Sweet Home 3D integration/collaboration

[Kunda1]

Created https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/SweetHome3D after I've been playing around with it since I watched a speed tutorial recently on how to use it

phpBB [video]

There seems to be a good potential for FC and SH3D to work together espectially with plugins that make import/export a real possibility...but more testing is needed.

Edit:

• Look at the SH3D source: https://github.com/svn2github/sweet3dhome (mirror that doesn't accept PRs!)
• issue #2584 Support for SweetHome3D xml-based files
• Sweethome3D for Beginners (Published Apr 2, 2018)
• SweetHome3D on the FC wiki
• SweetHome3D Gallery - Examples of projects completed w/ SH3D + downloadable

[Joel_graff]

This looks really cool! I never knew about SH3D, but I've got to try it, now. I checked outhe the blog and noticed this article:

http://www.sweethome3d.com/blog/2015/12 ... de_10.html

Which mentions freecad being used with SH3D and Blender in an interesting real world application.

Maybe it's old news (its from December 2015), but I thought that was cool.

[bitacovir]

In my opinion, SH3D is a tool suitable for sketch development in an early design stage. But it is the best tool to generate really quick layouts. That is its focus.
It is good to generate quick and nice renders, as well. And it has a hidden potential for simulation: Currently, you can simulate sun light projection and there is a project using it for agent simulation in indoor environments
http://www.sweethome3d.com/blog/2016/12 ... de_17.html

[oddtopus]

Good to hear about SH3D in this forum.
I knew it few years ago, when I had to plan the kitchen's furniture and this is what I found.
PROs

• Placing the objects and changing their size is really quick, thanks to the HANDLES provided next to the 2D objects. Also the snapping of objects to walls is very fast.

• The real-time 3D navigation is amazing: it lets you see what the room looks like as you are drawing and is also simple to use both in 3D view or using the same handles of the first-person object in 2D view

CONs

• Drawing the walls is not as quick and accurate as in Arch workbench. Most of all for position of the edges: if I remember well it is not possible to choose the side of the edge where the wall is drawn.

• What is really lacking is the absence of parametric dimensioning. I confess I did not use it a lot but I failed to find the option to change dimensions of rooms faster than redrawing them.

Though it is a CAD application suited for a specific purpose, it can inspire some features that may be implemented in FreeCAD: for example the second view for 2D sketches or the handles to move or change geometries. The handles may appear only when the object is selected in the viewport.
On the other hand, introducing some more general-purpose features in SH3D, like parametric dimensioning, could help to get it more sophisticated and professional.

[bitacovir]

Drawing the walls is not as quick and accurate as in Arch workbench

It's not accurate at all. As input it only accepts BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG and as output it generates PDF, SVG, (OBJ, DAE for furniture), It does not work with any CAD format. Its focus is another. In fact, the authors have stated this is not an alternative for AutoCAD applications, and they have never had the interest to implement DXF export format.

As collaboration, I think it would work more as a workflow from FreeCAD to SH3D rather than the opposite. SH3D is always in need of furniture/elements libraries. These must be imported from external sources to be used in the layouts (they cannot be created in the program). You could design furniture and other objects in FreeCAD and export them in DAE or OBJ format for SH3D libraries. In the same way, you could have a house design in FreeCAD (or any other object), then you export a OBJ/DAE file to SH3D to render it as a record of a photorealistic video, where you could navigate through it with sun light and indoor light effects.
On the other hand, SH3D can't generate elevations or sections. I do not know if it is possible to import SH3D files into FreeCAD to extract elevations and sections views (and even export them from freeCAD as DXF files). Of course, these outputs will not be accurate drawings.

[Joel_graff]

As collaboration, I think it would work more as a workflow from FreeCAD to SH3D rather than the opposite.

Absolutely. It looks like a really great visualization tool, but not well suited for actual architectural modeling. Having libraries of objects for staging the scene and a strong visualization toolset (lighting, flythrough / navigation) seems like it's greatest advantage. Otherwise, you're forced to migrate to a more game engine environment like Unreal or Unity...

Being able to demo a start-to-finish architectural visualization workflow from FreeCAD to SH3D, though, seems like a good thing to promote. It seems to me as though SH3D and FreeCAD complement each other quite nicely and I personally enjoy seeing multiple tools used well to produce a complete workflow.

[bitacovir]

I personally enjoy seeing multiple tools used well to produce a complete workflow.

This list of free software for architects is a bit outdated and in Spanish, but it still works:

Architecture_workflow_V3.png (172.82 KiB) Viewed 11044 times

[Kunda1]

New version of SH3D released 5.5 http://www.sweethome3d.com/blog/2017/09 ... d_5_5.html

[Kunda1]

New version of SH3D released 5.6 http://sweethome3d.com/blog/2017/10/26/ ... d_5_6.html

[Kunda1]

New version of SH3D released 5.7 http://www.sweethome3d.com/blog/2018/01 ... d_5_7.html

Also an interesting script: SweetHome3D HTML5/XML to Blender importer: https://github.com/lcgamboa/sh3dtoblender