AEC muscle memory and interface patterns
TopicFrom the PointSav Documentation
The Building Design System adopts established interface patterns from industry-standard tools to ensure zero learning curve for AEC practitioners, while enabling facility management workflows through work-order linking, lease integration, and sensor overlays.
The Building Design System adopts established interface vocabularies from industry-standard tools (Revit, ArchiCAD, BricsCAD, and Bonsai) to ensure a zero-learning curve for AEC practitioners. By mirroring universal navigation and layout conventions, the platform allows users to focus on strategic innovations — such as the flat-file vault and code-as-composable-geometry — rather than basic tool interaction.
[edit]Universal AEC Interface Conventions
The platform implements the following industry-standard layout patterns:
| Convention | Standard Location | Building Design System Component |
|---|---|---|
| Spatial Tree | Left Rail | SpatialTree |
| Properties Panel | Right Rail | PropertiesPanel |
| Toolbar | Top | Toolbar |
| Status Bar | Bottom | StatusBar |
| NavCube | Top-Right Viewport | Viewport3D__navcube |
[edit]Key Navigation Standards
- Storey-Level Expansion: The
SpatialTreedefaults to storey-level nodes. Expanding directly to individual spaces is avoided to minimize visual noise and align with professional mental models. - Non-Modal Properties: The
PropertiesPaneloperates as a selection-sensitive sidebar that updates in real-time, avoiding disruptive popup modals. - Semantic Grouping: Property sets (Pset_) and quantities (Qto_) are grouped into named, collapsible sections for rapid data retrieval.
[edit]Strategic Divergence from Generic Modeling
While the platform respects professional conventions, it deliberately avoids artifacts of general-purpose 3D modeling software (e.g., Blender-host artifacts in Bonsai):
- Dedicated Spatial Tree: The platform uses a purpose-built
SpatialTreewidget rather than a generic scene-graph outliner, enabling features like search-by-space-name and floor-plan thumbnails. - Standardized Keymaps: Navigation uses the standard 1–6 number row for view switching (top, bottom, front, back, left, right), accommodating the lack of numpads on modern laptops.
- Removal of Modal Editing: The platform eliminates complex "mode-switching" (e.g., Object vs. Edit mode) common in general 3D software, providing a streamlined authoring experience.
[edit]Addressing the FM Operator Persona
Existing BIM tools predominantly target designers. The Building Design System is engineered to address the Facility Management (FM) and Property Manager personas through three intended unique workflows:
- Work-Order Linking: Attaching maintenance status directly to IFC elements via YAML sidecars.
- Lease Integration: Linking
IfcSpaceentities to lease records in the bookkeeping vault. - Sensor Overlays: Displaying real-time MQTT-backed sensor readings directly in the
Viewport3D.
These capabilities are planned for the v0.0.2 release and represent the convergence of spatial and operational data.