Thank you for your feedback and sharing your workflow !
Working here in visualisation field, my typical workflow definitely not same as your’s.
Most of the time i’ll get dxf from arch, so that’s what i do call “blueprints”
Never intended to do 2d editing in blender, there are many tools available to handle this part.
As a side note, Blender realy need a rock solid dxf read/write (currently using either Draftsight or Rhino and 2.6x importer as ultimate solution when 2.7x importer fails wich is sadly fairly current)
From those so called blueprints, there are 2 ways to make quick 3d,
the 2d to 3d tool, fixing typical issues with imported drawing, and allowing pretty fast modelling based on polygon selection.
use “draw a wall” to snap and recreate needed walls, then slap windows and doors on it.
The toolset is intended to allow quick creation of models from scratch too.
To handle your workflow and probably most arch people prototyping in Blender,
we have to think a way to make a 2d representation of 3d generated objects and dimensions (also known as multi-representation blocks) as found in common arch packages.
Lastest work on archipack was to adapt rendering ability for dimensions from measureIt -special mention here the great work done by Antonioya- (pretty basic at this time, but able to render).
Thank you for pointing out the dimension addon, maybe we are able to find a workarround to make it dxf compatible, will poke dev asap about this issue.
Hope we may find a solution to fullfill such workflow needs.
Also we started to talk about interoperability with ifcOpenShell devs, wich could if successfull provide a gateway to any IFC enabled software, including Revit, FreeCad, VectorWorks …
Interesting debate is happening here, YES!!! because if in the future Blender could have the possibility of exporting models in IFC format, we will almost having a BIM software or a strong integration of Blender into the BIM workflow, it´s exciting to hear that.
Returning to the blueprints creation debate there is an interesting development or a fork of Blender by Dalai Felinto wich include that possibility, maybe he could share any knoledge about the implementation of that tool.
add top ortho camera above floor I want to “export”
render with Freestyle SVG export (now I get a nice 2D drawing/blueprint)
in Inkscape convert SVG to DXF
open DXF in Draftsight (or LibreCAD) and scale the drawing to real proportions
now I can work “professionally” with blueprint - add dimensions, notes, hatches
I have possibility to export to PDF and DWG (!!!) to distribute the drawing
Could be a lot faster and flexible.
The biggest drawback of this workflow is repeating of the steps if I change the model. I have to rearrange notes and dimensions in yet created dwg to fit the new positions of wall etc.
If i may add to this conversation, ^^ this ^^ is exactly what Blender can shine in. Archvis users have a workflow that makes a model from fixed 2D design, but architects and architecture designers could definitely use a powerful app that is able to SKETCH the architecture and present variations in REAL AMBIENCE SIMULATIONS and FAST DIMENSION OVERLAY. That way you have fast aesthetic and functionality parameter for both architecture designers and clients, in one app.
Not to mention that such an app that could take an existing blueprint and quickly produce a presentation-ready model, as well as make fast variants of a newmodel and produce a new blueprint could satisfy both modellers and architecture designers (of which i am both, at the moment)
And, having produced some CAD tools starting with zero Python knowledge and seeing how FreeCAD development and UI is going, i think all these goals can be reached 10x faster and better in Blender, excluding the heavy-duty CAD floating point precision. If we put our minds together and organize a solid strategy, i can almost guarantee that within a year we could make a complex Blender addon that would make you cry from happiness. ALL the tools are within the reach.
Returning to the blueprints creation debate there is an interesting development or a fork of Blender by Dalai Felinto wich include that possibility, maybe he could share any knoledge about the implementation of that tool.
Hi, yes it is a “modified” Fluid Designer, but it looks better in functionalities (“blueprints” information almost like a BIM software), maybe someone could ask him about the development.
Yes, as you say, all in one app is good and organized. As architect I need a fast workflow for architectural designer besides that we need to “create” the architectural model thinking in what would be the way for constructing it (I’m Revit user), most of the architetcs see a further far than volumes and meshes, we work with walls, beams, windows, doors, etc but virtually. But I’m in love with the free software community and I’m in love with Blender and it’s possibilities and developers, it’s like a real democracy, a community around a better objective.
I would like to help developing something, but I have zero knowledge of coding, if you have some advice for about how to begin to do it I’ll apreciate your help. I agree with you about FREECAD and it UI
Well, coding can be very daunting at first, especially if you come from a different field of work. I can only recommend the way i ventured into it - browse through python templates in Blender’s text editor and change some things while observing the consequences of your actions…
When you get comfortable, try to do the same with the addons installed in your system, trying to achieve specific things, or just make some basic independent addons. After that you are ready for some more serious learning sources and projects…
HI yandrychoy,
Being helpfull here not necessarly means programming.
Contribution via testing, reporting issues, feedback about needed features, workflow, is a great help for us !
Lot of work to create clear user guide also still left to do.
