House modeling in progress

Show off your FreeCAD projects here!
Forum rules
Be nice to others! Respect the FreeCAD code of conduct!
ABeton
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2019 6:39 pm

House modeling in progress

Post by ABeton »

Hello,

I have been working on a detailed house model in FreeCAD for some time now, and it has been an interesting experience for sure. I started first with a simple conceptual model, but then decided to add walls with layers, beams and columns, also furniture, just to see what are the capabilities of the program. When it comes to 3D modeling, FreeCAD can do almost everything that is needed for a project. This is still work in process just to be clear :) .

If we compare FreeCAD to Revit or Archicad it is probably slower to work with, and requires more creativity to get the final result, but it also has much more modeling potential which is really cool.

Anyway to get to the point :lol: I attached some of the images of the project bellow:

1.jpeg
1.jpeg (131.93 KiB) Viewed 7324 times
2.jpeg
2.jpeg (133.93 KiB) Viewed 7324 times
3.jpeg
3.jpeg (256.03 KiB) Viewed 7324 times
4.jpeg
4.jpeg (338.61 KiB) Viewed 7324 times
5.jpeg
5.jpeg (228.4 KiB) Viewed 7324 times

The stairs were a big problem to create, I didnt find any automatic way to do these kind of stairs, so in the end I relied heavily on the "Shape Builder" tool in the Part workbench, and the Face from edges option.
ABeton
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2019 6:39 pm

Re: House modeling in progress

Post by ABeton »

6.jpeg
6.jpeg (183.64 KiB) Viewed 7320 times

I added the furniture from GrabCAD, all the models are STEP files. A big problem in the past was that a lot of these models were really heavy files, which made inserting a large number of them difficult. Also, generating a 2D image of one chair could work but if there is a large number of models especialy complex ones FreeCAD usually freezes when using the Shape 2D View option.

I tried the App Link this time, and put all furniture in separate files, and then in one file. So in essence it is a furniture library. And just imported it all with the Link, and can say that it works really well and keeps the model light. Also I generated the 2D View in separate furniture files and the put both the model and the 2D drawing into the Link Group. What you can do after this is create a sub-link of the 2D drawing and move it into a separate file (this is good if you want to move a 3D model and the 2D view together, but show or hide them at different times). My explanation is probably not the best I know :oops:

7.jpeg
7.jpeg (242.18 KiB) Viewed 7320 times

For columns I used the option to connect them to an Axis System. This works really great, and I was quite impressed :D Some columns do need to be placed by hand in some cases, but it is a great option.

8.jpeg
8.jpeg (127.56 KiB) Viewed 7320 times

2D drawing of furniture when I hide the 3D models.

9.jpeg
9.jpeg (141.3 KiB) Viewed 7320 times

Thermoinsulation.

10.jpeg
10.jpeg (335.08 KiB) Viewed 7320 times

Each brick wall is a separate model, they are not connected. I think this helps to regenerate the model faster (not sure tho).
ABeton
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2019 6:39 pm

Re: House modeling in progress

Post by ABeton »

11.jpeg
11.jpeg (517.68 KiB) Viewed 7315 times

In "2D namjestaj" is the 2D representation of the furniture. In it I placed all the sub-links which are connected to links of furniture 2D drawings. This means you can move them easily all together. Also another great advantage of sublinks is that if a drawing generated from a STEP file is to complex or has to many lines, with sublinks you can show only the lines you need. For example I did that with the table drawing, the original one was more complex because of the filletes.

12.jpeg
12.jpeg (618.17 KiB) Viewed 7315 times

Furniture organisation in the item tree.

13.jpeg
13.jpeg (190.14 KiB) Viewed 7315 times

Interior finish.

And that is pretty much it :) If someone has some advice or wants to discuss how to these things in an easier or faster way, feel free comment :D
chrisb
Veteran
Posts: 53919
Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 9:14 am

Re: House modeling in progress

Post by chrisb »

Thanks for sharing and for explaining how to overcome some problems.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
User avatar
ragohix769
Posts: 565
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2020 7:04 am
Location: Rome - Italy

Re: House modeling in progress

Post by ragohix769 »

Thanks for sharing, it's impressive whant you can do with FC. Some Screenshots seems taken with Sketchup!

What's exactly the area where FC it's slower then Archicad, Revit, etc etc?

