

A critical part of managing a BIM model is seeing the materials and styles used. The new material and style manager lets you see a list of these, filter by material or style, delete, add, and see where it is used. Hopefully, this will lead to improved data quality in BIM models where materials can be better managed and audited, and then linked to life cycle analysis.

Styles are also more than colours. The new style manager exposes styles like fill area styles, curve styles, and text styles. Managing these styles are critical for drawing support.

Improved document manager

The UX for managing document and document references have now be improved. Attach and associate documents such as drawings, schedules, and specifications with objects, and add subdocuments or superseded documents. Support for relative paths make it easier to transport associated external documents with IFC models.

New support for actors

BIM isn't just about geometry ... or properties ... or tasks, resources, cost items, materials, analytical models ... and so on. BIM is also about actors! Actors are people and organisations, including liable engineers and architects, clients and operators, occupants and lessees, manufacturers, warranty providers, and suppliers. These critical relationships betwene objects and "actors" can now be managed. People, organisations, and people within organisations can be designated actor roles and associated with objects, and the UX has been refreshed based on this usecase. This has large implications for facility management.

So much more

A few critical bugs were fixed for coordinate offsets in projects using map coordinates, the selector utility now has support for chaining and "not" filters, basic usability tweaks here and there, such as the save and save as distinction when saving projects, file browsing for URI reference properties, a number of bugfixes related to IFC2X3 authoring, and increased geometry stability when importing. The test suites have now also passed the 1,500 test milestone to guarantee the ongoing stability of the add-on.

A huge thanks to the growing volume of new contributors who are joining the team and changing the industry. You can too!

All changes

All changes can view the directly via the Git logs here:

https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/commits/v0.7.0?since=2022-01-31&until=2022-05-16

Credits for this release (in order of commits via git shortlog -sn --since "2022-01-31"):


   256  Dion Moult

    37  Thomas Krijnen

    10  Christian Martínez de la Rosa

     9  ArturTomczak

     7  Dushyant Basson

     6  Massimo Fabbro

     5  Adrien SCHVALBERG

     4  Gorgious56

     3  Bruno Postle

     3  Henri J. Norden

     2  Boris Brangeon

     2  Cyril Waechter

     2  dependabot[bot]

     2  renjianqiang

     1  Bruno Perdigão

     1  Emad Aghajani

     1  Jesusbill

     1  Ryan Schultz

     1  ssg

M by Moult on 5 Nov 2022 # +20 votes

BlenderBIM Add-on v0.0.221105 has been released with 775 new features and fixes. It's our built environment, help support the BlenderBIM Add-on: 100% free and open source software that lets you author and document BIM data fully to ISO standards. It's built by the AEC community, for the AEC community. Get it today: https://blenderbim.org/

It has been 6 months since the last release, so fasten your seatbelts.

Support for Conda, PyPI, Docker, Apple M1, and Chocolatey

IfcOpenShell is now available in significantly more distribution channels. By far the most popular requests were the ability to install on Conda, PyPI, and support Apple M1 devices. Installing IfcOpenShell for Python can now be as simple as pip install ifcopenshell. For Windows users, daily builds are available on the Chocolatey package manager. Apple M1 support was generously provided by donations from our userbase, and we currently have funding to provide just over a year of regular Apple M1 builds. If you want to support us please help donate here.

Load large federated models

You can now set up models to load 1GB of federated IFC data in as little as 10 seconds, and walk around your models in real time. This makes the BlenderBIM Add-on the fastest IFC authoring platform available in the industry.

This is now possible thanks to a series of upgrades in the partial IFC loading process: you can now merge objects from large models to keep object counts low. A new coordination mode disables loading types. Openings are now not loaded for speed. You can now set limits and offsets when loading large object counts. Model loading can also be done headlessly so you can automate it using a server.

New wall, slab, profile, and stair editing tools

Modeling tools received a significant upgrade. Parametric IFC walls now support intelligent connections at start, end, and along the wall axis path. This means that moving walls that are attached to other walls will allow walls to auto extend and trim to the new locations. It's now also easy to edit the wall length, height, and slope angle using parameters. Walls can also extend up to simple flat roofs. Walls now support all layer usage parameters, including axis offset and direction.

The profile manager now lets you create end edit arbitrary custom profiles. These profiles can be reused across multiple elements, like columns, beams, and structural members. Profiled elements now support 3D butt and mitre joints, especially useful for steel detailing.

Slab profiles can now be edit parametrically with a new profile editor. This shows a 2D profile in space which supports snapping to other elements in the 3D scene. The 2D profile also supports true parametric arcs, inner profiles, and true parametric circles where you can set the radius. There is also a prototype integration with CAD Sketcher to allow for constraint based profile editing.

