Welcome

[aothms]

See IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell#3095

See https://joss.readthedocs.io/en/latest/submitting.html

The plan is to write a quick paper on some of the technical achievements within BlenderBIM and show its relevance to various (academic) communities.

We only have abt a 1000 words so this is not a huge effort. Your task is write a small paragraph, invite other relevant people and add your name :)

@Moult @Andrej730 @myoualid @Gorgious56 @vulevukusej @maxfb87 @Jesusbill @Krande @CyrilWaechter @brunopostle

[brunopostle]

It looks like a Joss paper is little more than an abstract with references, the software documentation is supposed to contain actual information?

For me the notable thing about BlenderBIM is that it is the first example of a new class of software, an 'IFC editor'. So I would write something like this:

BlenderBIM is a Native IFC Editor and BIM authoring tool. Although legacy BIM software applications share many concepts, they have limited scope for interoperability due to the use of proprietary undocumented file formats. In contrast, BlenderBIM uses IFC natively as its data store.

IFC is a classification taxonomy for BIM objects, but it is also an ISO standard file format that provides a superset of BIM concepts suitable for use as a primary project database rather than as simply a transfer medium.

BlenderBIM demonstrates that Native IFC editing is a viable software pattern with a number of advantages over legacy approaches:

A Native IFC tool doesn't need to understand or process all data, however it must preserve data it doesn't use. This principle of data integrity means that BlenderBIM is usable as a professional tool from day one.

Native IFC editing is fast as there is no import/export conversion process involved.

IFC files edited in BlenderBIM are versionable, it is easy to see exactly what has changed between any two versions of the same project.

IFC step files are text files with each entity on a separate line. BlenderBIM makes local changes to these files, allowing efficient storage, retrieval and sharing using the Git revision control system. BlenderBIM provides a collaborative branch and merge workflow similar to modern software development practices.

etc.. etc..

[aothms]

Thanks @brunopostle I have incorporated your comments into the doc. This focusses very much on the NativeIFC angle. What other angles need to be present?

• Open source: extensible and didactic
• NativeIFC
• Mesh + parametric?
• Multi-disciplinary (also related to Blender as a swiss army knife: eg rendering, animation, ...)?
• ...

Hoping others will pitch in as well..