Blog Archives

BIMserver 1.1 beta: developers release

November 18 2011  |   Léon van Berlo  |  Blog, News  |  1 Comment

Today we released a beta version of 1.1. To get things clear right away: it has bugs. The main reason to release this new version is to inform developers of the changes and new concept. Since the 1.0 release not a lot of new features were added, but everything changed….  The most important, and radical, change was the introduction of the plugin-infrastructure. The previous release of BIMserver was one big chunk of code; in this new release all functional parts of the code are made modular. The whole import and export interface is put into plugins. The ignore files are now called ‘objectIDMs’ and also modular.

This release of BIMserver.org makes it easier to integrate and communicate with BIMserver. Have a look at the communication schema and possibilities on http://code.google.com/p/bimserver/wiki/Communication

Some other big changes in 1.1beta are:

  • Visualisation is gone: we removed visualization from BIMserver. We think a server should be a server and not a visualization tool. We are teaming up with BIMsurfer.org for visualization.
  • Slit between server and GUI: the graphical user interface of BIMserver sucks. We know… To encourage developers to create a new one, we split the JSP pages from the actual server. Therefor you can now download a server build (only the server) and a combined build (server + jsp GUI).
  • Bimserver now uses internal streaming rather than the creation of temporary files for parsing by the geometry kernel.  There is work in progress to integrate IfcOpenShell as a geometry kernel as well, but that might have to wait till 1.2.
  • Client Library:  Gives you access to plugins and the EMF core client side. As a result this developers  the same advanced possibilities on the client as they have server side.
  • New protocol buffer interface: In addition to SOAP and REST interface, we now support Protocol Buffers. This is a major step towards real-time (streaming) communication with clients.
  • Internal performance updates: we’ve improved a great deal of memory usage in this release.
  • Caching of downloads: Both revision and queries  are now cached on server after the first download. This means any additional download will have very fast retrieval . This speeds things up quite a bit in a multiuser environment where several people need to download a merged model or revision to their own machine.
  • Progress bar: lots have asked for it, now it’s there… a progress bar during upload and download.
  • Plugins: All serializers and deserializers (upload, download) are now plugins that can be activated or deactivated. This infrastructure makes it easy for developers to build on top of BIMserver. There are already several plugins being developed like a very promising COBie plugin.

You can find the release on this location: http://tools.bimtoolset.org/BIMserver/1.1beta (which is our archive site). We call this a 1.1beta, but it will be placed in subfolders, ordered by date. Therefore we can update the release every couple of days, responding to your feedback.

Before (and during) your evaluation, please have a look at the know issues  and the documentation. The documentation on the wiki will grow, responding to your feedback.

Please place your feedback on http://support.bimserver.org

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Changing the license: moving in opposite directions

October 3 2011  |   Léon van Berlo  |  Blog, News  |  1 Comment

It was an open secret in the BIMserver developing community, but now we are going public with this announcement: there are some license changes in the source code. The core and some serializers of BIMserver.org are now Affero GPL licensed. Most projects stay in the GPLv3 license. There will be some binary builds that are dual licensed LGPL and Affero.

These changes are inherent to the changes in the structure of BIMserver. As most of you know our vision to BIMserver.org is to create a stable, reliable but also open kernel to use in the AEC industry. By publishing the core under Affero license, the improvements are more likely to flow back into the project. On the other hand, the LGPL binaries lower the threshold to use the BIMserver.org kernel in commercial software (beware, this only goes for the binaries).
For those of you who want details: the exact licenses are available in the source of the projects. And of course, all source code released prior to the change will always be available under the ‘old’ GPLv3 license. In case of doubt, feel free to ask your question on our support forum or e-mail to license@bimserver.org.

Since the 1.0 release, most of our efforts have been on loosening the different modules. The core, GUI, IFCEngine and (de)serializers are now individual projects in the code repository. This makes way for extending BIMserver.org by creating your own GUI or plugin.
Lots of programmers all over the world are developing serializers and new user interfaces for BIMserver at this moment. This also has an effect on the projects in the code repository. For example, bot the Cobie2Serializer and the O3D project have been removed from our project list. We focus on the BIMserver core and want to create the best BIMserver software with open interfaces to integrate and connect. Other projects and their programmers are working on much cooler COBie serializers and WebGL viewers than we could ever create. More on this later, but a sneak preview can be found on bimsurfer.org

The integration between BIMserver.org software and other (open source) software initiatives is coordinated by the open source BIM network. This osBIM.org network now has 6 projects under its umbrella and has a strong focus on integrating (and accelerating) the open source BIM software efforts. Members of the BIMserver.org team are also involved in the osBIM.org network.