And where FC is, on contrary, far better then Archicad, Revit, etc etc?
After #ElonMuskBuyTwitter I'm no more on Twitter, that's really enough :-(
=> Now you can find me here on #Mastodon: https://mastodon.uno/@opensoul - I hope more people do the same :-)
User avatar
bitacovir
Veteran
Posts: 1570
Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2014 6:23 am
Contact:

Re: House modeling in progress

Post by bitacovir »

This is a good example of arch modeling workflow. It is important to document the steps of your links and sublinks. This way we can replicate this. I did not use link in another project, rather Arch Reference. But here I can understand an case of AppLink in Arch design.

I would like to share this thread in OSArch.org where we have a wiki with examples of Achitectural FreeCAD workflows:
https://wiki.osarch.org/index.php?title ... w_Examples
::bitacovir::
==================
One must be absolutely modern.
Arthur Rimbaud (A Season in Hell -1873)

Canal Youtube Grupo Telegram de FreeCAD Español

My personal web site
My GitHub repository
Mini Airflow Tunnel Project
ABeton
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2019 6:39 pm

Re: House modeling in progress

Post by ABeton »

chrisb wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 3:56 pm Thanks for sharing and for explaining how to overcome some problems.
Sure thing :)
ragohix769 wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:17 pm Thanks for sharing, it's impressive whant you can do with FC. Some Screenshots seems taken with Sketchup!

What's exactly the area where FC it's slower then Archicad, Revit, etc etc?

And where FC is, on contrary, far better then Archicad, Revit, etc etc?
Yes it really is, and it is all done in FreeCAD, no Sketchup hahahaha :D

Well I only used Archicad, but I guess Revit is similar. They have tools for architecture which are more polished than the ones for FreeCAD, which is normal considering how many people work on a software like that. Archicad has prebuilt walls which you can combine and move easily. There is a layer system where you can design your own walls, just insert the width and material of each layer and you can use it easily and it draws the hatching right away. Options to place, doors and windows are also really good and fast. And perhaps the biggest advantage is that making 2D drawings is great, you get hatches, anotations, dimensioning, pretty much everything. This is the biggest downside of FreeCAD when it comes to architecture, making 2D drawings with hatches is difficult to do on bigger projects. It is doable but probably the best way is to export drawings to QCAD and do it there.

The point is that FreeCAD has a lot of these options but it probably requires more time and people to develope them more.

And the advantage of FreeCAD is that you have so many modeling tools in one place, and that is great! You can model furniture in it and then import it using Link. And you have much more liberty in the way you want to model things, so you can make walls in many different ways for example, or doors. The tool to make doors and windows from sketches is very good for example, and I dint use it before.
ABeton
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2019 6:39 pm

Re: House modeling in progress

Post by ABeton »

bitacovir wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 7:25 pm This is a good example of arch modeling workflow. It is important to document the steps of your links and sublinks. This way we can replicate this. I did not use link in another project, rather Arch Reference. But here I can understand an case of AppLink in Arch design.

I would like to share this thread in OSArch.org where we have a wiki with examples of Achitectural FreeCAD workflows:
https://wiki.osarch.org/index.php?title ... w_Examples
Thanks, yes I think that links and sublinks are really good to use in this way. I also used Arch Reference before, so this was my first time with links in architecture. Also the way I did the stairs could be interesting, and perhaps automated. It has potential to be used for more complex shapes.

I am not sure how to document the use of links and sublinks though, maybe I could attach a couple of screenshots here with descriptions?
User avatar
bitacovir
Veteran
Posts: 1570
Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2014 6:23 am
Contact:

Re: House modeling in progress

Post by bitacovir »

ABeton wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 7:40 pm
I am not sure how to document the use of links and sublinks though, maybe I could attach a couple of screenshots here with descriptions?
Yes. Some screenshots and a description. Also you could share some small files as examples.
::bitacovir::
==================
One must be absolutely modern.
Arthur Rimbaud (A Season in Hell -1873)

Canal Youtube Grupo Telegram de FreeCAD Español

My personal web site
My GitHub repository
Mini Airflow Tunnel Project
paullee
Veteran
Posts: 5097
Joined: Wed May 04, 2016 3:58 pm

Re: House modeling in progress

Post by paullee »

Cross-posting from OSArch @bitacovir did :D

https://community.osarch.org/discussion ... cad#latest
Post Reply