[QGIS-Developer] QGIS / FreeCAD interoperability...

[Régis Haubourg]

Hi Joel,

Just a note on the QGIS-CAD-BIM "converging" roadmap everyone dreams about.
What we see here is that many organisation up to now where using CAD
software to manage city maps and assets management, where GIS - as a true
database system - is far more accurate.
We even see public entity allowing public grant only if data are
transmitted in GIS exchange format in the end. So we see many CAD users
switching to GIS - wether they like it or not.

As a consequence, and thanks to funders who understand that free software
allows to be active contributors, QGIS as a project is influenced a lot by
CAD needs, at least for 2D editing.
We have some construction tools allowing to play with angles, parallels,
build some inference temporary lines, and a lot of new shape editing tools.
We still miss a lot of what user require, such as interactive snapping for
instance or advanced 3D computation libraries. We also reach a point where
geospatial standards draw a line with CAD world, for instance handling
spline curves is at the limits.

Concerning 3D and BIM buzz, we have a lot of questions from users, and
sometimes even from national mapping agencies. And up to now, 3D plans for
QGIS are focused on viewing datasets mainly.
We miss a lot 3D editing capabilities and FreeCAD is in my opinion the best
candidate to provide an open source solution for this.

The first bridge would be to ensure that FreeCAD deals with the main
interchange standards to be able to edit BIM data. That would probably be
cityGML and all the standards supported by the OGC, plus the main de facto
standards like STL. I think we already have a challenge here to deals with
those large datasets in reading and editing.

FreeCad being able to edit those, we could already answer to the 100% open
source BIM use case. Then an interoperability at API level between FreeCad
and QGIS to easily open a dataset or a specific feature in QGIS<>Freecad
would rock!
I would love as a user be able to view my city in 2D or 3D with QGIS, click
on a building, open it in FreeCAD, update it, go back to QGIS, refresh,
done.

Hope it helps

Best regards




Le dim. 10 mai 2020 à 23:24, Luigi Pirelli <luipir at gmail.com> a écrit :

> Hi Joel
>
> Since years ago a lot of new features can support a better integration. I
> did a rough investigation about integration and stopped due to the fact
> that data model were (or is) too different to imagine an integration.
> BTW probably now is more simple (at least from the qgis point of view)
> thanks to the possibility to bridge different data models using a python
> data provider [1] [2].
> I would give a try/look.
>
> cheers
>
> Luigi Pirelli
>
> [1] https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Enhancement-Proposals/issues/122
> [2] https://www.itopen.it/qgis-vector-data-provider-python/
>
>
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>
> On Sat, 9 May 2020 at 05:26, Joel Graff <monograff76 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I've been a part of the FreeCAD project for the last three years or so,
>> focusing on developing Civil Engineering-related functions (specifically,
>> transportation engineering).  On occasion, discussions emerge regarding GIS
>> integration into FreeCAD, QGIS being the natural go-to.
>>
>> Recently, the GIS thread on the FreeCAD forum pointed to a github issue
>> on the QGIS repo about FreeCAD integration.  It was closed in late April,
>> citing the developer's mailing list as the place to continue the discussion.
>>
>> I cite the URL below as it contains links to relevant threads on the
>> FreeCAD forum:
>>
>> https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/issues/21623
>>
>> The issue was five years old and not much discussion has happened.
>> Admittedly, I think it's one of those "seems like a good idea, but what can
>> we really do with it?" kind of things.
>>
>> I'm not really posting here to start a discussion on any particular topic
>> or advocate for any sort of development effort.  I'm merely bringing it to
>> the developer mailing list to give it the proper exposure.
>>
>> That said, I should also mention that I and one other transportation
>> engineering professional are actively working on developing transportation
>> engineering tools for FreeCAD, specifically geomatic (survey) and highway
>> alignment design tools at the moment.
>>
>> *Joel Graff, P.E.*
>>
>> *LinkedIn:* https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelcgraff
>>
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