Could Blender BIM become your editing holy grail?
Let's check out this free and open-source software that could save us thousands of dollars per month!
Blender BIM is a free and open-source software, which means there's no cost to use it, unlike commercial software packages which are often up to 5-7 thousand euros yearly, per user!
The development is done by actual industry professionals and architects, ensuring the tool meets real-world needs. So, it’s Reope approved for sure! It’s open source, so it’s community-approved as well.
Comprehensive Functionality
It allows for detailed and data-rich OpenBIM, supporting a wide range of BIM functionalities like audit and analysis, drawing generation, structural analysis, MEP systems, costing, scheduling, and facility management.
Image rights: blenderbim.org
Version Control for IFC Files
Since Blender BIM is a Native IFC tool (see above), it can offer git-like version control capabilities for IFC files, a feature that's extremely useful for teams and large project collaborations.
This feature allows tracking the history and evolution of designs, making changes and updates transparent, and adding comments to explain each change.
This is possible as IFC is a text-based format, which enables precise version control that already exists in software development world.
Python API
As Blender is cross-platform, Blender BIM can be used on Windows, Linux, and macOS, which is a rare feature for a BIM editor.
Advanced 3D Modeling Capabilities
Since Blender (an open-source industry-standard 3D modelling software and complete powerhouse) is used under the hood, the 3D modeling capabilities are much higher than what other commercial BIM software has to offer.
Native IFC Support
Blender BIM provides a higher level of IFC integration compared to commercial software, making it a robust platform for IFC authoring.
As a native IFC editor, Blender BIM ensures that the IFC data remains consistent and the IDs of elements are not altered during the editing process. This is crucial for maintaining data integrity across different IFC tools. Revit, Archicad and other household names do not offer the same as they have their proprietary formats and just perform exports to IFC.
It's still early to say if BLender BIM is the holy grail for BIM editing, and that's why we want to know what you think? Join the discussion over at our LinkedIn and while you're at it, give us a follow if you want to connect!
Endorsed by top experts:
Kristján Karl Kristjánsson
Nordic - Office of Architecture
Reope has saved us and our clients thousands of hours by automating the standardization of our BIM deliveries.
They have helped us deliver high quality data daily with minimal resource use.
Francis Brekke
Oslo Works
The principal element of Suprematism in painting, as in architecture, is its liberation from all social or materialist tendencies.
Through Suprematism, art comes into its pure and unpolluted form.
Magne Ganz
Multiconsult
Without Night Runner, we would be stuck with 'impossible' manual maintenance tasks and with models with severe deviations.It helps us automate the process of standardizing several Revit models in large projects, so the downstream processes for cost calculation and other deliveries stay consistent.
Kristján Karl Kristjánsson
Nordic - Office of Architecture
Reope has saved us and our clients thousands of hours by automating the standardization of our BIM deliveries.
They have helped us deliver high quality data daily with minimal resource use.
Francis Brekke
Oslo Works
The principal element of Suprematism in painting, as in architecture, is its liberation from all social or materialist tendencies.
Through Suprematism, art comes into its pure and unpolluted form.
Magne Ganz
Multiconsult
Without Night Runner, we would be stuck with 'impossible' manual maintenance tasks and with models with severe deviations.It helps us automate the process of standardizing several Revit models in large projects, so the downstream processes for cost calculation and other deliveries stay consistent.