Woodfine BIM Object Library app-orchestration-bim

AEC muscle-memory rationale

AI-readable research file. Served by app-orchestration-bim at /research/aec-muscle-memory-rationale.

Every architect, engineer, construction manager, and property manager who opens app-workplace-bim for the first time carries a learned interface vocabulary from Revit, ArchiCAD, BricsCAD, or Bonsai (the open-source IFC authoring tool, formerly BlenderBIM). The Building Design System adopts that vocabulary by default. Learning is reserved for the parts of the substrate that are genuinely new: the flat-file vault, the City-Code-as-Composable-Geometry overlay, the BIM + lease register + financial ledger convergence.

Universal AEC interface conventions

Sub-agent A’s prior-art research (April 2026) cross-walked four production tools and identified ten components that converge across all of them:

  1. SpatialTree — left rail. Site / Building / Storey / Space hierarchy. Default-expand to storey level (per Bonsai convention, sub-agent BB.4) — never auto-expand into spaces.
  2. PropertiesPanel — right rail. Pset / Qto property sets for the selected element. Mode-prop pattern: workplace renders editable inputs, console renders read-only key/value rows.
  3. Viewport3D — main canvas. Embeds xeokit-bim-viewer (sub- agent BB.2 verdict). Selection synchronises bidirectionally with SpatialTree.
  4. ViewNavigator — saved views as tabs (per Bonsai convention).
  5. Toolbar — top of viewport. Tool selection (select / measure / section plane / annotation / BCF capture).
  6. StatusBar — bottom of viewport. Camera coordinates, current selection, edit-mode indicator.
  7. SelectionFilter — element-class filter (show only walls, only IfcSpaces, etc.).
  8. TypeBrowser — IFC type library browser; insertion of typed elements.
  9. SectionPlane — section / plan / elevation generation + editing.
  10. AnnotationLayer — text labels, leader lines, dimensions overlaid on the viewport.

These ten components are mode-prop dual: workplace mode enables editing, console mode disables editing while preserving every other affordance.

Surface-specific components

Workplace-unique (4)

  • MaterialsBrowser — IfcMaterial library + bSDD URL search + Pset_Material* editor.
  • TypeEditor — IFC type library authoring (parametric type variations, e.g., a wall type with parameters for thickness + acoustic rating).
  • ClashDetector — IfcClash workflow; geometric intersection detection across federated IFC files.
  • VersionHistory — git-style diff over the vault’s objects/ + refs/ directory tree.

Console-unique (4)

  • BimGuidSearch — primary entry point for FM operators. Search by IfcGUID, IFC class, classification URI, space name.
  • BimAuditLog — flat-file vault commit history rendered for FM operators (when did the boiler get replaced? which contractor? what spec?).
  • BimDashboard — element counts, vault size, last ingestion timestamp, operational metrics.
  • BimExportPanel — COBie CSV download via service-codes proxy + ifccsv; IFC re-export download; CityJSONSeq portfolio export.

Three workflows that have no Bonsai equivalent

Bonsai targets architects/designers; PointSav’s app-workplace-bim targets the FM operator persona current authoring tools do not address. Three workplace workflows extend beyond Bonsai’s market:

  1. WorkOrder linking — attach a work order to an IFC element. The per-element YAML sidecar carries the work-order GUID + status + assignee. The element’s history becomes a chronological work ledger.
  2. Lease linking — attach a lease record to an IfcSpace. The sidecar references the lease entity in the project-bookkeeping vault. Lease and space are co-versioned.
  3. Sensor overlay — live MQTT-backed sensor readings overlaid on the relevant element in Viewport3D. Readings persist as timestamped JSON in the per-element sidecar.

These three workflows operationalise the strategic source’s fifth hyperscaler-incompatible capability — BIM + lease register + financial ledger as one portable archive.

What the Building Design System DELIBERATELY does not do

  • Modal mode-switching workflows. Blender’s edit-mode / object- mode / sculpt-mode is invisible in pure authoring tools. Don’t carry forward.
  • Numpad-1/3/7 view-axis shortcuts. Most laptops have no numpads. The standard convention is number keys 1-6 along the top row.
  • Outliner-as-SpatialTree. Bonsai uses Blender’s Outliner panel as the SpatialTree. That works in the Blender host environment but it is a Blender-host artifact, not a Bonsai design decision worth carrying forward. Build a purpose-built SpatialTree widget.
  • Authoring-first console. app-console-bim is read-only by intent. The mode-prop contract enforces this; do not bypass.

References

  • ~/Foundry/.claude/sub-agent-results/A-bim-design-system-prior-art-2026-04-28.md
  • ~/Foundry/clones/project-bim/.claude/sub-agent-results/BB.4-bonsai-interface-deepdive-2026-04-28.md
  • ~/Foundry/clones/project-bim/pointsav-design-system/research/bim-aec-muscle-memory.md