BIM Workbench

[paullee]

Hi, just found there is an Add-on! Some preliminary findings
(BTW, I never use Revit or similar 'BIM' software, only AutoCAD...)

1. Is Window Manager supposedly to be working? I randomly open a test file and open the manager but seem nothing summarized there?
2. Levels Manager seems would be very useful, maybe a corresponding Building Manager which group these Levels?
3. Then this manager set up Levels and put them in selected Building group, which in turn in selected Site group etc.? - This maybe not be very useful and it is indeed very easily to set up manually in any rate.
4. I never understand how Placement in Floor, Building or Site is used - the Latitude / Longtiude is for Solar Diagram which is explained in the Wiki (can't find Pysolar in Fedora yet
5. I currently testing using Arch Axis which can also set levels 'vertically' - I wonder how Axis could be used along with Placement in Floor, Building or Site?
6. I test linking by expression objects supposedly on a floor to the Axis in an Arch Axes. Then, not only the Level, but also the Disposition of these objects changes when the Arch Axes level, or placement change. Not very convenient as there are full of expressions in all input boxes everywhere!
7. If Arch Floor or BIM WB do that jobs do that jobs, I can eliminate my 'experiments'

Hope it helps.

Screenshot from 2018-03-03 16-03-04.png (261.85 KiB) Viewed 17198 times

Screenshot from 2018-03-03 16-02-49.png (228.79 KiB) Viewed 17198 times

[yorik]

Yeah, sorry I didn't announce this properly yet, let's do it right here right now then! I'll transfer this thread to the new Features section.

For who hasn't read my latest blog post about it, I created a new workbench, called BIM, that is in the addons repository (install it with the Addon Manager).

There is still lots of stuff that doesn't work in the BIM WB. And there will be for a long time. If you find something that doesn't work, it's normal It is made to experiment. It is not meant (yet) to be a productive environment. It is meant to experiment, discover and build what would be a ideal "BIM workflow".

The idea behind it is to separate the pure "technical" tools (ie. the Arch tools) in one side, and be able to concentrate/experiment with BIM workflow on another side. That's why I created this WB, so my experiments with UI don't pollute the Arch and therefore the whole FreeCAD source.

Also, with a smaller and separate WB, this makes it much easier for people to look at the code and help.

The main idea of the BIM WB is to use all the necessary other tools from other workbenches (so far Draft, Arch, some Part tools, and I'll integrate the flamingo tools better later on), add a couple of useful macros here and there, and that's it. If some of these tools need to be modified or new tools added, that will be done in their original WB and not in BIM.

The main focus of the BIM WB would be to create a new "layer" of interface on top of all this: Wizards, setup screens, dialogs, etc. The idea is to explore what an interesting BIM workflow would be, how it could be more intuitive and easier to learn.

A first thing I began to play with is linearity: When you open the BIM WB for the first time, a welcome dialog pops up, telling you what to do next. Then the next step suggests you a third step, etc...

Another thing I started playing with is "manager" dialogs. Manage all the floors of your project in one place. Same for windows. And more to come, with @paullee's suggestions above. Indeed there could be one to manage all the axes. All the site settings, all the materials, etc, etc...

About the floor object, it never really worked the way I wanted. After 0.18, I'm thinking to 1) rename it to something else, the word floor is confusing, maybe levels? But I would like something more generic, that is not necessarily stacked on top of each other and 2) make it based on App::Part, which works really well and would be exactly what we want here, plus it handles all the movement nicely.

[yorik]

Something more to say: If you have ideas for such dialogs/wizards, please help! It's very easy, just install Qt Designer (v4 or v5, doesn't matter) and create some dialogs! In the BIM WB repo there are several already to use as examples: https://github.com/yorikvanhavre/BIM_Workbench

[bitacovir]

Something more to say: If you have ideas for such dialogs/wizards, please help! It's very easy, just install Qt Designer (v4 or v5, doesn't matter) and create some dialogs! In the BIM WB repo there are several already to use as examples: https://github.com/yorikvanhavre/BIM_Workbench

Do you mean something like this?

dialogStairs.zip

(1.31 KiB) Downloaded 173 times

(not sure if you want them attached here)

[yorik]

Exactly! I suggest to post a screenshot of dialogs uploaded here, so other people can discuss.

