Designing my own new house using FreeCAD

[Szzer]

Folks,

I've been using FreeCAD seriously for a year now, and like it a lot, even as a professional CAD user (get paid to use Siemens NX at my job).
So much that I've desided to design our new house completely in FreeCAD 0.19.

huis in omgeving 18-09-2020 klein.PNG (133.91 KiB) Viewed 13911 times

huis in omgeving 2 18-09-2020.PNG (64.59 KiB) Viewed 13911 times

(note: the enviroment is a 3d representation made downloadible by the dutch goverment).

I make a lot of use of the App:link, this to make this massive assembly manageble. else updating anything takes forever.
I Just align the parts using the coordinates, makes everything very stable. and it gives the main assembly very managible.
A screengrab of the main assemby buildup:

Capture.PNG (27.25 KiB) Viewed 13905 times

I have even made a start with detailing the construction of the building;

Huis opbouw detail 18-09-2020 klein.PNG (264.75 KiB) Viewed 13911 times

And by combining Techdraw and Inkscape the 2D drawings for getting permits is quite easy:

aanzichten en materiaalgebruik 15-09-2020 klein.PNG (40.28 KiB) Viewed 13911 times

Thanks Yorik for the BIM Workbench!

Edit:
my system:
OS: Windows 10 (10.0)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.22670 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: 12155f4aab09047c5697db0c1b3cf93b02edda03
Python version: 3.8.6
Qt version: 5.12.9
Coin version: 4.0.0
OCC version: 7.4.0
Locale: Western Frisian/Netherlands (fy_NL)

[thschrader]

Nice work!
Should be no problem to get the permit
Is it a wooden structure?
Do you wanna build it by your own?
The house is located near by a channel, right?

[Szzer]

Thschrader,

All yes :-p
The structure is wood with a brick facing and the floor is partly freefloating, and has a steel structure (i have plenty steel beams laying around to make that for free). Since I'm cheap I'll probably build most of it myself, Also builders are incredably expensive these days, there is a large shortage of qualified builders here.
And your'e right it's located near a canal, which is not that unusual in The Netherlands...

Well we will see if the municipality likes the drawings I made

[paullee]

Folks,

I've been using FreeCAD seriously for a year now, and like it a lot, even as a professional CAD user (get paid to use Siemens NX at my job).
So much that I've desided to design our new house completely in FreeCAD 0.19.
...
Thanks Yorik for the BIM Workbench!

Looks great !

A few questions -

1. Using Arch Objects ? How about the framed walls ?
2. App::Links to Arch Objects ? Works in TechDraw ?
3. Do you want to share your model like others ? @bitacovir has been helping to do this

   Added to https://wiki.osarch.org/index.php?title ... in_FreeCAD

[bitacovir]

[*]Do you want to share your model like others ? @bitacovir has been helping to do this

Added to https://wiki.osarch.org/index.php?title ... in_FreeCAD

[/list]

I think it would be better as example of an architecture workflow in FC:
https://wiki.osarch.org/index.php?title ... w_Examples

[carlopav]

Great work, it looks like one of the best examples of construction modelling I saw here in the forum.
Can you show your entire model tree? I'm curious to see which objects you used
Did you use Std::Part instead of Arch.BuildingPart and Arch.Building?

[Szzer]

I can share the modeltree. Sharing the complete model I have to think about that. It will be my own house.....

I have two main assemblies, one simple version and one highly detailed. This because having a simple version makes making geometric changes much quicker. So if I want to change the position of a wall I first do it in the simple model.
The simple model feature tree is this:

ScreenHunter 382.png (29.6 KiB) Viewed 13643 times

ScreenHunter 383.png (33.84 KiB) Viewed 13643 times

ScreenHunter 384.png (26.92 KiB) Viewed 13643 times

ScreenHunter 385.png (27.08 KiB) Viewed 13643 times

As you can see I've been quite lazy about naming all the objects inside the parts. Since I've cut the complete building in to managible chunks this is fine. Also For some parts Ive used Arch walls or arch beams, while for others simple blocks. This has no real reasoning behind it.
For linking between documents i've put all the objects I want to link to the main assembly in a Part-container. I found this to be a easy flexible way to determine which objects are visible in the main assembly. Interestingly this is a similar workflow as I use in NX.

