I'm happy to release another BlenderBIM Add-on v0.0.200511 with over 50 new features and fixes. The BlenderBIM Add-on is 100% free and open source software that lets you author and document BIM data fully to ISO standards. Get it today:
https://blenderbim.org/
Highlights include improvements to object type imports, IFC document reference and information data improvements, huge improvements to documentation abilities, and support for IFC annotation geometry.
New features:
- Artists now have an option to merge aggregates into a single object to easier object manipulation
- Metadata about aggregates themselves are imported, including attributes, psets, and relationships
- New option to select all objects of the same object type
- Classification hierarchies are now imported and can be browsed in a tree viewer
- Element classification references are now imported
- All document metadata is now imported, not just location
- Document information metadata can now be authored and exported
- Document information metadata can now be imported
- Documents that are not related to objects can now be imported and managed in a UI
- New feature to relate document information and reference entities
- Classifications maintain their hierarchy and do not flatten upon export, allowing for richer (i.e. semi-lightweight) classification exports
- Users can specify a list of IFC files to be cut in a section / plan / view
- Exclude rooms from being cut by default in a section
- New style preset for creating construction documentation graphics
- Grid annotations now work in 3D
- IFC metadata (like materials) is now cached when doing a section cut to improve performance
- New UI to add annotation objects to a view like dimensions, leaders, text, levels, etc
- New font size support for text sizes 1.8, 2.5, 3.5, 5, and 7.
- Rebar is more efficiently created without the need for distinct circle profile objects
- Background renders can be cached when doing a section cut to improve performance, if you are only changing annotation
- Users can now specify a symbol for text annotation, like a label box
- Text annotation now supports variables to extract data from IFC files
- Geometric representation context and subcontext definitions are now imported
- Relevant types are now auto-selected for export for convenience
- Export feature is now more granular to export only specific contexts
- 2D axis representations (i.e. not 3D) are now also supported from both meshes and curves
- Authoring and exporting footprint geomset geometry contexts is now supported
- Authoring and exporting 2D and 3D annotation geometry contexts is now supported
- Authoring and exporting 3D profile geometry contexts is now supported
- Text annotations with variables can have functions applied to them - e.g. to concatenate data, format data, or anything, for example to round text annotation to the nearest decimal point, or force uppercase formatting
- BlenderBIM Add-on importing and exporting can now be done headlessly on a server, to allow for remote server processing of BIM data. There is now a BlenderBIM Add-on continuous integration server, to process IFC test cases:
https://ci.blenderbim.org/
- You can now bulk-add smart annotations to many objects at once
- You can now manage the geometric representation contexts per object or object type, to switch, lazy-load representations from an IFC, and create new contexts
- IFC unit settings are now preserved on import, instead of using your Blender settings
- You can now export _just_ a single representation to an IFC file, leaving the rest of the IFC data untouched
- Type representations are now imported as well instead of just elements, with support for mapped geometries
- IfcDoorStyle and IfcWindowStyle metadata (attributes, etc) from IFC2X3 are now imported
- Annotation objects are recognised in the section cutting procedure, and not processed for a boolean cut for a more optimised cut
- Solid line annotation objects are now supported (previously only hidden lines were supported)
- A list of contexts are now imported for each object, and you can switch between them with a new UI
- Section / plan / documentation cuts now recognise annotation objects, and will draw them as 2D linework
- Stair annotations now work in 3D
- New hatch patterns! Sexy.
- New door tag symbol support.
- New breakline annotation.
- IfcAnnotation entities are now supported, to be used as you see fit.
- Documentation sections / plans / views are now exported into IFC as groups
- Text annotation is now exported as IfcAnnotation, with new support for IfcTextLiteralWithExtents
- All other annotation objects (dimensions / leaders / levels / symbols / etc) are now created and exported into IfcAnnotation by default.
New fixes:
- Fix section planes sometimes not cutting through aggregates and appearing at the cursor
- Bug where poor material data may cause a bad section cut fixed
- Lat/longs are now converted to decimal degrees from DMS format
- Materials are re-used on subsequent imports if they already exist to prevent material duplication
I will have to do a little video demo of it.