BIM object properties import/export, improved drawings management and AI rendering with tone mapping

Edificius BIM software gets a new “facelift”: object properties import/export, improved drawings managament, AI renderings with Tone Mapping tools

BIM software solutions need to satisfy the growing need of today’s BIM professional and there’s one architectural BIM software that is continuously getting feature packed updates, that’s Edificius. This time it’s the turn of BIM related parametric objects that can be updated with custom created property sets for entities such as beams, columns, floor slabs, windows, etc. and directly from a simple to create Excel file.

Edificius also has new powerful real-time image manipulation tools that can be activated and adjusted while the rendering process is in action bringing superb photo-realistic results to your presentations and project artwork together with increased flexibility to position your floor plans, elevations, cross-sections, etc., for better project drawing compositions.  So, for those that already use Edificius, get yourself the latest update for free by clicking the updated button in the “Check for Program updates” sections.

Of course, if you haven’t started to use the most comprehensive of BIM solutions on the market, start off by downloading and using the 30-day free trial and check out these new features, available with vers. BIM 2(m), for yourself.

What’s new?

Version BIM 2(m) of Edificius delivers more professional grade functionality and greater benefits to the user. The short video at the bottom of the article highlights these latest features and can be summarised in:

1. Drawing models rotation option for better “working drawings” compositions;
2. AI Rendering with new in-process image “Tone Mapping” tools
3. Export and Import of Object Properties in Excel format
4. Drag&Drop support for BIM Library object management.

Construction drawings: rotate and create

The aesthetic need to arrange contents in an orderly way can’t get any easier than in Edificius. You can create your working drawing layouts by setting up grids, dimensions and title blocks with just a few clicks and drag and drop your floor plans, cross-sections, elevation views, renders, etc. into your paperspace. Now, in addition to this simplified workflow, you can also re-orient your drawings by rotating them for extra visual connection between drawings (for example through Mongian alignments or projections) and logical progressions to re-arrange and customize your working drawings layout and improve your project story-telling. At the cost of seeming boring, arranging your drawings and presenting a project means “telling a story” so feel free to experiment your communication skills!

So once you have your Working Drawings sheet set up and ready, you can now drag in your project drawings, for example a cross-section, and from the properties toolbox, under Characteristics > define the “Drawing Rotation” value expressed in degrees. See the interface screenshot below.

Drawing models rotation in Edificius

AI Rendering: dynamic in process “Tone Mapping”

In 2019 Edificius was also updated with a new AI denoising based Rendering Engine powered by AMD’s Radeon™ ProRender. In 2020, we’ve tweaked up the engine adding a brand new Tone Mapping manager. Now you can process the different image mapping methods while the rendering process is running and continuously iterate scene image production to find the best artistic output without wasting extra time to start the whole rendering from the beginning again. So, in addition to the previous default method that was set to “Linear”, (meaning that the same exposure value was applied uniformely to the entire image) now, you can choose between various other methods, such as:

• Reinhard
• Drago
• Photographics
• Exponential.
• ACES filmic

Some of these methods are based on photographic principles that apply a different value to each pixel, a value that also takes into account the brightness of the surrounding pixels enhancing colour, reviving brightness and defining shaded areas to bring out all the scene details.

To make the most of Tone Mapping, start off by:

• launching the render process from 3D or PlayStructure view;
• from the pop-up dialog, click on the Lighting tab >Tone Mapping and select among the various new Tone Mapping methods;
• create a dynamic preview, remember that you can still move around to find a better observation point and adjust the tone mapping parameters;
• launch the hi-res rendering process.

Options available in the Edificius “Tone Mapping”

BIM object properties: import/export from Excel file property datasets

The amount of information that can be connected to objects is becoming evermore impressive and bringing in new tools to optimize data management increases the level of trust that BIM professionals put into using a software. So, you’ve just found out that you need to add a PSet (property Set) and assign it to your IFC model that was exported with Edificius. Now you can easily import these properties from an Excel file and assign them directly to your object/s used in your project. Of course, this working methopd can be reversed so you can also export properties assigned to your model as an Excel file and re-use them for your future projects too.

Taking a closer look at the “Properties” toolbox, on the right-hand side, the “Load properties from an Excel file” and “Save properties to an Excel file” functions have been added under the “Object Properties” section. This now allows you to define a series of additional object related information and properties, referring to specific technical or non-technical characteristics (mass, temperature, transmittance, pressure and many others) and export them as an Excel file format or, vice-versa, import object properties.

Let’s see a practical example of how to operate with the software.

If you need to import the properties from an Excel file:

• open your project’s .EDF file
• select an object (for example a wall)
• in “Object properties”, from the properties toolbox, click on the “three dotted” icon to edit the properties
• click on the folder icon “Load properties from an Excel file” in the dialog box that pops up
• upload the Excel file with the properties to assign to the object
• click the green tick to confirm changes.

Import properties from an Excel file in Edificius

If you need to export the properties in Excel format:

• open you project’s EDF file
• select an object (for example a wall)
• in the “Object Properties”, within the properties toolbox, click on the three dots to edit its properties
• click on the folder icon “Save the properties in an Excel file”, in the pop-up dialog
• choose where to save the Excel file with the selected object properties.

All this information, and the object-related information, can also be shared through IFC file too.

In fact, if you add new properties to objects and export the project in IFC format, you can easily read all the added properties by simply opening the IFC file with a viewer.

Consequently you can verify the properties added in IFC format:

• export your project in IFC format
• open the file with usBIM.viewer+ (use it for free and download it here!)
• select the object to which you’ve added the properties
• read the properties in the toolbox on the right-hand side.

Importing property datasets from an Excel file means that the data structure must be the same as what you get when exporting.

Drag&Drop elements from one Library to another

Now when it comes to building up your own custom Library of objects instead of copy-pasting from one folder to another, simply drag and drop to move or copy your project resources. In version BIM 2(m), you can copy objects or entire groups of objects from one library to another with a simple drag & drops between folders:

• open the EDF file of your project
• open the two libraries side by side
• drag&drop an object or group of objects from one library to another.

This great new feature is also available between BIM Object Libraries orginating from different Edificius projects. In this way you can use your selection of materials or 3D Models even for future projects too.

New features in Edificius BIM 2(m) | Drag&Drop of elements from one Library to another

New Features in Edificius: Video highlights – exporting/importing object properties using an Excel spreadsheet

And to finish off, here’s the short video that shows the new “Export and Import of object properties in Excel” function.