LOL I am laughing because every time someone ask anything about a addon/plugin about 50% of the crowd in a thread thinks about program code and not usability. I have see this same thing for years in blender.
I will be glad to help stephen_lugar once I can find the time to truly give it a test.
On intial question is this. How does this differ from Archimesh. Is it a compliment or a competitor or simply two addons that do similar things just in different ways.
As far as i know about it, Archimesh was a great initiative to merge existing addons into a cad like solution.
But objects mostly dev by people not always knowing how arch does things.
Feeling realy unconfortable with eg windows size including frames, where arch mostly talk about hole size, and having good parametric objects background, i started to rewrite something else to provide arch a working solution.
Archipack’s effort basically is an initiative to share strong basis to provide any interrested contributor dev a good starting point and final user a unified look and feel and experience so they wont feel using another software every 2 clicks.
Started by a “framework for manipulables parametric objects” with full support for ALT+D instanced objects, copy to selected for params.
Focusing on usability, models are uv ready with material ids set, with on screen manipulators and feed-back.
Also include a dedicated module to do fast and easy 2d to 3d, a “Draw a wall” create tool “snap” aware and allowing precise placement with keyboard entry …
Archimesh was a great source of inspiration, try to get the best from it, and let less good ones.
Simply give archipack a try or take a look at video, you’ll pretty fast see huge differences on ui side and the way things are done.
Also keep in mind that archipack is a young project (less than 3 month) so you likely to find some issues.
Hope you’ll find time soon, as while working in the US, your contribution may include big help with deeper US arch knowledge missing here.
Well the one thing I liked about Archimesh was that Antoniya made VERY GOOD video tutorials. I could tell that he spent some time planning them out and making correction and rehearsing before he acutally posted the finished video. The second thing was that he integrated his Measureit script with Archimesh. Although Measureit could be used alone as a stand alone addon.
The one thing that I wished for, but really did understand why he did not include is was support for Imperial Units in Measureit. I know why. Becasue the rest of th world is on the metric system except for us here i the US.
Thank you for your advice on video tutos, will also take a look at imperial compatibility !
Pretty sure you’ll like Mesurit like arrows allowing drag and snap to modify objects right on screen.
At this point of developpement, Archpack need some “teasers” to allow adventurers to get a good picture of where this addon is going.
Ideal goal is to centralize Arch Cad tools, enhancing existing ones, uniformize look and feel, i realy need envolved people to help by contributions.
As you may guess, a package like this must be tested in real-world situations, and require lot of dev - feedback cycles until he meet requirements not planed from scratch.
Some people allready made extensive tests, bug tracking, give feedback, contribute, and provide invaluable help and advices in tricky parts dev.
So it’s definitely bit soon to make videos about detailled usage.
Another thing that could be considered for this is an all-GL edit mode, with custom made handles that can control geometry. This approach enables real time navigation while editing, unlimited shortcut assign as well as unbound feedback design. Our friend mifth applied it in his Mira tools addon:
Could be used for editing walls, windows and other parametric objects, dimension lines, camera positions etc.
@Okavango
Manipulators (dimension lines) are such custom generic handles allowing realtime navigation and modification of any object parameter.
Tey are the all-Gl edit mode heart.
Dimension lines themself are therefore not editable, but providing editability with handles.
Feel confortable with dimension lines driving objects as it is intuitive, two way relationship ensure they always are up to date, including while moving objects or editing parameters in panel.
Recent update enhanced constrained snap ability and keyboard entry for most of them, based on regular transform operator, so keaboard shortcuts remains the same as set by user for those operations. (see archipack_dev branch).
As a side note, the archipack’s github repo has been renamed, find it under
Oh I will definatly keep it and give it a workout. If I can just find the free time between work and family. One can never have TOO many tools to get a job done.
[FEATURE] Pad object. Create with “Pad from wall” or “pad from curve”.
[FEATURE] Preserve shape of surroundings parts when removing wall / pad segment.
[FEATURE] Most manipulators are snap aware, and allow keyboard entry while manipulating
[FEATURE] Drag manipulators are selectable to modify more than one at time
[FEATURE] Improved window front frame, allow to set material ids for holes
[BUGFIX] Improve support for left select mouse and emulate 3 buttons
[BUGFIX] Improve support for region overlap
[FEATURE] Draw a wall snap from start
@serviteur, use ALT while dragging to select only polygons wich are inside area. Without alt pressed, the tool select all polygons crossing area. You also may pick a point inside the polygon you want to select, and use SHIFT + click or SHIFT + drag area to deselect.
The tool currently require one or many polygons in order to be able to work, selecting boundary points is in the pipe, but still not implemented.
As far that i can see, for windows you should be ok, but doors as it wont work.
You may use the “point select tool” to create polygons from selected points to fill the gaps in the wall under your doors, then select the polygons and your walls and redetect.
I am laughing because every time someone ask anything about a addon/plugin about 50% of the crowd in a thread thinks about program code and not usability. I have see this same thing for years in blender.
