BIMopen 0.1.0-alpha.6 (test build)

Test build. A partial, non-final version, only for trying the program. It is provided as is, without warranties of any kind: do not use it for real projects.

Added

• The native file format 2027: projects (.bpr), project templates (.bpt), components (.bco) and component templates (.bct); every file written in format 2027 or later opens in every later version.
• The File panel: a full-window page in place of the File menu, with the recent projects as tiles showing the picture saved in each file, a list view, pinned projects, a file that is no longer there greyed with «Locate…», and the pages of New, Open, Save as, Export and Print.
• Imperial units: feet and fractional inches, decimal feet and inches, ft² and ft³, values typed as 5'-6 1/2", architectural and engineering scales, and an imperial template for new projects.
• «Import IFC»: an IFC file brought into the open project, its elements converted with the project's own types; in the File panel under «Open».
• Imported objects, from IFC files too, can be converted into native elements: walls, floors, roofs and the other categories with the project's own types, or components built from their shapes, keeping the originals; the «Conversion Status» panel shows what is still to convert.
• Stairs drawn by their boundary and riser lines: each tread and landing as the lines draw it, with nosings, middle stringers and a stepped underside.
• The «Realistic» visual style: a physical sky with the sun's disc, golden hour, twilight and night, the moon in its phase and the stars, and moonlight on the model.
• The «Pastel» visual style: a wash drawing in the colours of the materials, in 3D views, plans, sections and elevations, with the cuts in poché and the view's own shadows, on light or dark paper; «Wash Strength» and «Wash Variation» set how deep and how unevenly the colour lies.
• Sketchy lines: the lines of a view drawn as by hand, with «Distortion» and «Extension» (5 and 1 in plans, sections and elevations, 8 and 3 in 3D views), the same on screen, in print and in export, turned on and off from the view bar.
• «Graphic Display Options» in groups that open and close, with distortion, edges, smooth lines, transparency, depth cueing and the background gradient.
• Options ▸ Graphics: hardware acceleration, the graphics card to use and the one «In use», and the kind of edges in 3D views.
• Updates: at start, at most once a day, BIMopen reads the latest version from the website; a bell with a dot in the top bar shows a newer one, with its news, «Download and update», «Later» and «Skip this version». The download is checked (checksum and digital signature) and the program restarts on the same project and view; Android opens the system installer, the web reloads. Options ▸ General ▸ «Check for updates».
• «?» ▸ «Commands»: every command in a window, with search, the ribbon's tabs, the name to type, synonyms, shortcut, description and an example; a double-click or Enter starts it. Typing help opens it too.

Changed

• A new identity: the cube mark and the program's colours in the program, its icons, the website and the manual.
• The «BIMopen» style is more compact: the rail lists the ribbon's tabs and the drawing area has more room.
• «?» ▸ «About BIMopen» shows the build's version, date and commit, the platform, links to the website, the manual and the news, the third-party licences, and «Copy system information».
• Large models open, draw and change faster in 3D views, with their many doors, windows, components, railing posts and imported objects.
• Files of the earlier test versions do not open in this version: it says so with a message, as for damaged files and files of other programs.

Fixed

• In 3D views automatic edges stay whole close up, and a visual style looks the same however it was chosen.
• «Realistic» in browsers with WebGL2: walls and roofs no longer turn black, and the window no longer freezes while the images are prepared.
• A graphics card that cannot draw in the window gives way to the automatic one at start.
• In a stair drawn by runs each run meets its landing across the slab, and the landing post stays on the landing.

Removed

• The experimental import of a closed format: BIMopen exchanges models through IFC.