A new opening system lets you hide and show openings, or create custom profiled openings for door and windows. Doors, windows, and walls can be flipped independently, and host and child elements can either be moved independently or together using the new decomposition selection tool.

A new array feature lets you create N-dimensional arrayed copies of parent objects. This is the start for creating commonly repeated objects such as beams, structural bays, or column grids.

A new monolithic stair tool is available to replace the previous "dumb stair" tool. This generates a standard concrete stair and is the start of a series of new parametric object generators.

Altogether the new parametric modeling tools are also significantly more stable, handling many permutations of smart connections, changing types, profile parameters, and layer thicknesses.

Thumbnail support and type manager

The BIM Authoring Tool comes with a much improved UI: parameters can now be easily access either through buttons, sliders, or via hotkeys for fast editing. A thumbnail displays the active asset, and supports showing profile and wall layer cross sections to quickly identify different layer-based and profile-based types.

You can also launch a new type manager which will show all your IFC library assets. You can easily add new types based on templates, duplicate existing types, or delete types.

European and Australian standard steel profiles

Most proprietary software come with an asset library. There has been a renewed interest in the BOLTS project, a technical database of structural standards that is shared between OpenSCAD, FreeCAD, and now has new support for IFC-based software. To begin with, there is WIP support for hundreds of standard European and Australian standard steel profiles, and data is being collected for a number of architectural standard or typical nominal dimensions.

We believe this will be the largest and most comprehensive open source technical database available in the industry, representing a huge leap forward in standardisation and automation for costing, life cycle analysis, structural analysis, feasibility studies, AI datasets, and more.

Faster faster faster

Almost every release sees speed optimisations and this release is no different. Users on Blender 3.3 will see model loading to be 50% faster, with the improvements being greater for larger models.

There is also now a native mesh processing option, if models include heavy mesh data with large polycounts, this allows those meshes to be loaded very quickly.

IfcDiff is also now twice as fast in comparing models. More configuration options in IfcDiff also let you choose whether or not geometry or simple attributes are compared. Results are also more accurate.

For those watching the progress in the console during model loading, progress reporting is now more accurate and detailed so you can tell what's happening.

Tooltips and online documentation

Native IFC authoring requires knowledge of the classifications, data types and relationships that IFC offers. A perhaps hidden new feature but with great significance is the ability to hover over almost any IFC related name and see a tooltip of the ISO-standardised definition. You can also right click to access the IFC documentation website. Documentation is provided for both IFC2X3 and IFC4. This makes the BlenderBIM Add-on the perfect tool for academia and those new to learning IFC.

Documentation is provided for IFC classes, predefined types, all attributes, property sets, quantity sets, properties, quantities, and user-defined custom property templates too.

New website design

The BlenderBIM Add-on website has now been redesigned to better reflect the full scope of capabilities, as well as have a new branding that connects with the upstream IfcOpenShell umbrella website (which will soon also have a redesign released).

The documentation also has a number of new guides written, including guides for dealing with large models, and handling georeferencing.

IDS support

Continuing on from the early prototypes of IDS support, there is now a new IfcTester library, CLI application and web app that allows you to view, edit, and audit models using the brand new IDS standard. This standard is fully validated against the IDS specification. Reports can be generated as CLI output, JSON, or HTML. You can also run audits using the BlenderBIM Add-on.

The IfcTester application is being increasingly battle tested in large commercial projects to make sure that it is appropriate for use.

New library of quantity take-off functions

There are now a series of 20 new quantity take of utility functions for use for developers in writing custom quantity take off rules. These are slowly being mapped to the buildingSMART standardised quantity take-off definitions to replace the older quantity system which was very basic.

A new release management strategy

As the number of contributors to IfcOpenShell and the BlenderBIM Add-on grows, we've now started a Kanban project based approach to collaborating between developers and communicating to users what's on the roadmap. A "development theme" will be chosen to help decide what to focus on for each release, and instead of releasing "whenever Moult feels like it" we now have a 2-month release cycle.

Users and developers can now plan for the "next release" and the "release after next". Tasks that are not complete will shift to the next release. This was tested for 2 weeks leading up to this release, where 4 developers completed 24 out of 37 tasks. Thanks to your donations, we have now enough funding to hire part time development, which has lead to a number of features in this latest release. With your continued funding, we can accelerate development even further!

