What are the differences between FreeCAD BIM and BlenderBIM?

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dcapeletti
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What are the differences between FreeCAD BIM and BlenderBIM?

Post by dcapeletti »

Hi, I've had this question for a while now. I would like to clarify this doubt about how advanced are the FreeCAD BIM tools compared to those of BlenderBIM.

BlenderBIM looks nice, but I don't know how good is technically or in features the BIM part with respect to FreeCAD. See https://blenderbim.org/features.html

Can you both handle the ifc format well?
How mature is the interface of both?
How mature are the interfaces of both?
I mean I see FreeCAD much more mature in the BIM part since it has communication with BIMServer, it can output 2D drawings, but maybe the rendering part has the BlenderBIM edge.

It would be good to inform or discuss about these differences or similarities between both free and open tools.

Thanks
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Re: What are the differences between FreeCAD BIM and BlenderBIM?

Post by carlopav »

It would be nice to define some comparison criteria. And It would also be nice to compare some commerciale softwares too...
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Kunda1
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Re: What are the differences between FreeCAD BIM and BlenderBIM?

Post by Kunda1 »

Yes, a chart would be awesome. Maybe @Moult could advise as well? (since he's the BlenderBIM dev)
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bitacovir
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Re: What are the differences between FreeCAD BIM and BlenderBIM?

Post by bitacovir »

Here a comparison table with FreeCAD and other BIM software. This gives a list of comparison features.
https://wiki.freecadweb.org/BIM_applica ... lity_table
BlenderBIM addon should be included.

Some differences between FreeCAD and BlenderBIM Addon:
FreeCAD is parametric. Blender is not (and BlenderBIM does not change that).
FreeCAD has DraftWB for 2D drawing. Blender and BlenderBim do not have 2D drawing features.
FreeCAD has Arch wall, Arch Windows, Arch Door, Rebar, CurtainWall, etc... BlenderBim does not provide this 3D elements to Blender (you need other addons like Archipack).
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Moult
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Re: What are the differences between FreeCAD BIM and BlenderBIM?

Post by Moult »

Apologies for not responding earlier, I didn't notice the thread :) Take everything I say with a grain of salt, since it's been a while since I've checked out the FreeCAD BIM capabilities, and I'm sure it has progressed significantly.
  • Compared to FreeCAD, the BlenderBIM Add-on I believe has better support for IFC overall, both under the hood and in the UI. This is by design - one of the primary focuses of the BlenderBIM Add-on is IFC support. As a result, you will find plenty of features in the BlenderBIM Add-on that are not available in FreeCAD. Some examples is fine-grained representation context support, presentation layers, material profile sets, owner histories, property set template definitions, constraints, visual nodes, element inspector, and so on. In fact, relative to commercial software, I believe the BlenderBIM Add-on is the most advanced IFC authoring package out there. Some of the IFC features you see from FreeCAD (e.g. class attributes, IfcProject and library support, geolocation, multicore import) actually were first implemented in the BlenderBIM Add-on project, and I'm proud to have been able to contribute to such an awesome project as FreeCAD.
  • Compared to FreeCAD, the BlenderBIM Add-on has more "BIM" features, including CSV import / export, IFC data patching, clash detection, COBie scheduling generation, IFC diffing, vendor workarounds, MicroMVDs and BIMTester. These features are more commonly used on larger projects, and may be less relevant to smaller projects. Keep in mind that all these features are built to be agnostic of Blender, so a motivated dev can relatively easily bring all these features to FreeCAD, so both projects can benefit!
  • Compared to FreeCAD, the BlenderBIM Add-on handles BIM and geometry at large scales better. Blender is capable of processing gigabytes of IFCs, and has some growing support for partial IFC editing and IFC element extraction. It was used on a project where every week we receive a few gigabytes of IFC files.
  • Compared to the BlenderBIM Add-on, FreeCAD has much more mature support for 2D drawings. I do want to clarify that the BlenderBIM Add-on _does_ have support for 2D drawings, but I believe it does not have as mature features as FreeCAD. Images speak louder than words, so if you want to see what drawings can be produced from the BlenderBIM Add-on, this is one example and this is another. In some regards, the drawing features are more advanced than FreeCAD in that it actually generates it from IFCs directly, but for practical purposes, the BlenderBIM Add-on is much less mature and is painful for users to use. I have, however, delivered a small commercial house-sized project down to fabrication drawings purely using the BlenderBIM Add-on.
  • Compared to the BlenderBIM Add-on, FreeCAD has much better solid modeling support. This is an intrinsic characteristic of the technology used in FreeCAD compared to Blender. This will never change in Blender, and will likely never change in FreeCAD either. Both can emulate to some degree some features of the other (see: Sverchok + FreeCAD) but it will never be to the same degree. This is either a pro or a con depending on your preferences.
  • Compared to the BlenderBIM Add-on, FreeCAD has more domain specific objects out of the box. FreeCAD offers users immediate parametric drawing tools for doors, windows, and walls. The BlenderBIM Add-on, by design, only offers very basic modeling out of the box, and instead leaves it to the user to decide how they prefer to create geometry. The focus of the BlenderBIM Add-on is on BIM and data, not geometry. This means that users usually have a steep learning curve before becoming productive.
  • Compared to the BlenderBIM Add-on, FreeCAD has a "different" way of modeling which is highly parametric. I will not claim that modeling paradigm is better than the other. It's probably worth mentioning that although Blender by default is not "parametric", you can create a different form of parametric modeling that is in some ways more powerful (see geometry nodes, Sverchok, Sorcar, Tissue), but also comes with a learning curve.
I hope it helped. Happy to elaborate :)
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Re: What are the differences between FreeCAD BIM and BlenderBIM?

Post by paullee »

Moult wrote: Mon Nov 16, 2020 12:57 am Apologies for not responding earlier, I didn't notice the thread :) Take everything I say with a grain of salt, since it's been a while since I've checked out the FreeCAD BIM capabilities, and I'm sure it has progressed significantly.
Thanks for the summary :D

Maybe a simple model to showcase the capabilities is much easier to understand and for comparison ?
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yorik
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Re: What are the differences between FreeCAD BIM and BlenderBIM?

Post by yorik »

I really see both projects as equally capable and powerful, and certainly both go in a same direction that is very different than commercial BIM apps. It really gives me much confidence in what we're doing in FreeCAD to see that BlenderBIM has the same general philosophy.

Dion resumed it well, if you need to work on huge projects (at the moment at least ;) ), or if you are already fluent with mesh-based modeling (Blender, 3DSMax,...) or IFC (you want finer control), go for BlenderBIM. If you need more control over 2D output, or if you need a more parametric approach, or you find yourself more comfortable with a more traditional workflow like other BIM apps out there (that is not really the most important thing, but well), go for FreeCAD

But ideally, use both and switch between the two as need arises ;) That's definitely the best option of all.
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vanuan
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Re: What are the differences between FreeCAD BIM and BlenderBIM?

Post by vanuan »

bitacovir wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2020 1:22 pm FreeCAD is parametric. Blender is not (and BlenderBIM does not change that).
I'd say FreeCAD tries to be parametric. It still lacks the 3D constraint solver.
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vanuan
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Re: What are the differences between FreeCAD BIM and BlenderBIM?

Post by vanuan »

Maybe comparing IFC features provides a better justice than describing differences between parametric and direct modeling:
https://blenderbim.org/blenderbim-vs-revit.html
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