Buy the “BIMserver Chalesm book”

August 24 2011  |   Léon van Berlo  |  Blog, News  |  4 Comments

After the BIMserver 1.0 release the software has been downloaded over 2000 times. BIMserver.org has gained many enthouasiastic (new and existing) users; there are hundreds of BIMservers running on the net; thousands of users that benefit from the BIMserver features (on average there are 3-5 users per server install); the wiki is growing and also the support forum gets more and more detailed questions of (first time and advanced) users and developers. Really big (huge!) commercial companies have shown serious interest in BIMserver.org; the svn codebase committers have doubled and work on the 1.1 release is on a peak at the moment. This project is growing towards a real open source community project. The founders are of course very happy to see this movement, but also have to face the typical contrast that this kind of progress has to face. Before BIMserver is outgrowing its own success we intent to ride the wave as long as possible. Of course, as every open source project, there has to be some funding for this. And of course, like every open source project our most fanatic users are employees of organizations that aren’t going to donate to BIMserver. That’s why we thought of a little trick…. We are selling books. We sell official “BIMserver Chalesm books” for 40,- EUR each. The profit of this bookselling goes directly, for 100% to normal business operating expenses like hosting, bandwidth, servers and hardware, legal costs, etc. Look any dignified open source project, the income from this book is explicitly not used to pay developers. Now you probably want to know what’s in the book. We can be short and simple about that: nothing. It’s a sketchbook with all blank pages. You can use it as a notebook, coaster, firelighter or whatever you want. The BIMserver.org logo is on front and it even has an official ISBN number: 978-94-90466-02-2. If you want, you (or your employer) will receive an official invoice with VAT number and everything. So in other words: Buy the book and let your employer pay for it. Your employer probably feels a lot safer on buying an official book (even if it is blank) with invoice and VAT number. It’s up to you if you want to tell him what the book is really about….. You can order your copy here by clicking the ‘buy now’ button. We are very thankful when you do. Payment is processed by iDeal (click the logo) or Paypal (click the ‘Buy Now’).

 

If you don’t have a creditcard, you can order a copy via e-mail. Just don’t forget to mention your adress, VAT number, etc… For those of you who wonder where to find written documentation about BIMserver.org: there is a constantly evolving wiki and pdf. For direct questions you can use our support forum. Please be aware that all this support is gratis.

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BIMserver Breakfast + openBIMweek 2011

May 3 2011  |   Léon van Berlo  |  Blog, News  |  Comments Off

After the successes of the previous BIMserver breakfasts we intent to expand this year. The concept is simple: attendees get together to try out the BIMserver software, share ideas, or anything else related to BIM and the open source BIMserver software. There will be breakfast, coffee and some short presentations from advanced users. Last year 130 enthousiasts participated. This year there will be room for (only) 150 people.

This year the BIMserver Breakfast won’t be a single event, but part of the international openBIMweek 2011 in Amsterdam (the Netherlands). BIMserver.org is present in multiple events during that week.

More info and registration on openBIMweek.org…

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Release 1.0 stable

February 4 2011  |   Léon van Berlo  |  Blog, News  |  2 Comments

After several release candidates, the final 1.0 version is now available for download. The team made some final adjustments on the stability, security and usability. The core team received lots of help from enthusiastic developers all over the world.
Feel free to download it from http://download.bimserver.org and try it yourself.

A small selection of stuff we are proud of:

  • ‘Intelligent’ merging of IFC data;
  • User specific RSS feeds;
  • Geolocate your BIM project using openstreetmap;
  • Easier Google Earth link;
  • More query and filter options;
  • Better and more intuitive ‘early warning system’ (for concurrent engineering);
  • Enhanced user control and authentication;
  • ifcZIP upload and download;
  • Tested for ‘BIM in the Cloud’;
  • More options for fine-tuning the configuration;
  • Lots of improvement on the webservice interfaces;
  • Improved security;
  • WebGL browser based IFC viewer (very beta);
  • Better and more monitoring and logging of the server (for administrators);
  • More BIM and GIS integration (geoBIM);
  • Automatic e-mail on clashdetection of your models;
  • COBie export;

Together with the 1.0 we also release our new services. You can find them on http://bimserver.org/service/ To get more professional support for the open source BIMserver software we now offer masterclasses, training and custom development. These services give you more stability on using and implementing the open source BIMserver software in your daily work.

As you might have noticed the documentation of the open source BIMserver is lacking behind. Therefore we are very pleased to tell you that nine Dutch companies and the Netherlands organisation for applied scientific research TNO have started a ‘BIMserver Documentation’ project. This project will take 5 to 6 months and will deliver documentation as pdf, wiki (wiki.bimserver.org) and screencasts on YouTube. At the end of this documentation effort, BIMserver.org and TNO will organise a 4th BIMserver Breakfast (find inspiration on the 2010 site). This will take place in June this year. We are still looking for a location, it you are interested please contact us at breakfast@bimserver.org.

If you have any questions on the 1.0 release, please subscribe to one of the mailinglists and ask your questions there.

