Are there features in the works?

[vanuan]

Hm. That would mean that IFC is inherently read-only. So the source of truth for the model resides inside the BIM software. So IFC is like a "binary" output and is not meant to be an interchangeable format as it's being advertised as...

Hmm.. do you know a way to do it?

Frankly, I expected FreeCAD BIM to base its modeling features on IFC files rather than FCStd zipped FreeCAD-specific XML files. But at least there should be a documented bidirectional mapping between FC objects and IFC ones.
Next, there should be some IFC extension that allows you to define more fields, like parametric alignment. This extension should be thoroughly documented and versioned independently of FreeCAD repository. Apparently, custom properties are already supported by IFC.е
After basic roundtripping works in FreeCAD, there should be a push to synchronise custom property sets: Blender BIM should be the easiest to go for. Then, there's revit open source exporter. And of course, IFC itself.

Anyway, this is an off-topic here.

[carlopav]

Indeed that could work. And current exporter already have an option to allow that.
But I'm not sure this is the best practice, since those parameters will be only freecad specific. Anyway there are lots of things to fix before this one

[paullee]

Ping

User feedback on ArchWall / Materials workflow - @JohnWang and @Vanuan.


在Arch工具台里添加一个工具

有没有办法让Wall自带材料呢？每次点Wall工具画出来的，都要自己再选材料，太麻烦了。

其实对材料不是非常关心，更关心的是wall的型式，也就是单层（内墙）和多层（外墙）的区别。希望是点两个点一画，就直接到最后的型式。

Google Translation -
" Is there a way to make Wall bring its own materials? Every time I click the Wall tool to draw, I have to choose the material myself, which is too much trouble.

In fact, I am not very concerned about materials, but more concerned about the type of wall, that is, the difference between single layer (inner wall) and multi-layer (outer wall). Hopefully, just click two dots and draw one, and you will go straight to the final style."
(Pretty close in meaning)

Can you describe your ideal workflow for reference ?

First of all, when selecting a wall, UX should clearly show the pivot points which forms the wall axis. The axis line defines the reference relative to which the wall grows in thickness and height. Of course, this means, all walls should be modeled as lines, not areas or solids. The latter are beams or slabs.

Secondly, multi material definition should be openable from the wall context menu or in the dialog when double-clicking the wall. Changing wall layers should affect the wall thickness relative to the wall axis. Multimaterial definition should be more powerful, describing both line appearance and physical properties. Maybe the task area is too small and it should be opened in a dedicated MDI window.

Thirdly, there should be an extrusion alignment setting to change the direction of material extrusion. If alignment to center not supported by IFC, model it as multiple layer sets extruded in the opposite directions.

And last but not least, hatching patterns are very important.

After those are implemented, then there should be some material presets, e.g. cladding + insulation + woodframing + drywall, bricks + air + bricks, plaster + insulator + reinforced concrete + plaster.

That is not correct. Please look at Arch_MultiMaterial.

I'll check out how the multimaterial tool can be extended with presets. Maybe that's the only thing that's missing to implement what OP asks.

[johnwang]

Secondly, multi material definition should be openable from the wall context menu or in the dialog when double-clicking the wall. Changing wall layers should affect the wall thickness relative to the wall axis. Multimaterial definition should be more powerful, describing both line appearance and physical properties. Maybe the task area is too small and it should be opened in a dedicated MDI window.

Tried it a little.

You have to add material first then choose it to use. I prefer the wall has a default material. Otherwise, you have to assign material for all wall you draw. If you want to change material, better get the whole list when clicking. Not have to add material.

For multi-material, you have to create it first. I don't know how to save it for another file to reuse it.

With multi-material, I could form a multi layer wall. For example, a 250 external wall with 110 brick+50 gap+90 frame. Material is not a big concern for me, but I prefer there is Wall Type you could choose from. Another type I use is internal wall, it is a 90 frame only wall.

Instead of building multi-material, I prefer build Wall Type.

I am trying to use the Wall tool as Internal Wall tool and copy that to a new tool hopefully I could draw external wall directly.

[vanuan]

Here are some smaller steps that could help with UX:

1. Support external FCStd files in the Wall Material property
2. Ship "Materials.FCStd" with FreeCAD
3. When opening the Wall Material property suggest material objects from "Materials.FCStd"
4. Introduce a new property, e.g. "Wall Type" or "Wall Material Presets" which would be a select box of Material objects from "Materials.FCStd"
5. Introduce "UserMaterials.FCStd" which would be additional materials that can be defined by the user.
6. When saving, these "library" materials should be copied to the document.

As for "Wall Types" and "Default wall type", I think this is already supported - it's called "Wall preset" in the "Wall" options of Combo View.

[paullee]

Indeed there is a Wall Presets... but nothing comes up ?

Anybody has any idea ?

[carlopav]

1. Support external FCStd files in the Wall Material property
2. Ship "Materials.FCStd" with FreeCAD
3. When opening the Wall Material property suggest material objects from "Materials.FCStd"
4. Introduce a new property, e.g. "Wall Type" or "Wall Material Presets" which would be a select box of Material objects from "Materials.FCStd"
5. Introduce "UserMaterials.FCStd" which would be additional materials that can be defined by the user.
6. When saving, these "library" materials should be copied to the document.

There was recently a discussion about draft dimension styles: I did implement it using a dummy document object for every dimension style. Then Yorik suggested to store those styles inside the document Meta property and having a dedicated UI to recall them. Could this be an interesting way for materials too?

[vanuan]

Indeed there is a Wall Presets... but nothing comes up ?

Anybody has any idea ?

This only works with Multi-materials. So multi-material can function as a preset. Apparently, Multi-material is exactly what IfcMaterialLayerSet describes, albeit without modeling IfcMaterialLayer as a separate object. And a subset of Wall properties can be roughly mapped to IfcMaterialLayerSetUsage.

[vanuan]

store styles inside the document Meta property and having a dedicated UI to recall them. Could this be an interesting way for materials too?

Do you mean a dedicated document shipped with FreeCAD or the document supplied by the user? I'm thinking of a dedicated filetype, optimized to store homogenous objects editable in a dedicated dialog/workbench. Such documents should store graphical assets/textures/previews so that styles could be displayed nicely in UI. But at the same time, users should be able to create custom libraries in addition to shipped with FreeCAD.

Do you happen to know how the part library is implemented? https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD-library/ Maybe a similar git-based library for materials could be implemented which users can contribute to.

[carlopav]

I meant inside the same file. But was just a random idea. Perhaps having a separated FCStd file is better... I don't know.
Btw, I think that if you want to spend some efforts on the material side, the user to ping is bernd.