Google Summer of Code is an annual programme that helps students and those new to open source software make their first steps into contributing code to software projects. GSoC Contributors work with an open source organization on a 12+ week programming project under the guidance of mentors.This year, there are 172 open source projects sponsored by Google. 11 of those organisations are part of the ecosystem of software that heavily benefits the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. They are:OpenStreetMap: a crowdsourcing project that creates and distributes free geographic data for the world.OSGeo (Open Source Geospatial Foundation): a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to foster global adoption of open geospatial technology by being an inclusive software foundation devoted to an open philosophy and participatory community driven development. Note that OSGeo further represents many GIS related subprojects, including GRASS and QGIS.Blender Foundation: a free and open source 3D creation suite, providing individuals and small teams a complete pipeline for 3D graphics, modeling, animation and games.GNU Image Manipulation Program: a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, macOS, Windows and more operating systems.FreeCAD: a general-purpose parametric 3D computer-aided design (CAD) modeler and a building information modeling (BIM) software application with finite element method (FEM) support.CGAL Project: a software library that offers a number of reliable geometric data structures and algorithms.Inkscape: a free and open-source vector graphics editor used to create vector images, primarily in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format.OpenSCAD: a solid 3D modeler with a rich syntax for programmable geometry.LibreCAD: a 2D modeling system specializing in blueprint-style drawings and draftings.IfcOpenShell: a library for working with standard IFC building model dataBRL-CAD: a solid modeling suite with conversion and advanced solid ray tracing features.Potential contributors are required to submit their project proposal and applications to Google between March 21 and April 5. Check out the organisations webpage, start talking with their developers, get inspired by a list of project ideas, and make a proposal on how you can start with your very first code contribution!Eligible contributors are students, or those new to contributing to open source.

Imagine GIT for IFC files.That is, imagine a tool that keeps track of changes to an IFC file over the duration of a design projecta tool that allows branching or forking of different design options from a distributed team, and tool that can asynchronously merge these revisions together.Bruno Postle has created the seeds of such a toolan IFC/GIT interface inside BlenderBIM.Code base here: https://github.com/brunopostle/ifc-git Funding for this project will go toward further refinement of the tool, as well as additional functionality such as visual diffing and atomized conflict resolutionas reflected in the following mock up. Please note, however, this tool will only work on IFC files that were created using a NativeIFC approach. That is, tools that do not rewrite the entire IFC file when exported, but instead only change the portion of the IFC file that was modified at any one commit. Currently only BlenderBIM and FreeCAD provide NativeIFC support. See the NativeIFC white paper for a more nuanced description.Since this project won the most community votes as a project OSArch should center a funding campaign around, OSArch will use their current funds to match any outside funding, up to $1000.Not only is this a call for funding this project, it is also a general call for any developers that might be interested to help extend what Bruno has started already. It is our hope that these funds could help bring on additional developers. If youd like to help, please create an issue on the repo to share your thoughts and proposed intentions.To Fund Project

For the past 8 weeks, Ive been working on the BlenderBIM Add-ons Brickschema authoring module as part of the Google Summer of Code Program. Im pretty new to the schema, but Ive learned a lot about its usage and implications!Ive listed some resources that have helped me familiarize myself with the ontology below:Brick is a semantic structure and ontology designed to represent the relationships between building services. Compared to IFCs generic descriptions for some smart building equipment relations, Brick is a format that is more scalable, fine-tuned, and targeted. Specifically, Brickschema targets building automation and control systems. Demonstrated in the images above and below, Bricks standardized framework for describing building components and behaviors includes sensors, systems, locations, and more.Brick is open-source under the BSD license, which makes it the perfect option to integrate with other open-source applications. In regards to the BlenderBIM Add-ons mission to cover full building lifecycles, Brick will contribute to enhancing its facility management features. In fact, Brick is largely complementary to IFC, so combining the Add-ons native IFC authoring tools and Brickschema will prove particularly crucial in enriching the standard exchange of BIM. Here, Brick helps to interface with smart sensor time-series databases, large interconnected equipment graphs, and the machine-readable formatting of building data.Currently, in the BlenderBIM Add-on, most of the basic features necessary for authoring Brick models are implemented. This includes adding/removing Brick entities in a project, prefixing entities with custom namespaces to identify them, and (most complicated of all) adding/removing relationships between the entities. Meanwhile, other quality-of-life features have been implemented such as undo/redo and hierarchy options for viewing a Brick graph. There are still more features to come, and community feedback and support will prove crucial in turning the module into a practical utility!Brick has far-reaching implications for the industry as a whole. For one, Brick universalizes the building management workflow whilst many industry building systems remain unstructured and non-standardized, often using new systems designed only once for a particular building. With Bricks focus on portability and standardization, the logic for analyzing a Brick buildings system can be applied to multiple sites. Furthermore, Brick enables efficient data integration, analytics, and interoperability which helps to better design IoT applications. This in turn helps with calculating richer building diagnostics, meeting sustainability goals, and improving budgeting accuracy.Stay tuned as the Brick module continues to develop!

