Welcome to the group @krande, great to see you have experience on the CAD to FEM workflow. We are already working on IFC2CA, an open-source structural workflow from structural IFC to Code_Aster, an open-source FE solver. It would be nice to see any possible developments within the group in the workflow from 3D geometry to analytical one.
Welcome to the community, @krande! Great to see another structural guy on board!
Hi @all! My name is Gerwin and I live in Düsseldorf, Germany. I am neither architect nor engineer. I did my training in public sector facility management and wrote my masterthesis about BIM an FM five years ago. It was a more theoretical than technical report. But i realized, that the key for the future are not the tools but the formats like IFC. And I'm a technical enthusiast, who wants to open the black box and share the knowledge.
Today I work on registration of an existing public building, which was build in the '70. It should provide the basis for future planning of a possible renovation. There are also many problems that need to be solved today.
Because it is a representative university, I think it is well suited to prove the power of free software.
Best Regards
Gerwin
Welcome to OSArch @Gerwin ! We are all enthusiastic about free software and open data formats, so please feel free to share and let us know if we can help in any way!
Hi, @Gerwin, welcome, and happy hear you're active in FM filed in big scale (city scale) and know existing obstacles ahead.
I develop a startup in Smart-FM area with a focus on solving the majority of those challenges
Hello everyone!
My name is Bruno and I am an architect from Brazil. I work at my own small studio since 2011 and have been working with several different kind of projects (residential and institucional, public and private). My design tools used to be the combo AutoCAD and Sketchup, because it was the most popular workflow with architects in my region and also what it was taught in college, but I have been using Archicad for the past couple of years. I have always been a free software enthusiastic and is great to see this growing in the AEC industry. Recently I started teaching at the Architecture School and I realized even more the importance of free software for students and sigle practioners who cannot afford the standard market softwares. I am willing to make the free software workflow for architecture design as one of my research subjects and hope to contributte with some feedbacks.
Welcome to OSArch @bruno_perdigao ! The FOSS AEC space is still very new, but growing quickly! Would love for you to try out things and help us improve. Hopefully, it can indeed turn into software for students!
Hi everyone!
I am here precisely because of this!
I am an architect and I (like many, I assume) have invested a lot of time in my professional career learning software which I could never afford to pay individually (luckily my workplaces could!). Sketchup going the subscription route has done it for me. It is time I took FOSS seriously and currently, it seems Blender and BlenderBIM is what I should be concentrating on!
However, there is this problem of learning Blender. Working with SketchUp has let's say, made me lazy and spoilt, and I am at a loss for where to start! I am pretty sure a lot of people would be feeling the same way. So can someone point out some good courses online where I could start with Blender (geared towards architecture)? Sketchup and Layout have pretty much been useful for my needs (as in I never needed advanced BIM capability, just basic annotations and dimensioning with dynamic sections and plans etc).
@JenuJacob I have been collecting some resources for my students on getting started with Blender for Sketchup Users. I am going to start a new thread where I can post them. They might be useful to you as well.
Welcome @JenuJacob ! You will find Blender an incredibly powerful modeling tool. That said, it is missing some of the features you might consider basic from the SketchUp world. Things like a section plane, or basic annotation tools out of the box. The good news is that there are add-ons covering those bases, and rapidly improving :)
Please try them out, ask as many questions as you want, and we're all here to help!
Hi all !
I'm architect living in Ecuador and migrating (long trip) to Open Software. Very happy to find this community.
Welcome @MartinRoman ! We are all on the long trip :)
Hello All,
Like @JenuJacob above I'm here via a convoluted journey from Trimble's decision to make SketchUp subscription only.
I have a perpetual license and have renewed my Maintenance + Support for many years. It's painful, but I can absorb what is effectively a price hike for me - it's the subscription that I don't like.
Most likely I'll stay with my SketchUp 2020 (I might be able to upgrade my license to 2021) and see what improvements / features Trimble brings to SketchUp in the coming years.
I'm quite taken with Blender and with the some of the architectural addons , in particular the recent CAD transform addon, I'm sure I can replicate how I go about modelling inSketchUp.
However...
I provide planning and building regulations services for domestic clients - extensions, conversions, alterations, etc. and I would need any new workflow involving Blender to replicate how I go about creating presentations and construction documentation with SketchUp to Layout. I'm quite happy with my current workflow using SketchUp and Layout. Despite the numerous annoyances it's fairly seamless and easy.
I have nothing to offer other than moral support and my observations...
Welcome @paul_mcalenan - the ability to create construction documentation with Blender is still poor :) However, there are three of us working hard on changing that - the MeasureIt-ARCH Add-on by @kcress , Archipack by @stephen_l and the BlenderBIM Add-on all have various abilities for creating documentation / views, and we've recently started to collaborate to accelerate development :)
Have fun, and please post your criticisms and observations when comparing the layouting abilities of Blender and SketchUp - we will place close attention to them and try to improve :)
@paul_mcalenan said:
I provide planning and building regulations services for domestic clients - extensions, conversions, alterations, etc. and I would need any new workflow involving Blender to replicate how I go about creating presentations and construction documentation with SketchUp to Layout. I'm quite happy with my current workflow using SketchUp and Layout. Despite the numerous annoyances it's fairly seamless and easy.
There is an addon in Blender for exporting DXF files from your 3D model. The meshes are exported as polylines and you can get 2D views from every side of your project. From that point the DXF file can be imported to LibreCAD or QCAD or NanoCAD... or even AutoCAD :)
@bitacovir said:
@paul_mcalenan There is an addon in Blender for exporting DXF files from your 3D model. The meshes are exported as polylines and you can get 2D views from every side of your project.
The Blender Collada (DAE) plugin is a good way to move data back and forth between blender and sketchup, this can help you get more familiar with blender without having to jump all the way in.
Thanks for those replies!
Also the CAD Transform addon by @stephen_l is excellent.
@bitacovir, @brunopostle, I'll check out those tips
Hi, I'm also an architect, I live in Vienna and I'd love to see this developing into an open and accessible opportunity for all the archi students and freelancers of this world, the way Blender already is for the CG artists. As my knowledge of coding is still limited I'll try to focus on expanding the Wiki, I'd like to start with the page on documentation and perhaps some translation into German and Czech.
Hello,
I am a structural engineer in Brazil working as a single practitioner. I don't know much about coding but I will certainly try to use the software in this early stage. I expect to see some tools for rebar modeling and steel detailing in the future. Good luck guys.
Welcome to OSArch, @ArnoldEstruturas ! You might want to reach out to folks like @bernd and @Jesusbill who have structural backgrounds too! They can perhaps guide on what is currently possible.
@ArnoldEstruturas said:
I expect to see some tools for rebar modeling and steel detailing in the future. Good luck guys.
Check out https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=44863 and https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=44580
@bernd today, I implemented export of swept disk solids, so that's a good start! :)
Hello OSArch Community! I'm an architectural designer out of Chicago and thrilled to learn more about open source software for the AEC industry. I hope to someday incorporate more of these tools into my professional work instead of being so handcuffed to the big monopolies. In the meantime, I'm happy to be a fly on the wall and start learning some of these tools!
@zager welcome to the community, and feel free to be a fly on the wall! Whilst you're learning these new tools, please also give us a shout every time it:
Lets you down.
Gives you up.
Turns around and deserts you.
With your help, we'll fix it together and slowly change the industry :) Here's a big list to get started: https://wiki.osarch.org/index.php?title=AEC_Free_Software_directory
@Moult did you just rickroll me?! lol. Thanks for sharing that list. I've already dabbled in a few.
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