Installation Issues

[ekswathi]

how to install on windows 10

[brunopostle]

It is not ready for packaging in an installer yet. If you want to play with it you will need the topologicPy library which depends on TopologicCore and cppyy, plus there will be various standard python modules, and soon it will require blenderbim. Unfortunately for a while it will depend on the Molior Perl library - until I figure out how to port this to python.

I'll leave this question open, it can be updated as and when.

[ekswathi]

Thanks for the replay.

[Sinasta]

I am doing an architectural project and i would love to use your addon for that purpose. Is it possible to give instructions how to install it on linux? I understand that its heavily WIP but still i would be so greatful to test and report bugs. Thank you very much for your incredible work

[brunopostle]

Hi @Sinasta, it is quite a long list of dependencies at the moment because it still uses some Perl modules from my other Homemaker project (these won't be needed eventually). Though it is work in progress, I am trying to keep the main branch usable as I go.

The blender add-on directly uses:

• topologicPy a python interface to the TopologicCore library. Install it with sudo python setup.py install
  • cppyy C++ python interface, this consists of four packages: cppyy-cling, cppyy_backend, CPyCppyy and cppyy, but you can probably install it all with sudo pip install cppyy
  • TopologicCore. This is a C++ library which you build and install using the standard cmake build system. It requires the opencascade library and headers which should be available from your distribution.
• blenderbim blender add-on, just download the ZIP and install from the blender preferences menu.
• Perl modules are installed using perl Makefile.PL (it will complain about missing CPAN modules, you can install them from CPAN, e.g to install the YAML perl module, use sudo cpan YAML), then sudo make install
  • Molior this assembles a BIM model, I plan on rewriting this in python
    • Urb this is barely used for anything, but at the moment you can't install Molior without it
    • File::IFC currently the add-on writes an IFC file to disk and loads it with blenderbim, so eventually File::IFC won't be needed
      • File::DXF File::IFC uses this for bits and pieces

I think that is it, please ask if you are having trouble. If you are on fedora, I have a repository with topologicPy and dependencies (also blenderbim, but you may prefer to use the installer from the blenderbim website)

The Homemaker add-on adds an item to the Object menu in blender, just select the mesh defining your cells and click Homemaker Topologise

[Sinasta]

You are awesome! I cant express how much i appreciate your work. i still have the perl modules installed from your older addon version. so that shouldn't be a problem. I am running manjaro linux which is based on arch linux (so the reposutory is AUR). I will try out your addon and than report back. Thank you very much for sharing your work

[Sinasta]

I follow your work on twitter and i would love if you would have a free minute two explain your progress on the addon. Which of the perl libraries are still needed and which one can be uninstalled? How ist the style selection progressing? How is the situation with objects like stairs etc and room identification (living, kitchen etc). What are your future plans? Please don't bother explaining that if you don't have the time, but if you could add a small readme file with some information and instructions (or a short video) i would be super greatfull.

[brunopostle]

Though I have made lots of changes, most of it hasn't been enabled in the add-on yet. I'm going to migrate away from the perl libraries to using the ifcopenshell api (hopefully soon), when this happens there will be an additional dependency on the ezdxf python lilbrary, and the perl libraries won't be required. There will be some breakages, stairs and object colour I think, but these will have to be fixed later.

Room identification using the widget system is done, as is the style selection using blender materials.

The window and door code is currently duplicated in python and perl (which slows things down a bit).

Similarly both style systems are currently enabled.

Previously the topologise code identified wall paths, and some extrusion paths like 'eaves', and these could be styled. Now it identifies every possible edge condition, room and wall, and makes them available to the (python) style system as 'traces'. There are lots of these traces, so for example where a vertical wall sits on top of another vertical wall there is a 'trace' that can be used to draw a 'string course', where a vertical wall meets a pitched roof there is a 'trace' that can draw 'eaves', similarly there are traces for where a vertical wall meets a flat roof, or a lower pitched roof - basically all the situations where you would need to draw a distinct vertical detail in a normal building project.

This needs to be documented properly, but there is now a file (customisable for each style) called traces.yml that defines things that you want in your building. For instance, this one tells the system to extrude the profiles in eaves.dxf along all traces that match the top-backward-up condition (a normal pitched roof eave situation). If there are no rules that match top-backward-up, then nothing gets drawn in these locations, if there are multiple rules that match top-backward-up, then they all get drawn.

eaves:
  class: Extrusion
  ifc: IFCROOF
  profile: eaves.dxf
  condition: top-backward-up
  outer: 0.25
  height: 0.0
  extension: 0.25

[brunopostle]

Just a note that I switched the homemaker-addon backend over from perl to python, so the Perl modules listed at the top of this thread are no-longer required. There are some known breakages, including colour and stairs, and likely all sorts of unknown breakages.

The add-on now requires a recent snapshot of blenderbim, as the new ifcopenshell.api is used extensively see this thread.

It also requires ezdxf, as all the assets are still in DXF format and can now be found in the molior/share folder.

[brunopostle]

I have a very experimental linux package of the blender add-on here: https://github.com/brunopostle/homemaker-addon/releases

It works on my system, but I have no idea if it works anywhere else.

[brunopostle]

I have uploaded another experimental test of a Linux Homemaker add-on package for blender: https://github.com/brunopostle/homemaker-addon/releases/tag/2021-06-04

I have built this using debian buster docker images, so it should work on any recent linux distribution with glibc 2.28 or later. I also hadn't realised that expecting python 3.9 was a bit ambitious, so there are two downloads, one for python 3.7 and one for python 3.9.

It works for me, but even if it doesn't work, I would like to see any error messages.

[brunopostle]

A new add-on package that fixes a missing yaml module error: https://github.com/brunopostle/homemaker-addon/releases/tag/2021-06-05

[ekswathi]

any way to get it work on windows

[brunopostle]

any way to get it work on windows

It should be possible, all the dependencies are working on Windows one way or another, but I don't have a Windows machine that I can use to assemble a package. Somebody needs to contribute this.

[brunopostle]

Also there is a new Linux bundle of the add-on, this is needed to work with the latest blenderbim: https://github.com/brunopostle/homemaker-addon/releases/

[brunopostle]

There is a new test release of the Homemaker add-on, available for both Windows and Linux.

It requires a recent blenderbim snapshot, more details here: https://github.com/brunopostle/homemaker-addon/releases/

[brunopostle]

The release page includes a Mac/Darwin/OSX version of the latest release (contributed by Filipe Brandão): https://github.com/brunopostle/homemaker-addon/releases/