Installation ============ There are different methods of installation, depending on your situation. 1. **Unstable installation** is recommended for power users helping with testing. 2. **Bundling for Blender** is recommended for distributing the add-on. 3. **Live development environment** is recommended for developers who are actively coding. 4. **Packaged installation** is recommended for those who use a package manager. Unstable installation --------------------- **Unstable installation** is almost the same as **Stable installation**, except that they are typically updated every day. Simply download a daily build from the `GitHub releases page `__, then follow the usual :doc:`installation instructions`. You will need to choose which build to download. - If you are on Blender >=4.1, choose py311 - If you are on Blender >=3.1 and <=4.0, choose py310 - If you are on Blender >=2.93 and <3.1, choose py39 - Choose ``linux-x64``, ``macos-x64`` (Apple Intel), ``macos-arm64`` (Apple Silicon), or ``windows-x64`` depending on your operating system For users who don't follow the `VFX Platform `_ standard, we also provide py312 builds. Sometimes, a build may be delayed, or contain broken code. We try to avoid this, but it happens. Bundling for Blender -------------------- Instead of waiting for an official release on the BlenderBIM Add-on website, it is possible to make your own Blender add-on from the bleeding edge source code of BlenderBIM. BlenderBIM is coded in Python and doesn't require any compilation, so this is a relatively easy process. Note that the BlenderBIM Add-on does depend on IfcOpenShell, and IfcOpenShell does require compilation. The following instructions will use a pre-built IfcOpenShell (using an IfcOpenBot build) for convenience. Instructions on how to compile IfcOpenShell is out of scope of this document. You can create your own package by using the Makefile as shown below. You can choose between a ``PLATFORM`` of ``linux``, ``macos``, ``macosm1``, and ``win``. You can choose between a ``PYVERSION`` of ``py311``, ``py310``, or ``py39``. .. code-block:: bash cd src/blenderbim make dist PLATFORM=linux PYVERSION=py311 ls dist/ This will give you a fully packaged Blender add-on zip that you can distribute and install. Live development environment ---------------------------- One option for developers who want to actively develop from source is to follow the instructions from **Bundling for Blender**. However, creating a build, uninstalling the old add-on, and installing a new build is a slow process. Although it works, it is very slow, so we do not recommend it. A more rapid approach is to follow the **Unstable installation** method, as this provides all dependencies for you out of the box. Once you've done this, you can replace certain Python files that tend to be updated frequently with those from the Git repository. We're going to use symlinks (Windows users can use ``mklink``), so we can code in our Git repository, and see the changes in our Blender installation (you will need to restart Blender to see changes). For Linux or Mac: .. code-block:: bash git clone https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell.git cd IfcOpenShell # path to BlenderBIM addon # default path on Mac: "/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Blender/X.X/scripts/addons/blenderbim" # default path on Linux: "$HOME/.config/blender/X.X/" BLENDER_ADDON_PATH="/path/to/blender/X.XX/scripts/addons/blenderbim" # Remove the Blender add-on Python code rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/core/ rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/tool/ rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/bim/ # Replace them with links to the Git repository ln -s $PWD/src/blenderbim/blenderbim/core $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/core ln -s $PWD/src/blenderbim/blenderbim/tool $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/tool ln -s $PWD/src/blenderbim/blenderbim/bim $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/bim # Copy over compiled IfcOpenShell files cp $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifcopenshell/*_wrapper* $PWD/src/ifcopenshell-python/ifcopenshell/ # Remove the IfcOpenShell dependency rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifcopenshell # Replace them with links to the Git repository ln -s $PWD/src/ifcopenshell-python/ifcopenshell $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifcopenshell # Remove and link other IfcOpenShell utilities rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifccsv.py rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifcdiff.py rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/bsdd.py rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/bcf rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifc4d rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifc5d rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifccityjson rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifcclash rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifcpatch rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifctester rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifcfm rm -r $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/Desktop ln -s $PWD/src/ifccsv/ifccsv.py $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifccsv.py ln -s $PWD/src/ifcdiff/ifcdiff.py $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifcdiff.py ln -s $PWD/src/bsdd/bsdd.py $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/bsdd.py ln -s $PWD/src/bcf/src/bcf $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/bcf ln -s $PWD/src/ifc4d/ifc4d $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifc4d ln -s $PWD/src/ifc5d/ifc5d $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifc5d ln -s $PWD/src/ifccityjson/ifccityjson $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifccityjson ln -s $PWD/src/ifcclash/ifcclash $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifcclash ln -s $PWD/src/ifcpatch/ifcpatch $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifcpatch ln -s $PWD/src/ifctester/ifctester $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifctester ln -s $PWD/src/ifcfm/ifcfm $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/site/packages/ifcfm ln -s $PWD/src/blenderbim/blenderbim/libs/desktop $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/libs/Desktop # Manually download some third party dependencies cd $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/bim/data/gantt wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jsGanttImproved/jsgantt-improved/master/dist/jsgantt.js wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jsGanttImproved/jsgantt-improved/master/dist/jsgantt.css cd $BLENDER_ADDON_PATH/bim/schema wget https://github.com/BrickSchema/Brick/releases/download/nightly/Brick.ttl Or, if you're on Windows, you can use the batch script below. You need to run it as an administrator. Before running it follow the instructions descibed in the `rem` tags. .. code-block:: bat @echo off rem SETUP BLENDER-BIM LIVE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT rem Setup blenderbim addon location below (probably just need to change "x.x" for your Blender version). rem Put the script to the folder where IfcOpenShell git repository is located rem (script will try to clone IfcOpenShell.git if it's not present). SET blenderbim=%appdata%\Blender Foundation\Blender\x.x\scripts\addons\blenderbim git clone https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell.git cd IfcOpenShell echo Removing the Blender add-on Python code... rd /S /Q "%blenderbim%\core\" rd /S /Q "%blenderbim%\tool\" rd /S /Q "%blenderbim%\bim\" echo Replacing them with links to the Git repository... mklink /D "%blenderbim%\core" "%cd%\src\blenderbim\blenderbim\core" mklink /D "%blenderbim%\tool" "%cd%\src\blenderbim\blenderbim\tool" mklink /D "%blenderbim%\bim" "%cd%\src\blenderbim\blenderbim\bim" echo Copy over compiled IfcOpenShell files... copy "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifcopenshell\*_wrapper*" "%cd%\src\ifcopenshell-python\ifcopenshell\" echo Remove the IfcOpenShell dependency... rd /S /Q "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifcopenshell" echo Replace them with links to the Git repository... mklink /D "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifcopenshell" "%cd%\src\ifcopenshell-python\ifcopenshell" echo Remove and link other IfcOpenShell utilities... del "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifccsv.py" del "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifcdiff.py" del "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\bsdd.py" rd /S /Q "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\bcf" rd /S /Q "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifc4d" rd /S /Q "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifc5d" rd /S /Q "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifccityjson" rd /S /Q "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifcclash" rd /S /Q "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifcpatch" rd /S /Q "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifctester" rd /S /Q "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifcfm" rd /S /Q "%blenderbim%\libs\desktop" mklink "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifccsv.py" "%cd%\src\ifccsv\ifccsv.py" mklink "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifcdiff.py" "%cd%\src\ifcdiff\ifcdiff.py" mklink "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\bsdd.py" "%cd%\src\bsdd\bsdd.py" mklink /D "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\bcf" "%cd%\src\bcf\src\bcf" mklink /D "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifc4d" "%cd%\src\ifc4d\ifc4d" mklink /D "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifc5d" "%cd%\src\ifc5d\ifc5d" mklink /D "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifccityjson" "%cd%\src\ifccityjson\ifccityjson" mklink /D "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifcclash" "%cd%\src\ifcclash\ifcclash" mklink /D "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifcpatch" "%cd%\src\ifcpatch\ifcpatch" mklink /D "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifctester" "%cd%\src\ifctester\ifctester" mklink /D "%blenderbim%\libs\site\packages\ifcfm" "%cd%\src\ifcfm\ifcfm" mklink /D "%blenderbim%\libs\desktop" "%cd%\src\blenderbim\blenderbim\libs\desktop" echo Manually downloading some third party dependencies... curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jsGanttImproved/jsgantt-improved/master/dist/jsgantt.js -o "%blenderbim%\bim\data\gantt\jsgantt.js" curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jsGanttImproved/jsgantt-improved/master/dist/jsgantt.css -o "%blenderbim%\bim\data\gantt\jsgantt.css" curl -L https://github.com/BrickSchema/Brick/releases/download/nightly/Brick.ttl -o "%blenderbim%\bim\schema\Brick.ttl" pause After you modify your code in the Git repository, you will need to restart Blender for the changes to take effect. The downside with this approach is that if a new dependency is added, or a compiled dependency version requirement has changed, or the build system changes, you'll need to fix your setup manually. But this is relatively rare. Reviewing the Makefile history, `here `__, is one quick way to see if a dependency has changed. .. seealso:: There is a `useful Blender Addon `__ (see `forum thread `__) that adds a Reboot button in File menu. In this way, it's possible to directly restart Blender and test the modified source code. There is also a VS Code add-on called `Blender Development `__ that has a similar functionality. Packaged installation --------------------- - **Arch Linux**: `Direct from Git `__. - **Chocolatey on Windows**: `Unstable `__. Tips for package managers ------------------------- If you are interested in packaging the BlenderBIM Add-on for a packaging manager, read on. The BlenderBIM Add-on is fully contained in the ``blenderbim/`` subfolder of the Blender add-ons directory. This is typically distributed as a zipfile as per Blender add-on conventions. Within this folder, you'll find the following file structure: :: core/ (Blender agnostic core code) tool/ (Blender specific logic) bim/ (Blender specific UI) libs/ (dependencies) __init__.py This corresponds to the structure found in the source code `here `__. The BlenderBIM Add-on is complex, and requires many dependencies, including Python modules, binaries, and static assets. When packaged for users, these dependencies are bundled with the add-on for convenience. If you choose to install the BlenderBIM Add-on and use your own system dependencies, the source of truth for how dependencies are bundled are found in the `Makefile `__. Required Python modules to be stored in ``libs/site/packages/`` are: :: ifcopenshell bcf ifcclash bimtester ifccobie ifccsv ifcdiff ifc4d ifc5d ifcpatch ifctester pystache svgwrite dateutil isodate networkx https://github.com/Andrej730/aud/archive/refs/heads/master-reduced-size.zip deepdiff jsonpickle ordered_set pyparsing xmlschema elementpath six lark-parser behave parse parse_type xlsxwriter odfpy defusedxml jmespath ifcjson Notes: 1. ``ifcopenshell`` almost always requires the latest version due to the fast paced nature of the add-on development. 2. ``behave`` requires `patches `__. 3. ``ifcjson`` can be found `here `__. Required static assets are: :: bim/data/gantt/jsgantt.js (from jsgantt-improved) bim/data/gantt/jsgantt.css (from jsgantt-improved)