FreeCAD BIM development news

Insanity.

I now use ArchiCAD which is focused on Open IFC as the interchange format. It’s not perfect but it’s a good step. Once data interchange works then mixing in more specialized tools for certain tasks becomes easier so FreeCAD wouldn’t have to compete with the entire Revit toolset all at once.

This makes me sad. I've worked on quite a few commercial engineering projects over the years where one GUI toolkit has been taken up after another and then discarded because of various limitations, particularly the difficulty of solid integration with 3D viewports. Most of the projects have been research projects that only lasted a few years but we've been through wxWidgets, WPF, Qt, JavaFx, now React & friends and none of them have left us saying "hey, let's use that same one next time".

I wonder if these types of engineering applications would be much better off going the Blender route and rolling their own GUI, or using a GUI which puts rendering first. I'm reminded of the article about using Godot for GUIs posted on HN early this month[1].

The main complaint seems to be accessibility which seems silly to be discussing for inherently visual applications.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24043427

Regarding part about contracts. I live in Europe, so I'll look into local code about agreement between architect, owner and contractor. I suppose they are quite a lot differences between USA and Europe (not to mention European countries themselves).

Generative design is very interested for me as I am generally into optimisation problems. Ability to interact with design programatically is also first priority. I'll look into Rhino + Grasshopper. It looks nice, but as I mentioned in other comment I'd prefer my tools to be free if I'm going to learn them (I generally think that 3D/parametric drawing is becoming important skill nowadays, even outside architecture/engineering). I also have an engineering physics degree, so writing a solver for some building physics is not out of the scope, therefore my bias towards FreeCAD.

I surely understand that cost of switching would make it a loss if standard fee is applied. Billing hour is absolutely fine by me. Thanks for the tip about getting contractor and architect on board early and together.

To add some details I have the site and I'm not in a hurry at all, since there is already one house on that property, already built. I also have rough idea how it should be placed, look and function. At the moment it's more of a hobby project than true need to build a house.

I am not an architect, but I would second this based on my experience with 3D modeling and having to dabble in AutoCAD at times. The learning curve for this type of software is steep, so steep that it is almost generational. In other worlds, it takes a new generation to come up using something else for the market factors to change.

Having done both, 3D and dev work, I would argue switching 3D packages is harder than getting up to productive speed on a new language and it's stack. This is why Blender has taking so long to get uptake and adoption by the industry.

The issue at hand is it is really frustrating to be able to do quality 3D work in one software package and then in another you can't do anything but get basic shaped on the screen. Compounding this is these packages are almost all keyboard based when you get to a power user level. Switching package means all that muscle memory just evaporates. When I was doing simulation we were on 3D Studio Max and there was an initiative to move to Alias/Wavefront (now Maya). We lost a significant amount of productivity over the next 6 months. The only reason the 3D artist switched was because it was a company wide initiative. They were happy afterwards as Wavefront had some features did not have at the time, but it was painful.

If you already have your site and you have a lot of time then I can say that one of the most productive ways of designing is through mapping. Guy Debord's map of Paris is an extremely subjective example, and at the other end of the spectrum might be to overlay a grid of half meter intervals all over the site and measure somewhat precisely some physical phenomena - the angle of view to various points of interest, or perhaps how loud ambient sounds are, or the sun exposure in hours, or any number of things. Putting these maps together can result in emergent designs or at least bring about considerations that maybe weren't foremost in your mind about siting, window placement, or program location. Of course, the most important map is the terrain map, tree placement height and canopy size, and rock placement, the more detailed the better.

Hopefully one day someone will compete with Rhino + Grasshopper in open source. At least the maker of Rhino has the OpenNurbs toolkit to develop geometry translators, so that's something. It does look like an exciting time to learn FreeCAD and I hope it goes well for you.

There's nothing really definite about generative design in literature yet, but there has been some useful stuff published. One of the more impressive researchers I've ever heard of is Achim Menges http://www.achimmenges.net working with the University of Stuttgart on biomimicry and optimized structures. Very cool stuff.

Also if you don't yet you might visit Archdaily regularly and check out what the industry is doing. Perhaps something will inspire you.