Features requested for Architecture
From Blender for Architecture
Here you can find a list of features we would like to see in Blender to improve Architectural workflow:
To do
- Proper units and measurement system.
- Sufficient significant digits to convert between units with imperceptable error.
- Input methods to handle various system conventions (English feet and inches, Metric meters and millimeters, English decimal feet, light years, etc.)
- Direct preference association with each model so that imports of various units are properly scaled.
- Ability to move objects based on a "relative" distance from a point (that can be defined by "snap" at it).
- Better import/export of commonly used file formats like .DXF, .DWG, .3DS, etc.
- Properly lighted procedural textures visible in OpenGL mode.
- Ability to define arbitrary planes based on 3d angles, or by picking three points/two edges/one face and work on those arbitrary planes as they were the "base plan" (xoy). Also constrains perpendicular to this arbitrary plane.
- "Dimensions" tool that can add dimensions in plan, elevations, etc.
- A "PrintingEditor" that can work with the layouts and plot them "at scale". Printing capabilities for lines (continuous, dash, center line, etc. , thickness of a line, colors, etc. - all features that are needed to plot a complete set of construction drawings). If we could combine somehow Blender with a vector based tool - such as Inkscape, OpenOffice or similar - that might produce the result acceptable for "professional printing".
- "LandscapeBuilder" a tool to build and plant real landscape based on contour lines.
- Easy use of Gameblender to visit our building like in a FPS game.
- Possibility to link to a database so to be possible to get "Bills of materials", to know "quantities" of a material is in the model (ie: to know how many cubic meters/feet of brick, concrete, marble,ceramic tiles, etc. or square meters/feet for paints, etc.) Maybe trying to link to OpenOffice database would be a possibility.
Work in Progress
- "RealSky" plug in - a plug in that can help render in blender/yafray a spherical sky that has a line of horizon (editable), has clouds (editable), has the position of the sun editable based on geographical location and date of the year. Google Summer of Code project.
- Transcription of blender materials in GLSL without coding : Easy use of GLSL shaders in game engine tutorial
- Section tool - a tool to "cut" through the buildings: Look a the "Section" script in Scripts#Tools
- High Fidelity Rendering engine (aka Maxwell, Yafray, Povray, Sunflow..) : Blender custom builds for Povray, Kerkythea... Blender external renderer API.
- Parametric modeling : http://yorik.orgfree.com/tutorials/parametricobjects-blender.html
- Snap between objects : in CVS
- NURBS modeling : Nurbana?
Done
- Texture baking : added in 2.43
- Snap inside objects : added in 2.43
- Outliner where you can choose which object to see, render, modify : added in 2.43
- Working together : Verse (in source, not in builds) , proxy object (2.43), append.