I used the wall and window feature a lot, the fact the window makes a hole in the wall automatically is the main reason for this. otherwise the window feature is very buggy and cumbersome. other arch features not so much.

[carlopav]

Thanks for sharing the tree, it's really tidy.
Any particular problem that you stepped into while modelling the Building?
Are the simplified model and the detailed one somehow related one to the other? Which workflow do you use to detail the simplified model?
Sorry for annoying you with all those questione, but i've been investing a lot of thought in the last year in an "arch assembly workflow" for the BIM workbench and i strongly believe that some of your modelling choices should be default in arch

[Szzer]

No problem.

I'm a mechanical engineer, And use the same assembly buildup for a mechanical product as a house. I don't have any serious BIM experience.
Thanks for calling the feature tree tidy. Making it clean looking helps for finding any issues that popup.

The workflow.
Initially I started with the complete building in one file. but that quickly became far to slow.
The first step for me was geting the outer shape established with two sketches, one of the roodline and one of the outline of the outside walls. these two sketches I copy to the sub-parts if they need any of these dimensions. I did not link the sketch to each part, this too sensitive to breaking in my opion (also my experience from NX, that too is sensitive to the topo naming issue, just not as bad as freecad). Then as i made all building parts, roof, outer walls etc. I put those each in a seperate file. In that file I put all components in one app:part, i use it as a container. To this part I link from the main assembly.
How to choose which objects get a seperate file an which are combined in one is a bit arbitrary. It is also a bit arbitraty because I found the link feature halfway designing the building, so not everything is seperated yet.

The detailed and simple model are not related by links to eachother. for the same reason as above. It is based on completely seperate files. There is an assembly which has links to both the simple and detailed assemblies, such that I can compare both, check if the window alignments are still the same etc.

the major annoyances i've encountered:
1. The arch window feature sucks, It is extremely buggy. I've had many times that when placing a window or door that it is not selectable in the feature tree after placement. Also when exporting the house to step the doors and windows do not export as well. The workaround I found was adding the doors and windows to a folder inside the part (you can see this in the feature tree in the previous post), this also solves the selectability issue.
2. The default dimensions of the windows and doors are linked, thats stupid. If I first model a door, with the arch door button, and then want to put in a window in with the window-button, the window got the same dimensions as the door. an anoying bug.
3. The windows are very crude
4. forching the doors to be in an open position in the 3d model is a pain, takes far to many clicks.
4. The BIM Views manager that pops up every time you open the BIM workbench is incredibly annoying. I don't understand the point of it.

Regarding the third, Yorik recently posted in his blog that he made a way to create detailed windows. I'm in the process copying his ideas in the detailed model, he had to do some trickery with the colors I find difficult to understand. Summarizing my struggles: Arch Doors/windows are great and terrible at the same time. The fact they make a hole in a archwall is amazing, everything else is a pain in these functions.

[Szzer]

My assembly buildup is as following;
Assy_simple_house
assy_detailed_house

Assy_non_detailed_drawings <-- contains link to Assy_simple_house
Assy_detailed_drawings <-- contains link to Assy_detailed_house
Assy_enviroment <-- contains link to Assy_simple_house

I think this way of working is called the Master-model approach, correct me if i'm wrong.

Regarding the 2d drawings the assembly feature tree looks like this:

ScreenHunter 386.png (23.02 KiB) Viewed 13570 times

As you can see the roof (dak) and buitenmuren(outside walls) are added as links next to the house (Huis). This because the section feature cannot select any parts inside a linked document, oh well long live the workarounds.