BLOCKIFY - Block Duplicates - EDIT : meanwhile part of OVERKILL

zoomer

With the release of early Blockify I thought there once came an option to merge identical Block Definitions.

For me, somehow most/all of clients IFC exports (or RVT too ?) lead to same Elements imported as Blocks, to have each a unique Block definition. I never could see any differnces in their parent geometry, Properties or attributes, but these are duplicated definitions. And each Block definition has only 1 Reference and a rising number suffix in its name. And therefore that file has about 5500 Blocks.

However Blockify was never able to purge/combine these into one definitions. AFAIR it said "no identical Blocks" and I think I had a already SR about this.

So these, mostly around 500 MB IFCs, were hardly usable in Bricscad, and normally I would have needed to combine 5-7 of these from different parties to get the complete BIM Model - which was illusionary.

I recently tested them with Blockify again to see if it works better now - without luck, but if I watch the Blockify options, language barrier, but for me it doesn't look like any of these is meant to combine duplicate Blocks ?

So, is that feature gone, was never there or am I using it still wrong and it could work ?

Lyubov Osina

As I see in your old request about this issue, changing of tolerance setting was suggested as a possible solution. Did it work for you?

zoomer

Hmmh, I have not yet tried.

(An older File, not a current urgent Project. Just an example of what sources I may have to deal with and wanted to re-test Bricscad's current state)

Currently I am no more sure if Blockify ever had any option to check for Block Duplicates in the Block Library (?) or by its Instance Copies in the Drawing ? If you read the help or look at Blockify options, there is nothing like that mentioned anywhere.

Maybe I just always mixed that up with the option - to search the Drawing for Geometry that is the same as in an already existing Block ?

With Duplicates I mean that the Blocks are totally identical in content (geometry + data) except for their Block Name, which just has differs in a Suffix _number. These are valid Block definitions and each Block has a single Instance (Reference) in the Drawing.

I wonder even why Bricscad creates Blocks at all (In lack of more reasonable alternatives in DWG standard ?) As the source IFC has no Blocks (IFC Types) at all. Also Vectorworks does not create any Blocks (Symbols). In IFC or VWX these are just Objects.

Looks like this example originates from Microstation or better a vertical HVAC App on top. Everything is IFC tagged with default IfcBuildingElementProxy only and the Geometry (Fire Sprinkler) crappy loose 3D Faces, at least Regions in Bricscad.
Basically similar to what you get by DGN imports for any former Microstation "Smart Solid", which is a standard Solid that was edited, by a Tool like PushPull or boolean operations.

An other option to purge/convert these Blocks and in Bricscad is also not existing - or better applicable. As Blockreplace is only able to replace a single Block, not multiple at a time. Which does not make much sense when there are 2000+ of these.

I also miss the option to select all Block Duplicates in Drawing Explorer, to delete - with an option to keep/explode potential "References" in the Drawing.

So if I am not wrong, there is only one option in Bricscad left (?), to XPLODE all Block's Instances in the Drawing first. Delete all but the first Block Definition, then run Blockify and hope it will accept and find a bunch of preselected loose Regions Geometry and finally recognize its Copies in File as already existing in a Block Definition.

Unfortunately also hardly applicable as Bricscad is already overburdened with the File as it is. And I do not really get why when I explode such Block Copies References, the laggy File Size (IFC was 480 MB) increases from DWG 880 MB to 1.46 GB and memory consumption from 50+ GB to 70+ GB.

I started Blockify but quit it after running 1-2 hours, as I was not sure if I really had selected the correct option. Maybe I had, as it jumped back to that expected option after I quit. Looks like Blockify Panel switches to first option when starting, as long as it is running ?

My current and most comfortable solution so far is to open the IFC in Blender Bonsai.

• duplicating such an IFC Object
• creating an IFC Type from it
• select all Object Duplicates by searching by Name
• apply the IFC Type to all
  

BTW,

Merry Christmas to all …..

Piet

hi Zoomer,

this is part of the OVERKILL command, as a command option. See screenshot below:

zoomer

Thanks a lot Piet !

Sounds exactly like what I am looking for.

I started a test. It is already running since 2+ hours. I will let it run until tomorrow and come back if it ran through or aborted, found something or not.

Piet

That is a long time, could you create a support request and attach the drawing so we can profile it?

zoomer

I think it is still under NDA.

But it is large …. the IFC is nearly 600 MB (or 400 MB zipped), the Bricscad file also 800+ MB.

Bonsai also needed 1-2 hours for assigning a single IFC Type to 2500+ Sprinkler IFC Elements. Which I repeated for 3 Types - just for testing, not for all possible duplicates - which already saved half of the IFC file size. Importing the cleaned up IFC into Bricscad does work without lagging too.

There is no feedback, no progress bar for OVERKILL, if Bricscad is still working or already frozen, which Bricscad on Mac often does, like after Mac awakes from sleep.

I will let it run until tomorrow to give it at least a chance. So far Bricscad only needs 26 GB of memory.

zoomer

@Piet

Oh, I see the IFC file (Or a stripped down version zipped) was already attached to an old SR (SR 125720) and looks still accessible.

Now I see - that functionality really was part of BLOCKIFY, in the past. Now OVERKILL.