Towards the end of December, I had the opportunity to attend a webinar on two open source tools I knew almost nothing about: Speckle and IFC.js. The webinar was put together by a community called Agile BIM, which I also knew nothing about. However, what I do know for a fact is the importance of open source software development in any field, in which developers come together as a team to create software that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution, allowing it to be developed even further. The technology that is developed with open source is often something that commercial software companies, whose business it is to develop proprietary software, cannot offer.
For the AEC industry, we do have organizations such as the Open Design Alliance and buildingSMART International working to promote openness and interoperability. (See the recent articles, “ODA Summit 2021,” and “An Overview of buildingSMART Standards.”) The IFC format has been well established for OpenBIM and is almost unanimously supported by all the leading AEC technology developers to allow their applications to exchange data with each other. So, what then are Speckle and IFC.js, what do they do, and why are they needed? The Agile BIM webinar on these two open source tools, which was held on Dec 15, 2021, gave me the opportunity to find out more about them.
Up first was IFC.js.
IFC.js is a JavaScript library that is being developed to democratize BIM development and make it less expensive, so that the opportunity to develop BIM is also available to the smaller players in the AEC technology field and is not monopolized by the bigger players who can afford it. Not only does this benefit the smaller players, it also benefits the industry at large as many more BIM solutions will become available in many more countries at more affordable prices. And this, in turn, will lead to growing BIM adoption, raising the state of the art of the industry as a whole. Additionally, making it less expensive to develop BIM will also spur more innovation in the field and increase the pace of improvements. In essence, the idea is to not just level the playing field, but to actually open it up to more players so they can get into the game.
The idea behind IFC.js is to enable this by providing the source code and the documentation for IFC development for free, so that developers can at least have this starting point all set and ready to go. Of course, this presupposes that the IFC format is critical to any kind of BIM software development; and given how well-established it is — not to mention being the only open BIM standard that is available — this is a safe bet. However, it is very hard to implement. With a ready implementation that is entirely available for free, IFC.js eliminates the barrier for entry, making it a lot easier for smaller developers to jumpstart their software development.
The current capabilities of IFC.js include reading and writing IFC files in 3D. Also, since it is a JavaScript framework (JavaScript is used for web applications), it allows BIM tools to be created that work within a web browser as well as mobile devices on multiple platforms. Not only is it easy to use, but also very efficient, as demonstrated in an example showing the creation of a BIM tool inside Twitter with only 30 lines of JavaScript (Figure 1). Essentially, Twitter is working as a BIM viewer in this case. It works with any other web page in the same way, allowing BIM models (in IFC format) to be displayed anywhere.
Another example, shown in Figure 2, that was demonstrated in the webinar was a BIM + GIS app that was developed in less than 48 hours using IFC.js and another open-source library called Harp.gl. Then there was the example of a BIM viewer shown in Figure 3, with element selection, ambient occlusion, shadows, clipping places, camera animation, etc., created with only 74 lines of code. The IFC.js library has been implemented in such a way that the complexities of the code are hidden, allowing the required functionality to be easily referenced as required for the application that is being developed.
The source code of IFC.js is housed in GitHub at https://github.com/IFCjs and the documentation including tutorials, use cases, etc., is at https://ifcjs.github.io/info/. Its functionality should continue to be enhanced as more developers join the initiative and add to the code. Needless to say, being a non-commercial effort, it doesn’t have the bells and whistles of paid applications but is functional, as demonstrated in the example in Figure 3, where the Properties of the selected element can be seen in the Developers tools window rather than an integrated palette. It should also be noted that while JavaScript is primarily used for web development, it can also be used to create desktop applications, so IFC.js can also be used to jumpstart the development of a desktop BIM application, as shown in Figure 4. With the basics of importing and working with BIM models in IFC format taken care of, developers can focus on implementing the other capabilities that their BIM application will offer.
The second open source tool that was presented in the webinar was Speckle. Unlike IFC.js, which is not only free and open-source but is also developed collaboratively by individuals working in different companies, Speckle is actually the product of a company called Speckle Systems that has a few full-time employees, many of whom have previously worked in computational design in AEC firms known for cutting-edge technology development and implementation such as Arup, Buro Happold, and Foster+Partners. In fact, I first heard of Speckle in Issue 1113 of upFront.eZine where Peter Debney, senior consultant at Arup Digital Technology, wrote about why Arup had helped to produce Speckle as an open-source offering to tackle the problem of data transfer in construction.
Speckle is a collaboration and interoperability solution with a different approach than having a common file format like the IFC to exchange data between applications. Instead, it works by providing connectors to the most popular AEC applications, allowing them to exchange data in real time with other connected applications. Once a connector is installed for an application, it allows selected elements from the model to be captured as “streams,” which can then be received by any other application that has a Speckle connector. An example is shown in Figure 5. Currently, there are about 18 connectors, and more are in development, often in collaboration with the developer of the application. So, for example, Speckle is working with Graphisoft on an Archicad connector; a connector for Tekla Structures is also in the works.
In addition to its ability to enable AEC data exchange in real-time, what is key to note is that Speckle is not working with files as such. Instead, the data is being captured from an application through its Speckle connector as a “stream.” Speckle is a web-based application, and all of these captured steams are hosted online, as shown in Figure 6. Any stream can be sent to a receiving application that has a connector simply through a URL. Speckle keeps track of any modifications made to the elements captured in a stream and sends a notification about the updates in real-time to all those using that stream in other application.
The long-term vision for the product is to go beyond being a platform for end users to also being deployed by developers. Since the AEC data can be pushed in and out of Speckle as needed, it can enable development of tools that need to work with the data in the model such as embedded carbon calculations, quantity reports, costing, scheduling, and so on. With the AEC data now being “liberated” from proprietary files, other developers can access it and unlock the potential of BIM models without being required to develop APIs (application programming interfaces) to work with individual AEC applications. They just need to work with the data streams in Speckle, and the fact that it is free and open source lowers the barrier for entry, just as it does with IFC.js.
It is terrific to see so many people come together to pool their skills, interests, and resources to develop open source software solutions that would be useful to the industry at large, providing a much-needed counterpoint to commercially available software solutions. And by making them free, both Speckle and IFC.js allow smaller developers to jumpstart the development of their own solutions, which significantly reduces the barrier to entry and can encourage more innovation in the AEC technology industry.
Many of the contributors to these open source efforts do this as volunteers, making time for it in addition to their paid jobs. They are strong proponents of open source software, and they want to share the code they write. I found it very inspiring.
I did not get a chance to explore the Agile BIM community for this article, but I am intrigued by the idea of “agility” in BIM and how it can be done. I hope to explore it in a future article.
Lachmi Khemlani is founder and editor of AECbytes. She has a Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specializing in intelligent building modeling, and consults and writes on AEC technology. She can be reached at lachmi@aecbytes.com.
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