PIComposer Basic

PIComposer employs a minimalist user interface centered around two primary tree views for interacting with STEP/BIM models:

The application supports advanced inter-model operations, allowing you to copy and paste instances between models with compatible contexts. This powerful capability facilitates key workflows like model merging and design reuse across projects.

PIComposer provides comprehensive data exchange capabilities through multiple standardized and proprietary formats:

PIComposer features a comprehensive scripting framework based on the Dart programming language and Blockly, a visual programming library. This framework extends basic UI operations to enable powerful automation, custom procedures, and complex data transformations.

You can create PIComposer scripts in two ways:

For textual scripting in Dart, PIComposer’s API supports two distinct programming styles, giving you flexibility in how you express your logic:

Both styles are fully supported and can be mixed within the same script, allowing you to choose the most appropriate approach for each task. The declarative instanceFromJson method handles the complete instantiation process including object creation, attribute setting, and can even create complex nested instance hierarchies in a single call.

These scripts, known as PIComposer Templates, are a fundamental part of the user interface. They act as custom commands that extend the application’s functionality. A template can create or update a project, define a procedure to generate a model, or act as an executable action triggered from the UI (e.g., when adding a child instance).

Templates are broadly categorized into two types:

PIComposer provides several advanced capabilities that enhance productivity and ensure data integrity:

Whether you’re working with simple geometric elements or complex building information models, PIComposer provides the tools and flexibility needed to manage your product manufacturing information effectively while maintaining full control over your data and processes. With its robust interoperability support, you can confidently exchange data across different systems and platforms while leveraging optimized formats for specific use cases within the PIComposer ecosystem.

To install PIComposer:

After launching PIComposer for the first time:

Complete your registration by verifying your email address:

After successful verification:

If you encounter any issues during installation or account creation, please visit our support page at spatialcompute3d.com/support or contact our customer service team at: [email protected].

To update your password, click the Update Password button to begin the password reset process. You will see the confirmation message: "A password reset email has been sent to: user_email." appear briefly on the status bar.

To complete the process, check your email and locate the password reset message from PIComposer. The email should look similar to this:

Click the reset password button to open the password entry page in your browser.

Enter your new password and click the Set New Password button to finalize the password change.

Your username defaults to your email address. To change your username, edit the text in the username field and click the Update Profile button .

To update your avatar, click the Upload button . Select an image file from your computer using the file selection dialog.

After creating a PIComposer account, you begin a 14-day trial period. To start your subscription, click the Manage Subscription button . You will be redirected to Stripe’s subscription page.

Complete the subscription process with Stripe. Once payment is processed, the integration between Stripe and PIComposer will update your subscription status in PIComposer Cloud Services.

To cancel or modify your subscription, click the Manage Subscription button . You will receive an email containing a secure link to the Stripe customer portal.

In the email, click the "Login to your customer portal" button . This will redirect you to the Stripe customer portal.

Complete your subscription changes in the Stripe portal. The integration system will automatically sync the transaction results with PIComposer Cloud Service.

To add a project, click the add button . Enter the project name and description in the "Create Project" dialog:

To delete a project, select it from the project list, then click the delete project button . In the delete confirmation dialog box, select Delete.

To restore a project from one of its backups, select the project from the project list, then click the restore project from backup button . From the project backup chooser dialog, select the desired backup, then select OK to complete the restoration.

To change a project’s name and description, click the edit project info button image::project_commands_edit_info.png[]. In the Edit Project Info dialog box, enter the name and description you wish to use. Then click OK to complete the changes.

The PIComposer installer includes a sample project that contains both general STEP and IFC models for users to explore and experiment with. The sample project is added to the user’s workspace by activating the create sample project command .

The navigation sidebar allows users to navigate between different window panes in PIComposer, where each pane hosts a specific function. These window panes include:

The workspace button is the PIComposer application home button. No matter where the user is, it returns them to the workspace pane.

The project button activates the project pane and displays the contents of the selected project or the most recently displayed project. No matter where the user currently is, activating this button returns them to the previous project. See the [Project and Models] section for more details about working with projects and models.

The model button activates the Blockly workspace pane. See the Blockly workspaces section for more details about working with Blockly templates and code generation.

