BlenderBIM updates and new features: Version v0.0.201115

A significant amount of people think about Blender as a 3D modeler and platform to render realistic images to visualize your designs. It can help a lot in this regard, but that is only part of its role in architecture. With Add-pons like BlenderBIM, you can expand Blender and include authoring and document BIM data. That opens a world of possibilities for Blender to have a full open-source workflow.

When using the BlenderBIM Add-on, you can create IFC files in compliance with ISO standards. The BlenderBIM Add-on received an update a couple of days ago, and it is now in version v0.0.201115.

Here is a list of the new features and bug fixes:

• New import model offset workaround for Bentley ProStructures
• Implement workaround when importing invalid aggregates from Bentley ProStructures
• You can now specify user coordinates to the ResetAbsoluteCoordinates recipe
• The ResetAbsoluteCoordinates now attempts to avoid changing placements but only focuses on geometry coordinates, preventing coordinate double-ups in tricky patching situations
• Support importing IFC2X3 documentation information & reference dates, times, and file format mime-types
• The validator now validates whether you are using abstract IFC classes
• Auto set file format settings when creating drawings in case you are doing your own renders as well
• Add support for multiple dimension objects per view
• New ability to round to nearest X for metric and imperial units
• New drop-down UI to select an area and volume units
• Log error in case users try to export an abstract class
• Coding style standardized to help onboard new developers
• Add support for case insensitive file units when importing
• New interface to manage presentation layers (e.g., CAD layers) in IFC
• You can now add/delete attributes in bulk by selecting multiple prior to adding
• New utility class for Python coders to query which psets/qtos apply to an IFC class
• You can now add/delete psets in bulk
• You can now add/delete qtos in bulk
• Add tooltips describing how to set external commands in the preferences window
• Improve intuitiveness of reassigning the IFC class of the active object
• New IfcPatch recipe for extracting elements into a separate IFC
• New UI for material, material layer/constituent/profile set management
• You can now convert from global to local coordinates
• New category for IFC export workarounds for RIB iTwo costing program
• New IFC workaround to export only triangulated geometry to Navisworks
• IfcSverchok “By Type” node now has a dropdown UI to help select classes
• You can now export attributes of the material layer set and constituent set itself
• BIMTester is now more forgiving to run from any directory
• New IFC inspector interface to help debug, inspect IFC data, and be a teaching aid for IFC
• IFC inspector supports expanding attribute lists and following a breadcrumb trail of nested references
• Add import support for all attributes of the material layer set and constituent set itself
• Support exporting more label metadata for material profile sets
• Improved export support for presentation layers, which assigns to representations
• New import support for presentation layers
• Deprecated IFC material lists are now auto-upgraded into constituent sets
• Types with no geometry can now have material data imported
• New workaround for incorrectly geolocated Revit files to auto-detect the geolocation
• Blender materials are now clearly consolidated into either materials or styles
• New UI to manage material property sets instead of needing to use external CSV files
• IFCCSV now continues executing even though it fails to change an attribute
• IFCCSV now skips GlobalIds it cannot find
• Now materials that aren’t also used as a styled item can be exported independently
• New IfcOpenShell, with many new bugfixes

New fixes:

• Fix bug where attributes wouldn’t import for some IFC classes
• Fix bug where non-uniform translations of spatial elements are exported with strange transformations
• Fix error message when you switch drawing styles, and a style it was referencing was deleted
• Fix bug where Views wasn’t allowed to be in the IfcProject, which prevented round-tripping
• Don’t crash if you get invalid IFCs with missing attributes
• Fix bug where setting north angle from a geolocated IFC was wrong
• Fix BIMTester error when creating a report with empty steps
• Fix bug where importing multiple grids with the same name fails
• Fix bug where a styled item could be incorrectly assigned if an element has more than one context