Categories:


Archives:

IfcOpenShell and FreeCAD to work with BRep solids

by Yorik on 15.01.2012 in freecad , opensource

With Thomas Krijnen, the guy behind IfcOpenShell, we've been playing with importing BRep files, the native OpenCasCade geometry format, from IfcOpenShell to FreeCAD. This gives truly spectacular results, FreeCAD being able to import a whole IFC file as Part solids, thus skipping the whole Mesh-to-Solid operation.

This is of course just a very early step in making the imported IFC files into something usable "architecture-wise", but it is an important one. Part shapes are the true main building block in all FreeCAD, and being able to import data in its native format is of a considerable importance to maintain a good data integrity. I also think it is a significant step in the OCC-based ecosystem...

by Yorik on 15.01.2012 in freecad , opensource