So much more

There is now support for loading an updated IFC model incrementally. A critical bug was fixed for upgrading schemas. IFC2X3 document reference support added. Diffuse colours specified as ratios are now supported. The IFC validator has had significant improvements with in progress support for "where rules", and a number of validation fixes were made in BlenderBIM Add-on generated content. You can now add booleans to geometry, including support for half space solid clipping. Fixed fatal crashes in CAD tool for filleting and extending, and a new 2D CAD offset tool has been implemented which gives more reliable results compared to the 3D offset tool. A new pach is available to fix bugs in Autodesk Revit when converting TINS from 12D to Revit. Rebar is now exported from native Blender beveled curves. Classifications can be added to cost items and materials. Resource level classifications are now supported. Spatial zones are now supported. You can now reference spatial structures, so things like multi-story columns or doors, stairs, dampers, and so on can reference a "to" and "from" space. The OBJ2IFC script now has a Meshlab implementation and supports different schema versions. OffsetObjectPlacement patching now supports 3D rotations, especially useful when fixing IFCs from Solidworks. MergeDuplicatesTypes patch now can work on any attribute. Support for nested IfcGroups. New IfcSelector module to graphically create selection sets. Cyclic task dependencies are now handled for CPM analysis. Basic IFC4X3 support is now enabled, although geometry is not supported, there is support for schema entities. Long dropdowns and enumerations can be filtered for improved UX. Pset templates now support enumeration properties where the user can select multiple possible values.

A huge thanks to the growing volume of new contributors who are joining the team and changing the industry. You can too!

All changes

All changes can view the directly via the Git logs here:

https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/commits/v0.7.0?since=2022-05-17&until=2022-11-05

Credits for this release (in order of commits via git shortlog -sn --since "2022-05-17"):


   407  Dion Moult

   114  Thomas Krijnen

    57  Vukas Pajic

    38  Gorgious56

    31  Carlos Villagrasa

    24  Gorgious

    19  Sigma Dimensions

    13  Andrej730

    10  Kristoffer Andersen

    10  Ryan Schultz

    10  Massimo Fabbro

     6  krande

     5  Martin15135215

     5  fbpyr

     4  Bruno Postle

     3  luz paz

     2  Boris Brangeon

     2  Dirk Olbrich

     2  Esteban Dugueperoux

     2  dependabot[bot]

     1  AToradaIBIM

     1  Amoki

     1  ArturTomczak

     1  Bruno Perdigão

     1  Christian Kimmig

     1  Christian Martínez de la Rosa

     1  Dmitry Sedov

     1  GisSpace

     1  befr

     1  bimworld

     1  garylzimmer

C by Coen on 5 Nov 2022, edited 5 Nov 2022 # +5 votes

@Moult and everony else involved

Absoluteley amazing! Great work!!!

B by Bedson on 5 Nov 2022 #

What are the modeling 'Smart Connections'? Are they custom snaps which could perhaps be used on pipe fittings for quick placement?

M by Moult on 5 Nov 2022 # +5 votes

@Coen thanks! @Bedson axis-based things (like walls, columns, beams, members, etc) now know if they are connected (e.g. butt/mitre) at the end/start/along the path of the axis. So if two walls are connected, and you move one of the walls, the other wall will extend/trim to follow.

Bonsai new release!

All changes

Optimisations to authoring and geometry caching

Increased stability

Brickschema integration

New bulk property editor

Chipping away at drawing generation and MEP support

Better docs and building for developers

So much more

All changes

1692 get_info_2() logical now supported Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1993 vs2022 hdf5 Thanks aothms!

1993 msvc 2022 config Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1960 BRepBuilderAPI_MakeFace on non-overlapping 2d subtraction Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1969 take uppercase in register_schema() Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1785 HdfSerializer read-only option Thanks aothms!

1895 don't signal element ready when result is empty Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1153 draw.py timing Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1153 update draw.py with two new options Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1153 option to preprocess shape into sets of profile edges Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1885 consider schema type when copying attribute values Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1785 omplete stored_settings / requested_settings check Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1785 check settings in cache and upgrade to world coords Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1785 geometry caching caching Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1153 #1852 project points to form SVG HLR cut plane Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1153 evenodd SVG styling. Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1153 boolean subtraction on parts Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1153 another small hack to get boolean projection working more generally Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1850 Process extrusions of comp profiles seperately Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1743 don't consider bbox in opening subtractions Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1785 geometry caching on multi threaded iterator Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1153 svg subtraction settings Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1785 quick identity check to keep trsf form at identity Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

1985 Fix bug with selecting objects via geometry tree. Consolidate and correct shell count checks in tree Thanks Thomas Krijnen!

Support for Blender 3.1!

Basic drawing generation is now available

Updates on Information Delivery Specification

New documentation for users and developers

Support for distribution ports

Construction sequencing improvements

Support for rendering styles and textures

New material and style manager

Improved document manager

New support for actors

So much more

All changes

Support for Conda, PyPI, Docker, Apple M1, and Chocolatey

Load large federated models

New wall, slab, profile, and stair editing tools

Thumbnail support and type manager

European and Australian standard steel profiles

Faster faster faster

Tooltips and online documentation

New website design

IDS support

New library of quantity take-off functions

A new release management strategy

So much more

All changes