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Release candidate 5

January 19 2011  |   Léon van Berlo  |  Blog, News  |  Comments Off

Exactly one week before the release party the RC5 is now publicly available. The bugs from the RC4 were fixed and in that process we found a few more enhancements could be made to some features. Feel free to testdrive the RC5. Download it at download.bimserver.org or on our development site.

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January 25th 2011: BIMserver 1.0 release party

December 23 2010  |   Léon van Berlo  |  Blog, News  |  6 Comments

To celebrate the release of the 1.0 stable version of the open source BIMserver software, we will organize a small ‘get-together’ which we call ‘release party’. The party will be at ‘de Watertoren’ in Delft (the Netherlands) on January 25th 2011.

During this 2 hour meeting we will show the newest features of the 1.0 release, talk a bit about future plans (as far as that’s possible for an open source project) and give an update on some projects (that we are proud of) that are using the software in real life.

This meeting is sponsored by ‘BIM As A Service’. BIMasaService uses the open source BIMserver software to supply services to their costumers. If you want a BIMserver without the stress of the installation, backups and updates you can ask BIMasaService to manage that for you. BIMasaService will have a short ‘word from the sponsor’ during the release party.

We hope that you will join us on the 25th in Delft (NL). If you like to meet other fans and users of the BIMserver software this is the ideal place to do so!

Please fill out the form to confirm your precence and receive more info.

In short:
Location: ‘de Watertoren‘ in Delft (the Netherlands).
Date: January 25th 2011.
Time: 11.00 – 13.00.
Cost: free (if you fill in the form).
Sponsor: BIMasaService.

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Factsheet translations

June 21 2010  |   Léon van Berlo  |  Blog, News  |  Comments Off

The official BIMserver.org factsheet seems to be very popular. To serve users as best as possible there are now three languages available: English, German and Dutch. You can volunteer translating other languages. Send an e-mail to translate@bimserver.org to help out. Have fun reading the factsheets!

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BIMserver software used in Dutch BIMCaseWeek

March 15 2010  |   Léon van Berlo  |  Blog, News  |  Comments Off

The BIMserver.org software is used this week in the Dutch BIMCaseweek. The week (which only lasts for 4 days) started today. Two teams use the BIMserver software. TNO has provided a cloudserver with 16 Gb internal RAM memory to handle the big models. The teams use the BIMserver software for backup, revision management and of course the merging. One of the users said “I can not find any software that can merge the different models for construction, electrician, HVAC, et cetera… The BIMserver software is the only one that does the job“. The proof that the bimserver software can do the job,  can be found in the picture.

This is a big test for the software and we are very happy that the teams trust and like the software enough to use it in this competition.

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New Release: v0.8.1

March 5 2010  |   Léon van Berlo  |  Blog, News  |  1 Comment

BIMserver.org: 0.8.1 usability release.

The open source BIMserver just released a new stable version of the software. The new release is the 0.8.1 version. This release should be a ‘usability update’ so the interface will be (even)  more user friendly. However, during development we decided to integrate some major changes in the core of the architecture. The IFC Engine DLL is now running in a separate JVM. When the DLL crashes, the BIMserver keeps on running and can even startup the crashed JVM again. This makes the use of the software more stable.

Just some of the changes:

  • Fixed bugs (sourceforge buglist)
  • ‘work in progress’ button on compare and download.
  • ‘e-mail this’ button on compare.
  • Compare function out of revision lists.
  • ‘Upload in progress’ feature.
  • ‘no revisions yet’ notice at empty projects.
  • Anonymous access (checkbox) at creation of projects.
  • CityGML bugs fixed.
  • ifcXML 100% valid.
  • IFC Engine DLL loading and installation is integrated.
  • IFC schema to IFC Engine DLL optimised.
  • Separate notice of active and archived checkouts.
  • Registration of new users optional by ‘only admin’ or ‘register from start’.
  • Created separat JVMs for IFC Engine DLL and BIMserver.
  • Created a settings page for the administrator (to edit settings.xml in the webinterface).
  • Split upload of IFC and handling IFC data into database (performance).
  • Changed SOAP Url to /bimserver/services/soap
  • Upload IFC in ZIP files.
  • Download models in ZIP files.
  • Ignoring identical upload of revisions.
  • Merging subprojects of choice by user.
  • Non-usefull tabs are hiding in the webinterface.
  • Update of Jetty (in standalone release)
  • Created info page for IFC ojects (to embed)
  • Added ‘plain text’ option for download.
  • Upload/download ignore.xml file in settings page.
  • Added IFC browser for projects and revisions (integrated with summary page)
  • Added ‘forgot password?’ link on login page.
  • RSS feeds work with autorisation.
  • Checking if upload file is IFC.
  • Checking (on startup) if database is not locked by other proces (other BIMserver instance)
  • Checking (on startup) for correct database schema.
  • and a lot more….

The team doesn’t stop developing and new plans are already being deployed.
The latest release is now available for download at download.bimserver.org. The demoserver is also running the stable version. Check it out on demo.bimserver.org.

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