File Import Formats

Hi Daniel,

I'm also relying on a combination of Bricscad and Blender for my work - I'm still far from establishing a convenient workflow, but this is how I do it at the moment:

The best solution for me is to export 2d-paths as (r12 or r15) dxf from bcad and import them via the contributed python import script (from Migius) into blender 2.49b. I then do all extrusions (even some booleans) in blender, in order to get clean meshes. I usually stick to 2.49 for modelling because of the large number of useful scripts, and pass on to 2.5x for animation and rendering.

If I have to import 3d-data into blender, I export the model as r12 dxf from bcad, which turns all acis geometry into meshes, and import them using the above mentioned script into blender. In order to see anything imported, you have to check the small "n" in the import dialog to make sure anonymous blocks don't get skipped, since all solids will have been converted to such blocks containing separate polyface meshes for each of the solid's faces. The import script then places these meshes on a separate layer and creates group definitions from them that get inserted on another layer to make up the actual model. Unfortunately, there are some downsides to this:
- the resolution of the meshes cannot be controlled, or at least I didn't find a way to do so (facetres and viewres seem to have no effect)
- each solid produces several meshes, that often will have to be joined and cleaned to give good results in blender
- the resulting structure of the blender file is convoluted and hard to work with (large number of objects, meshes and groups)

My experience is that cleaning up imported 3d-geometry in blender is often more time consuming than remodelling from the imported 2d base geometry. This means that I sometimes model things twice, to get renderings from blender and construction drawings from bcad, which is not very satisfying. Still, I don't think I would be happy with an integrated render in bcad, should Bricsys release this for Linux - it  will almost certainly fall short of the power and choice that blender has to offer. I would rather vote for better 3d import/export facilities - collada seems to be a good way to go.

Lastly, to generate drawings from blender models, I sometimes use the "2d projection" option in the dxf export script, and sketch over the imported geometry in bcad (if numerical precision matters, you should use grid snapping rather than object snapping for this).

Hi Daniel,

I fear 3ds is a bit too outdated to attract development resources, and blender is too much of a moving target (the binary format was probably never meant to be written by other applications) and not mainstream enough anyway.

Collada, however, would not only ease data exchange with blender, but also open up the door to google sketchup and warehouse, which should make BricsCAD look more attractive to many (at least architects), so this is something we might dare to hope for...

I would be interested in a kind of direct exchange from Bricscad to Blender.
Like Vectorworks/Allplan/Archicad to Cinema4D or ACAD to 3DSMax.
(Would love to have that from Bricscad to Modo too)

Importing Geometry is not such a problem.
I use the DXF AddOns in Blender and export older DXF, to avoid ACIS Solids.
Or better, I go Bricscad >DWG > Vectorworks > FBX/DAE/... > Blender

But like Vectorworks to C4D/FBX/DAE/ .... I would like a lossless import
Objects/Layer/Hierarchy/Material/Cameras/Lights/....
from all Info I feed Bricscad with.

I think since the latest Blender developments over the last years you can't
avoid looking at Blender. 2.79 is great. But for me 2.8 at the end of the year
will have an even larger impact.

Since collada (.dae) export and import was introduced in BricsCAD this is our choice of file format for exchange of data with blender. Recent versions of Blender support collada without the need to install any 3rd party plugins.
We also use the command line interface of Blender to turn Blender into a conversion tool, in order to convert BricsCAD collada exports into the preferred output format (in our case wavefront OBJ).