Welcome, let’s open BIM

So we’ve built this pretty neat browser-based BIM validation tool… but what happens when you need to validate hundreds of files? Or integrate validation into your CI/CD pipeline? Or let other applications use your validation logic? That’s when you realize: we need a backend. Why Move Beyond the Browser? Don’t get me wrong - browser-based BIM tools are amazing! They’re accessible, require no installation, and work on any device. But there are scenarios where a client-side-only approach just doesn’t cut it: ...

We’ve built an AI-powered BIM validation app - but does it actually work? Before we deploy this to production or scale it up, we need to answer a fundamental question: are we getting the outputs we expect from our inputs? Let’s build confidence in our app through smart testing! Why Testing Matters (Especially with AI-Generated Code) Here’s the thing about AI coding assistants: they’re powerful, but they’re not infallible. We used Kiro IDE to generate most of our validation app’s heavy lifting, and while that’s incredibly productive, it means we need to verify the results. ...

Remember how AI kept getting stuck in endless loops in Part 3? The secret ingredient we were missing wasn’t more prompting or better AI models - it was context. In this episode, we’ll transform your AI coding assistant from a confused helper into a documentation-powered expert. The Context Problem Towards the end of our last coding session with Kiro IDE, I hit a wall. The AI was stuck in an endless loop, trying to fix problems without really understanding the That Open Company framework. It was inventing solutions when simple built-in functions already existed. ...

Remember that specification we brainstormed in Part 2? It’s time to turn those ideas into working code! In this episode, we’re diving into Amazon’s newly launched Kiro IDE - a revolutionary development environment that brings spec-driven development and AI coding agents directly into your workflow. Let’s see how AI can transform from brainstorming partner to coding companion. From Specs to Code: The AI-Powered Development Journey The leap from specification to implementation used to be the biggest hurdle in software development. But with AI coding agents integrated into modern IDEs, we’re entering a new era. Today, I’ll walk you through the real-world experience of using Kiro IDE to build our BIM validation app - including the wins, the challenges, and the crucial lessons learned. ...

Remember in Part 1 when I promised we’d build something revolutionary? Well, before diving into code, let’s talk about the secret weapon that makes modern BIM development so exciting: AI-powered brainstorming! Today, I’ll show you how AI can transform your app planning from hours of head-scratching into a streamlined, collaborative process. The Problem: Starting is the Hardest Part We’ve all been there - staring at a blank screen, knowing we want to build something amazing but unsure where to begin. Traditional planning involves endless meetings, vague requirements, and specifications that change faster than you can implement them. But what if AI could be your brainstorming partner? ...

What if I told you that you could automate BIM validation just like software developers deploy code? Imagine catching errors, enforcing standards, and ensuring quality automatically using open-source technologies paired with AI. Welcome to a new era in Building Information Modeling (BIM)! The Problem: Manual BIM Validation is Broken Let’s be honest - manually checking BIM models for compliance is tedious, error-prone, and expensive. Every project involves multiple stakeholders uploading models, each requiring validation against project standards. By the time errors are caught, rework costs have already started piling up. Sound familiar? ...

In this blog post, I will show you how to download an IFC file that you have generated using Python and IfcOpenShell WebAssembly in Pyodide. This is a question that a user on GitHub recently asked, and someone suggested a helpful answer on Stack Overflow that I will share with you. You can follow along using the code example here on Github. ...

Is it possible to draw proper IFC walls in a web browser? Yes! And in this tutorial I want to show you how. If you haven’t seen the previous tutorial yet on creating a simple IFC wall using IfcOpenShell WebAssembly, I suggest you check that out first, since we will skip over some of the basics in this tutorial and jump to the good stuff. ...

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to create a simple wall using IfcOpenShell WebAssembly. We will be using some Python, Javascript, HTML and a dash of CSS. I won’t be explaining the complete basics of these technologies in this video because I want to focus on IfcOpenShell WebAssembly. However, if you would like me to create content showing how Python, Javascript and other programming languages can be used with OpenBIM, please let me know. ...

What is IfcOpenShell WebAssembly and why should you care about it? IfcOpenShell is an open source IFC toolkit and geometry engine. It allows you to read, write, and modify Building Information Models using IFC. It’s the software library behind an up and coming project called BlenderBIM. ...