Bimble v0.15.0

Bimble v0.15.0: a preview of a fast, open-source structural BIM tool. It views IFC files in 3D, plans, ceiling plans and sections, overlays another office's DXF or PDF plan to check it, draws storey plans at scale, and edits and versions Bimble's own .bimble models. It also runs in a browser.

User manual: https://guilbep.github.io/bimble-docs/

Install

System	Install with	Or the archive
macOS, Apple Silicon (M1–M4)	Bimble_*_aarch64.dmg, or Homebrew (below)	bimble-*-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
macOS, Intel	Bimble_*_x64.dmg, or Homebrew	bimble-*-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
Windows 10/11	bimble_*_x64_en-US.msi	bimble-*-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip
Debian, Ubuntu	bimble_*_amd64.deb: sudo apt install ./bimble_*_amd64.deb	bimble-*-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
Fedora, Red Hat, openSUSE	bimble-*.x86_64.rpm: sudo dnf install ./bimble-*.x86_64.rpm	same
Any Linux	bimble_*_x86_64.AppImage: chmod +x, then run it	same
Any browser (static page, to host yourself)	bimble-*-web.zip

Homebrew (macOS and Linux), no security prompt:

brew tap guilbep/bimble https://github.com/guilbep/bimble
brew install guilbep/bimble/bimble

SHA256SUMS lists the checksums. The browser version is also online: https://guilbep.github.io/bimble/ (files you open there stay on your computer).

Run

Open Bimble from Applications, the Start menu or your desktop's menu, or run bimble in a terminal (bimble view your-model.ifc). You can also drop a file on the window.

The installers aren't signed by a paid certificate yet:

• macOS: the first time, macOS says Bimble is from an unidentified developer. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway (or right-click Bimble → Open). Homebrew installs don't ask.
• Windows: SmartScreen may warn about an unknown publisher; choose More info → Run anyway.

Try

• Open an IFC, then File → Convert to .bimble (editable)…: every element comes along; columns, beams, walls, slabs and footings are editable by their dimensions, the rest can be moved and versioned.
• The left panel lists the model's views (3D, plans, ceiling plans, sections) with their view range; select, edit and measure in any of them. Project → Reference plan… lays a DXF or vector PDF over a plan.
• Sheets: place views at their scales, dimension and annotate, export PDF or SVG. bimble plan model.ifc plan.pdf --storey "Level 1" --scale 100 from the command line.
• File → Share for viewing… writes a small .bimbleview that opens in seconds, also in a browser.
• History (Manage tab, or bimble history …): commits, branches, merges; bimble history clone / sync / borrow to work together through a shared folder.
• bimble bench --json > bench.json: how fast it is on your machine. Please send the file, especially from old laptops.

Known limits

• .bimble files saved by 0.12 and later can't be opened by 0.11 and older: upgrade together, or share .json.
• Models with elements hidden or isolated in a view, or with a reference plan added since 0.13.2, can't be opened by 0.13.1 and older; models with materials hidden in a view, and graphic standards with materials moved to another family (0.14), can't be read by 0.13 versions: everyone working on a model upgrades together. Since 0.14 a model knows its place and project north (ADR 0045): models imported from a placed IFC, their shared-folder histories, and views set to true north can't be read by 0.13.2 and older; a .bimbleview still opens there, without its project north. Views given a scale other than 1:100 or a crop region (0.15) can't be read by 0.14 and older.
• Elements of other classes than columns, beams, walls, slabs and footings are moved, not edited by dimensions.
• Working together (Collaborate → Shared folder, Synchronize): the desktop only; a conflict is settled for all elements at once (from the command line with --prefer), not element by element yet. Rights (view / annotate / model) aren't enforced yet.
• Reference plans: DXF model space and the first page of a vector PDF; no text, hatches or scanned PDFs.
• In the browser: no model history yet; loading uses one processor core; at most 4 GB per tab.
• Curved geometry is drawn as fine facets (0.5 mm tolerance), not exact surfaces.
• On a machine whose graphics refuse a drawing step, Bimble turns that step off and says so in red: please report the message with your machine and system.

Changes

Plans and sections On paper, in their tab (ADR 0046)

• A plan, ceiling plan or section has two pictures, switched in its tab or with P: Model (to edit) and On paper, exactly the drawing its PDF and sheets are made of, zoomed and panned like a sheet.
• On paper, a click selects the element drawn there (picked on the model), its outline shown; double-click goes to the model at that place.
• Scale is the view's: set in its properties, the same on screen, on paper and on every sheet. Sheets made before take their views' scales on opening, as a change to save. Changing it is one undo step, sheets included.
• Crop regions: a view can draw only part of itself — in its properties, Crop, then To the screen (what the screen shows) or the extent typed in metres. On screen and on paper alike; axes, dimension chains and the page follow.
• On paper and sheets are drawn in the background on the desktop: the window never freezes; the last picture stays, greyed, with "Drawing… n s". A section through a very large model can take several seconds to draw.
• Drawing a plan of a turned building (such as the office's) is about 5 times faster: it leaves out what lies outside the view's range; 0.27 s instead of 1.35 s for a 32 766-element model.
• The old "On paper" window is now Export view… (PDF, SVG).

Coordinates and IFC (ADR 0045, 0047)

• Coordinates in ETRS89 / UTM, US State Plane (metres, feet, US survey feet), LV03 and WGS84, besides LV95 (Settings → Coordinates), worked out as PROJ does.
• File → Export IFC4… / Export IFC2x3…; both validated by IfcOpenShell. The open file's schema shows next to its name.
• Exported IFC keeps the model's place and project north; the view cube follows project north; DXF and PDF reference plans line up by their LV95 coordinates, or upright in a turned plan.
• Fixed: a profile with a hole lost it on export, and was imported as a solid rectangle.

Full Changelog: v0.14.0...v0.15.0