The account button activates the account page. See the User Account section for more details.

The preference button activates the preference page. See the Preferences section for more details.

The help button activates the help popup menu, which has two commands :

PIComposer provides user feedback using the status bar. Depending on the nature of the command, the status shows:

A selection set is an essential component of the PIComposer user interface. Each of the three model panel tabs—spatial, placement, and filter—has its own selection set. Many commands in PIComposer are executed in the context of the current selection set. It allows users to create inter-node links, insert templates into the spatial tree, insert selected nodes into other nodes, and perform various other actions.

The spatial tree is where the model spatial structure is managed. The commands to manipulate the tree are directly available on the tree node as popup menu items. To see the context-sensitive commands on a tree node, simply right-click on it.

The commands available to the spatial tree nodes are:

To highlight its importance in the BIM model, PIComposer user interface includes the placement tree.

To access the placement tree, simply activate the placement tab.

TThe placement tree structure is immutable, meaning its structure is created during the creation of the spatial tree. When a spatial node corresponding to a placement is deleted, the placement will be automatically deleted as well.

The only available command for the placement tree is , which navigates to the placed instance associated with the IfcLocalPlacement.

While the placement tree itself is immutable, the placement node is mutable. Like all instances, its attributes can be modified using the instance detail tree.

Filters allow users to quickly search and retrieve items within the model or project. The filter tab serves as the workbench for dealing with free form instances and working with instances outside of the spatial structure framework. There are two types of filters in the model pane: instance filters and template filters.

For details about template filters, refer to the section on [Working with Instance Template]. In the following section, we will focus on instance filters.

The STEP ISO-10303 standard is a group of standards including an object model specification using the EXPRESS language.

An object is a collection of attributes. In PIComposer, a representation of an object is referred to as an instance—an instantiation of an entity type.

Propertyset and quantityset are packaged in a IfcRelDefinesProperties component. The preferred way to work with IfcRelDefinesProperties is using the following command on the root detail node:

Excecuting the add propertyset command activates the create propertyset dialog. Choose the desired propertyset or quantityset and click OK to complete propertyset creation.

Ifc4x3 documentation defines a large number (more than 600) of property sets and quantity sets outside of the published schema. PIComposer needs to know their content in order to instantiate them. To configure PIComposer to create these and other user-defined property sets, PIComposer uses templates.

A template is defined using a JSON file.

Layers are commonly used in CAD systems for grouping instances and controlling their visibility. In the IFC standard, the corresponding concept is embodied in the IfcPresentationLayerAssignment entity.

To setup a layer, first create a IfcPresentationLayerAssignment instance using the instance filter create command.

To add layers to an IfcShapeRepresentation component, use the add to layer command.

image::model-add-to-layer-dialog.png

In the add layer dialog, select the desired layer from the dropdown list.

To export models to ifc, click the button on the navigation bar. The exported model is saved to user’s download folder with the the file name "modelId.ifc".

To view a model in 3d view, click show the show 3d button on the navigation bar. This will kick start the export of the model to part21. When the export is completed, the web 3d viewer will be launched.

Most PMI/BIM systems are static application comprise of two components: geometry and data. PIComposer adds another dimension: compute. The computation facility is provided by the PIComposer template system. PIComposer templates are compute instructions; they are integrated into the PIComposer interactive workflow according to their execution context.

User manages PIComposer templates in the Blockly workspace page.

Blockly workspace provides a computer language netural visual programming environment.

Templates are divided into two major groups:

Dictionary are configuration templates. They are allowed users dynamically add types to existing AP schema. In particular, some types, such as IFC propertysets, are spefecified in the documentation but not included in the standard schema (not in the ifc4x3.exp file).

A dictionary template may be a instance or model generator. A spatial template is a model generator, and a propertyset or quantityset template is a instance generator. Dictionary templates include:

All procedure template defines a compute procedure that operates on PIComposer data. Procedure templates include:

Every procedure template may accept user as the initialzation step of its execution. The content of user input is using a dictionary and is a integral part of the template’s design.