Here are the ones I'm working on already:

This is the welcome screen that shows the first time you switch to the BIM workbench:

Screenshot from 2018-03-05 16-05-04.png (93.43 KiB) Viewed 16818 times

This is the setup screen, that sets different preferences across different workbenches (mostly General/Document, Draft and TechDraw):

Screenshot from 2018-03-05 16-05-20.png (87.57 KiB) Viewed 16818 times

This is the levels manager, to set/see/manage the different levels/floors of your model from one place:

Screenshot from 2018-03-05 16-05-39.png (45.4 KiB) Viewed 16818 times

This is the windows manager. I'm not totally happy with it yet, but the idea would be to have a general idea of the windows contained in your model, be able group them by tag independently of which one is a clone of which other one, etc.

Screenshot from 2018-03-05 16-05-52.png (43.62 KiB) Viewed 16818 times

This is @bitacovir's dialog from last post:

Screenshot from 2018-03-05 16-06-34.png (40.09 KiB) Viewed 16818 times

The three last ones are made to run in the task panel. The two first one not, because they are meant to be modal.

BTW, you can now attach .ui files directly to this forum.

Remarks for two last dialogs: I'm not sure the apply buttons are necessary.. I don't like them. Maybe everything should just update when pressing enter...

The levels manager works already, you can test it in the BIM WB

[bitacovir]

I had some free time today... I hope these are ok.
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WALL Manager

dialogWalls.png (32.57 KiB) Viewed 16764 times

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Structure Manager

dialogStructures.png (33.11 KiB) Viewed 16764 times

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Dimension Manager

dialogDimensions.png (31.55 KiB) Viewed 16764 times

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Ceiling Manager

dialogCeilings.png (35.65 KiB) Viewed 16764 times

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Anotation Manager

dialogAnotation.png (24.72 KiB) Viewed 16764 times

[bitacovir]

Here there is the compressed ui file.

dialogXX_ui.zip

(5.04 KiB) Downloaded 151 times

[bitacovir]

When you implement BIM Workbench in the toolbar you can see two equal icons.

FreeCAD_2018-03-06_09-30-22.png (11.67 KiB) Viewed 16666 times

I understand that one icon is Offset and the other is Part_Offset2D. I assume they perform different tasks. But showing both can be confusing. Maybe it is better to change the Part_Offset2D icon. You could add a 2D on the Part_Offset2D icon or something to make it with a different look.

[yorik]

Honestly I don't know how interesting it is to have a "manager" dialog for each and every object type... For ex, once you have a great many walls in your model, how useful would it be to manage all of them at once?

For some types (windows and doors) I think it makes sense because at some point you get confused as which one is clone of which one, and you might want to have a clear picture of all your windows. But the whole point of this WB is also to try to streamline and simplify the workflow as much as possible, so I'd rather not add too much stuff that will be rarely used.

I think the main usefulness of your dialogs is the ability to select all objects of a certain type at once. But that is a feature I want to add to the selection view panel anyway.

As for the double icon, you're right... We need a new one there

[bitacovir]

Honestly I don't know how interesting it is to have a "manager" dialog for each and every object type... For ex, once you have a great many walls in your model, how useful would it be to manage all of them at once?

For some types (windows and doors) I think it makes sense because at some point you get confused as which one is clone of which one, and you might want to have a clear picture of all your windows. But the whole point of this WB is also to try to streamline and simplify the workflow as much as possible, so I'd rather not add too much stuff that will be rarely used.

I think the main usefulness of your dialogs is the ability to select all objects of a certain type at once. But that is a feature I want to add to the selection view panel anyway.

As for the double icon, you're right... We need a new one there

I wasn't thinking on every item. Only on what items you tend to accumulate more in a project file. Structural elements, room partitions, ceilings, dimensions, and notations. Therefore to have a tool to perform general changes to match specifications and cost variation of a project it would be useful (change from one material to other, volume, etc.). Or in the visualization (dimension, notations). Now, if you are thinking on other features to do the same... well, much better. I am not used to BIM workflow. Maybe you could explain a bit more what do you need.