Presenting Blender as a new IFC authoring tool

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BlenderBIM Add-on v0.0.200722 has been released with nearly 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. It’s built by the AEC community, for the AEC community. Get it today: https://blenderbim.org/

Highlights include IFC person / organisation management, new quantity take off calculation tools, improved BIMTester for BIM auditing, and improved recording of design constraints and intentions.

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New features:

  • Objects now have an IFC class assignment panel for convenience
  • New “unassign class” to convert from a BIM object to non-BIM
  • Improved absolute coordinate import from DDS-CAD based IFCs
  • You can now remove a representation subcontext
  • Object proxying now works in a simplified manner, letting you directly reference Blender files with high poly geometry
  • New UI to manage IFC constraints
  • You can now export IFC constraints based on the UI, making the older CSV definitions obsolete
  • You can now assign constraints to individual objects and export them
  • New UI for managing and creating IfcPeople
  • New UI for managing and creating IfcOrganisation
  • Support invalid grids coming from Revit
  • Support import of triangular grids
  • Support export of IfcSpatialElementTypes
  • You can now export IFC2X3 “Style” classes in IFC4
  • IfcOpenShell utilities now comes with geolocation functions
  • All aggregates are now grouped in their own collection for convenience
  • No need to manually select types for collections when exporting
  • New feature when producing documentation, to recut the entire model or only selected objects
  • Materials assigned to portions of an object no longer need to be using object links
  • Support export of IfcPositioningElements
  • You can now define an owner history from your collection of people and organisations, or have no history at all
  • New feature to allow users to profile the import procedure
  • BIMTester UI updated to new Gherkin conventions
  • The IfcOpenShell selector utility now supports selecting COBie classes as its own selector
  • IfcObjective constraints are now imported
  • TK interface for BIMTester has been removed
  • Quantity UI now provides manual calculation buttons for generating lengths, areas, and volumes
  • You can now export a mesh edge for structural curve members
  • The geometry type data field now supports “None”, if it has no body representation
  • New feature to automatically calculate quantities during export
  • Allow for wildcard expansion in IFCCSV exports, allowing you to export a series of properties belonging to the same set
  • Failed BIMTester tests now have improved error reporting
  • BIMTester test reporting is now super sexy
  • BIMTester can now be run without packaging as a simple library
  • BIMTester can now be run from the Blender UI
  • BIMTester can now audit predefined types

New fixes:

  • Booleaned native objects will fall back to non-native import to support it
  • Fix bug where a slot without materials won’t export
  • Fix bug where some absolute coordinates would not properly be converted to local coordinates
  • IFCPatch ResetAbsoluteCoordinates has improved absolute coordinate handling
  • Allow for empty data in non-mandatory georeferencing data
  • Fix incorrect dimension export of rectangle profiles
  • Scaled curve bevel objects are now properly exported
  • Invalid psets now are no longer exported with empty relationships
  • Fix bug where imported materials with the same name as an existing material could be incorrectly assigned
  • Fix bug where IfcOpenShell selector utility was just broken
  • Fix bug where truncated material names can cause import failure
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