Instance template is a very powerful design reuse tool. For example, a IfcWall instance template could include all its opening, doors, and windows. When instantiate the template, the executing procedure could customize the new wall by:

Procedure entity template is a instance generator. This template may be run by PIComposer in the context of instance creation. For example, when adding a node into the IFC spatial tree, a wall entity template will be on the list of executable templates.

Procedure model template is a model generator; it is the embodyment of our philosophy that code is the model. Procedure model template is run from the create model command in the project page.

Instance transform template is a instance modifier. It is integrate with any PIComposer create instance command.

Model transform template is general procedure that operates on a model. Ideal place to implement any model update logic. It could be executed in the PIComposer’s model tree.

Generic procedure template is a general purpose template. A generic procedure is run from blockly workspace page.

The template system is a library. Template could reuse other templates. The basic rule of thumbs is:

Each procedure template could be in two modes:

When it is connected, the default mode, the template is connected to the visual coding system Blockly. User construct the procedure by drag and dropping block. For detail about Blockly programming system see the blockly programming reference manual.

In disconnected mode, code generation by Blockly is turned off. User will modify the procedure’s dart file directly either manually or use other code generation tool.

Template may be shared with all users of PIComposer via PIComposer cloud services. Templates could be in the following ownership state:

For detail about the PIComposer api, see the PIComposer api reference documentation. For detail about blockly programming interface, see the Blockly programming reference documentation.

To delete a template, select it from the template table. Click the delete button. Click the Delete button on the confirmation delete dialog. .template_delete_confirmation_dialog image::template_delete_confirmation_dialog.png[]

To update a template information, select it from the template table. Click the update template info image::blockly_workspace_edit_template_info_command.png[] button. Enter the information to be changed in the update template dialog. .template_info_update_dialog image::template_info_update_dialog.png[]

Before a procedure template could be executed, it must be published and make available to the picomposer procedures dart project. To publish a procedure, select it from the template table. Click the publish to dart project button. The dart code stored in the procedure template is inserted into the picomposer procedures dart project and exported as part of the project to be used by the PIComposer scripting engine.

A template may be disconnect from the blockly code authoring framework. This is particular useful for export dart developer or user who wish to use other code generating tools such as LLMs. To disconnect a procedure template from Blockly, select the template from the template table, then click on the disconnect template button. After disconnect, Blockly would stop updating the code content of the template.

To reconnect a template to Blockly, select the template from the template table. Click on the connect template button. Once a template is connected, Blockly could be use to edit the code content of a procedure template.

To run a generic template, select the template from the template table. Click on the execute procedure button; this will start execution of a generic template.

A template may be shared with all PIComposer users. To share a template, select it from the tempate table. Click on the share template button. This uploads the template to PIComposer cloud service and marks template ownership to shared. The shared template would be visible and ready to download once it is certified by PIComposer development staff.

To download a shared template, select the template from the template table. Click on the download share button.

Private templates may be save to a file and share privately among collegues. To export all private templates in your Blockly workspace, click on on export to file button. On the file chooser dialog box, select the export folder the click the save button.

To import templates from a file, click on the import from file button.

Blockly is a language neutural visual programming system first developed by google now develop and maintain by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Blockly allows users to create programs by dragging and dropping blocks, which represent code, onto a workspace. This intuitive interface makes it easy for beginners to learn programming concepts without needing to worry about syntax errors.

Like all Blockly base applications, the PIComposer Blockly editor is a web application. The Blockly web application run as local host on a user web broswer. It communicates with PIComposer via http.

To launch PIComposer Blockly editor and edit the content of a procedure template, double click the template on the template table. This will open the content of the template on a browser. .blockly_workspace_blockly_editor image::blockly_workspace_blockly_editor.png[]

Blockly programming follows a vertical descending structure where blocks are connected into a chain, creating a sequence of actions for the procedure to execute.

Each basic block represents a logical operation.

To connect blocks, follow these steps :

Status display options allow users to control the status display at the bottom left of the application window. There are two types of status: success/failure command status and long-running command progress.

Users interact with model instances via the instance detail tree. In addition to instance attributes, the instance tree may optionally show instance-related components—shapes, placement, property sets, product type, material, and layer—allowing users to manipulate an instance and its related components centrally for IFC models. The options are:

Login options control the persistence of user login information and application startup behavior.