Abstract
Abstract. The paper aims to investigate the potential inherent in a FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) approach for the 4D BIM modelling using Freecad. In order to reach this goal it shows a comparison of Freecad features with those of commercial software, considering the evaluation of the effective application of this Open Source software in the professional environment, and highlighting the progress in the FOSS BIM area, that still represents an unexplored study field if compared to the vast publications related to BIM modelling that occurred in the last two decades. To this end, the study has been carried out on a singular case study, a steel canopy which has been designed for the urban renewal of a public space in Teramo. Despite its size, the canopy required the definition of complex details. Its structural system has addressed the study to compare Freecad with some software dedicated to steel structures or particularly suitable for the modelling of this specific structural typology: Tekla Structures and Sketchup. Starting from a concise historical reconstruction of the FOSS spread, the paper introduces a brief overview of the potential of Freecad in terms of BIM modelling - also proposing an operational modality to facilitate the drawing of BIM elements within the software - and finally reaching to the examination of three simulations which has been carried. This comparison can be useful to establish the current state of development of Freecad in the field of 4D BIM.
Highlights
OPEN SOURCE AND DIGITAL REVOLUTIONThe paradox of Robinson Crusoe, which Karl Popper adopted in ―The open society and its enemies‖ to describe the necessarily public character of science (Popper, 1974), has been used by Alessandro Frigeri and Gisella Speranza to establish a comparison between the control of theory at the basis of the scientific method, grounded on the reproducibility of experiments, and the IT procedures that govern the creation of Open Source software (Frigeri & Speranza, 2011)
The paper aims to investigate the potential inherent in a FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) approach for the 4D Building Information Modelling (BIM) modelling using Freecad
Its inventor announced the launch of Freecad on the OpenCascade Forum: "It features some key concepts like Macro Recording, Workbenches, ability to run as a server and as a dynamically loadable applications' extension, and it is designed to be platform independent" (―History - FreeCAD Documentation,‖ n.d.)
Summary
The paradox of Robinson Crusoe, which Karl Popper adopted in ―The open society and its enemies‖ to describe the necessarily public character of science (Popper, 1974), has been used by Alessandro Frigeri and Gisella Speranza to establish a comparison between the control of theory at the basis of the scientific method, grounded on the reproducibility of experiments, and the IT procedures that govern the creation of Open Source software (Frigeri & Speranza, 2011). The "Unintended Consequences" produced by the introduction of the GNU GPL and the work methodology proposed by Linus Torvalds have represented for Manuel Delanda an "institutional environment" for a new economic system based on the production and exchange of Open Source software (DeLanda 2001), in order to constitute the foundation of its definitive affirmation Another aspect that has favoured the success of the free software and the Open Source movements is the sudden spread of the Internet and the WEB, "a completely new world" (Floridi 1995), "a Pygmalion" which is able to establish and to organize new virtual communities that can participate and collaborate in the realization of ambitious shared projects. The Internet platform has represented the intangible support for the constitution of the institutional environment which has been based on a deep and radical "Digital Revolution", in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector
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