Design a family house completely in FreeCAD

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arcol
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Design a family house completely in FreeCAD

Post by arcol »

I had this crazy idea lately, design a family house completely in FreeCAD.
It would generate a tremendous helpful resource for tutorials and howtos.

I'm ina fortunate position to know a guy, who recently made several plans forhis future family house.
There were about 15-20 different design, he ended up choosing one for his taste.
So I may be able to get from him one of the abandoned drawings.

It would be a perfect starting point.

What others are thinking? Who is up for the adventure?

Should I go through the troubles to get permission for one of the drwaings?
Are anyone else interested?

There are several things for which a 3D model comes handy,
For one I can think of calculation for the exact material need (eg. How many m3 conrete is needed)
We could make a timeline (gantt table) how the house is supposed to be build.

It is purely in theory, but nice thought experiment and also real life FreeCAD test.
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yorik
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Re: Design a family house completely in FreeCAD

Post by yorik »

This is a very good idea, specially if you take the opportunity to use the Arch module, and identify areas that could be enhanced ;)

Indeed it would become an extremely precious resource...

Basically the whole idea of the Arch module is that: that after modeling your project, you can easily generate construction documents (plans, sections and facade views), quantities schedules (and thereafter price lists and construction timetables), and output your model for further, external work, such as structural calculations, energy calculations and renderings. Of course all this is still not working smoothly, but each of these operations is possible already.

There is no need to actually use the Arch tools to model your house, you can very well model everything with other tools (PartDesign, etc), and simply use the Arch module at the end to "qualify" the different objects (this is a wall, this is a window, etc..). Most Arch objects work either as modeling tools or as simple containers for other geometry. This is an important step in architecture modeling, which is the "semantics" (each object is not just a simple geometry, but is of a specific kind and has specific properties). This is what allows to easily query your model afterwards (give me everything that is in concrete, or give me all the floor area, all the walls, etc)

If you get the drawings from your friend in some 2D CAD format (dwg, dxf, etc), it'll be fairly easy to model on top of it (check the Arch tutorial). If there is a 3D model already, even in mesh format, it's even better, but be aware that architecture models are not always very precise in their dimensions.
arcol
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Re: Design a family house completely in FreeCAD

Post by arcol »

yorik wrote:This is a very good idea, specially if you take the opportunity to use the Arch module, and identify areas that could be enhanced ;)
That was my plan exactly. Use Arch modul where possible. I already tried to.gather as much Arch tutorial as possible, but they are really rare on the internet.
If you get the drawings from your friend in some 2D CAD format (dwg, dxf, etc), it'll be fairly easy to model on top of it (check the Arch tutorial). If there is a 3D model already, even in mesh format, it's even better, but be aware that architecture models are not always very precise in their dimensions.
The models are 2D, im not even sure they still are in electronic form, most probably i need to scan it back from the printed paper. Maybe that is the best. Use as few aid as possible.

I will get the drawing next week, and post it here. I try to collect Arch tutorials in the meantime.

Update:
I got the permission to use the drawings!
I'll get it later this week, when I meet with the architect.

Yorik: I will throroughly through your arch tutorial.
It is really nice and detailed tutorial It should have take a hell of a time to make!
icewater
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Re: Design a family house completely in FreeCAD

Post by icewater »

I think the resulting tutorials would be enormously appreciated. I have not found so many for architecture. An exhaustively detailed series that shows the process from start to finish of an actual building would be great.
TheTriscut
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Re: Design a family house completely in FreeCAD

Post by TheTriscut »

Are there any updatse to this? I'm a Civil Engineer who would like to create plans for my own house, I'm capable of creating all of the plans, elevations, and details in AutoCAD. Is FreeCAD similar enough that I could switch from AutoCAD to FreeCAD?
jmaustpc
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Re: Design a family house completely in FreeCAD

Post by jmaustpc »

TheTriscut wrote: Tue Aug 15, 2017 8:49 pm Are there any updatse to this? I'm a Civil Engineer who would like to create plans for my own house, I'm capable of creating all of the plans, elevations, and details in AutoCAD. Is FreeCAD similar enough that I could switch from AutoCAD to FreeCAD?
You can certainly design a house in FreeCAD. There may be some limitations or work arounds required and the work flow will no doubt vary from Autocad.

In FreeCAD you would generally model the object in 3d and then extract any 2d drawings from the 3d model.

I have found FreeCAD adequate to model my house and produce drawings for government approvals and for the engineer.
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Kunda1
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Re: Design a family house completely in FreeCAD

Post by Kunda1 »

Another option is SweetHome3D which may be faster, see for example:
phpBB [video]

you may be able to import in to FreeCAD afterwards, though there is a ticket still open about it:issue #2584
Alone you go faster. Together we go farther
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Kunda1
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Re: Design a family house completely in FreeCAD

Post by Kunda1 »

But that was a digression. If totally in FC you could follow these sets of tuts
phpBB [video]
Alone you go faster. Together we go farther
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sergdev
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Re: Design a family house completely in FreeCAD

Post by sergdev »

Hello guys!
I am new to FreeCAD. And I wonder, do I need to create a new 3g elements for the house which I am developing ? For instance,how do I create/show door using FreeCAD ?
paullee
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Re: Design a family house completely in FreeCAD

Post by paullee »

sergdev wrote: Thu Nov 15, 2018 1:10 am Hello guys!
I am new to FreeCAD. And I wonder, do I need to create a new 3g elements for the house which I am developing ? For instance,how do I create/show door using FreeCAD ?
There are a lot of discussion, wiki, youtube on creating door and window, Arch etc., e.g.

https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Arch_Window

https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?t=18475

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXe-XrToxDk
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