Last week, a new stable release of FreeCAD has been published, tagged 0.21. This release is mostly there to provide a stable point before implementing Toponaming resolution functionality. Toponaming is how we call the problem of unstable reference names in FreeCAD (Edge1 might become Edge5 after a shape recompute), it is the last big issue the development team wants to solve before deeming FreeCAD good for the mythical 1.0 release.Nevertheless, this release brings a number of interesting improvements for BIM users, among which are:New spline tools for the sketcherA new, easy-to-use section tool that works interactively, and works for Arch/BIM objects tooBetter styling tools for texts and dimensions, which now use an unified structureThe BIM layer manager is now in Draft tooFreeCAD now supports several different DWG converters to import and export DWG filesThe FEM workbench has received a lot of improvements, and is now more and more fit for civil engineering (see this post and the work of Ebrahim)Revamped addons managerMore about these features and much more can be found in the release notes.In parallel to the work being done in FreeCAD itself, many things have happened on the BIM workbench, namely the arrival of a new NativeIFC module, that allows FreeCAD to open, manipulate and save IFC files natively. This turns FreeCAD the second NativeIFC-enabled authoring application, after BlenderBIM (Both actually share a lot of code). The NativeIFC structure is progressively being integrated into the BIM workbench, and a lot of it is already directly usable by BIM users. Check the documentation to know more, of follow this osarch discussion thread to keep updated on the progresses.

If you had to choose software to begin working in architectural design, which would be your first choice? Many might think that a BIM solution such as BlenderBIM or FreeCAD would be the ideal choice. In many cases, they offer numerous advantages. However, despite these advanced and modern workflows, a simple 2D CAD solution can still address most of our project needs.Using a 2D CAD solution has numerous benefits and a more manageable learning curve, especially if youre already familiar with 2D CAD. Is there a reliable open-source CAD solution for architecture? Indeed, several open-source CAD projects stand out as excellent choices for architectural designs.Would you like to learn a 2D CAD solution for architecture? With that in mind, we developed in Blender 3D Architect collection of resources to learn QCAD. This tool is perfect for architectural technical drawing. Currently, there are two versions available:QCAD Community Edition (open-source | GPLv3)QCAD ProfessionalWeve created resources to assist in learning and using the Community Edition in architecture. If you wish to incorporate an open-source CAD into your workflow, heres where you can begin:QCAD for Architecture (Workshop): A video-based workshop where you craft a 2D floor plan using QCAD based on a reference drawing. This workshop encompasses the entire design process, from conception to exporting a print-ready PDF. It includes both Metric and Imperial units.QCAD for Technical Drawing (Book): A comprehensive guide on utilizing QCAD to produce technical drawings with an architectural design example. This book mirrors the workshops structure but unfolds at a more measured pace. If youre interested in the book, its available in both eBook and Paperback formats in four variants:QCAD for Technical Drawing (Imperial units): Paperback eBookQCAD for Technical Drawing (Metric Units): Paperback eBookQCAD para dibujo tcnico [Spanish] (Metric Units): Paperback eBookQCAD para desenho tcnico [Portuguese] (Metric Units): eBookThe workshop link comes with a 20% discount. If you havent integrated any 2D CAD software into your workflow, this is an excellent opportunity to learn and start utilizing it for your projects.