Architecture

One of the most expected releases is finally here. FreeCAD 0.19 has been released with a lot of improvements and new features in all workbenches. The list is long, so let’s go. First, some general highlights. There area a few UI improvements such as the inclusion of more dark themes, new icon themes and few retouches in the navigation cube. Furthermore, an option was added to display a checkbox for every item in the document tree, so it’s easier to use with a touchscreen. ...

In the last February 6th and 7th, took place the FOSDEM 2021, an event organized to promote the use of free and open source software. Usually based in Brussels, the event happened online this year due to the pandemic. FOSDEM features a wide range of subjects and one of the Devrooms was about Computer Aided Modeling and Design, which held some interesting talks that gave us the state of the art of FOSS development for the AEC industry. ...

LibreDWG 0.12 is released. LibreDWG is a free C library to handle DWG files, the native file format from AutoCAD. This library aims to create an API to support softwares to work with DWG. It is currently in the beta stage, so it doesn’t have all the features implemented. However, it already handles reading, converting and writing files from scratch. It also features “SVG and Postscript conversion, converters from and to DXF and JSON, dwggrep to search for text, and dwglayer to print the list of layers.” ...

The Krita team released the first beta of their new version 4.4.2. It comes with a lot of bug fixes but also with a few new interesting features. Krita is a software for digital painting, but its features make it a good alternative to work with architectural visualization. ...

Archipack has now a new release which is compatible with Blender 2.91! Archipack 2.3.3 brings a few bug fixes and enhancements. According to its developer, Stephen Leger, the highlights of this new version are: “Auto-synchro” feature now is a global parameter so you are able to disable once for all objects. Triangular top shape for windows through “top circle” and 2 segments. Archipack is an add-on that focus on creating archviz solutions to fasten architectural modeling inside Blender. With Archipack you have access to a set of parametric tools for modeling architectural elements. Instead of creating a plane, scale it and then extrude it to create a wall, you can simply use the wall tool from Archipack. It’s not only faster to create, but the most powerful feature is the editing capability. For that, you can type in the wall dimensions, create new segments and automatically join them. All of this in a non-destructive way. The same logic applies to other tools like slab, door, window, fence, stair, roof and so on. ...

There’s been a new BlenderBIM Add-on release! The BlenderBIM Add-on v0.0.201207 comes with 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. Highlights include drastically improved material, geometry, and context IFC round-tripping, and stabilisation of the new material system. ...

The Blender development team has a project called Everything Nodes, which consists in creating a node based workflow for each of Blender main functionalities. One of the most exciting, the Geometry Nodes, is currently under development. This week they announced that it will be available for Blender 2.92. The official release is scheduled for February 2021, but they already released its alpha version. You can check it here! ...

Alessandro Zomparelli just released a new version of his Tissue for Blender add-on. Tissue v.0.3.48 is now available for Blender 2.91 and features a new tool and a few fixes. Tissue is an add-on for computational design in Blender developed by Co-de-iT. With this add-on, you can easily create tessellations based on a mesh and get creative. All you have to do is make a component object that will be repeated over the faces of a base object. It has a straight-forward workflow that allows you to explore several possibilities of complex shapes in a quick way. ...

The FreeCAD BIM features have had another monthly summary of improvements by lead developer Yorik van Havre. For October 2020, we’re looking at new TechDraw patterns, new Draft styling controls, a new BIM image plane tool, a new awning window preset, and many new fixes and UI improvements. ...

There’s been a new BlenderBIM Add-on release! The BlenderBIM Add-on v0.0.201115 comes with 52 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. Highlights include improved material and presentation layer support, improved geolocation support, and many more vendor workarounds. ...