About Saikei Civil
What is Saikei Civil?
Saikei Civil is the world’s first open-source native IFC authoring tool for horizontal infrastructure. While tools like Bonsai excel at vertical construction (buildings), Saikei shapes the world around them — roads, alignments, corridors, and earthwork.
Built as a Blender extension, Saikei Civil creates IFC 4.3 files as its native format — not as an export target. This “native IFC” philosophy means your infrastructure designs are truly interoperable from the start.
“While Bonsai crafts the buildings, Saikei shapes the world around them.”
The Name
Saikei (栽景) is the Japanese art of creating miniature planted landscapes — tray landscapes that depict natural scenery. It’s the perfect complement to Bonsai’s focus on individual trees.
Together, Bonsai and Saikei represent a complete vision for open-source BIM:
- Bonsai → Buildings (vertical construction)
- Saikei → Infrastructure (horizontal construction)
The word combines:
- 栽 (sai) — to plant, to cultivate
- 景 (kei) — scenery, landscape
Our tagline, “Cultivating Open Infrastructure,” reflects this meaning.
Why Open Source?
Professional civil engineering software costs $5,000–$10,000 annually, putting it out of reach for:
- 🏢 Small firms trying to compete with larger companies
- 🎓 Students learning infrastructure design
- 🌍 Engineers in developing countries who can’t access expensive tools
- 🔬 Researchers who need transparent, modifiable software
Saikei Civil aims to democratize these tools while advancing open standards.
The Native IFC Advantage
Traditional BIM workflows look like this:
.dwg → .rvt → .ifc (export)
Data is lost at every conversion. The IFC file is an afterthought.
Saikei Civil flips this:
.ifc = Source of Truth
By building on IFC 4.3 — the international standard for infrastructure BIM — we create tools that work with any compliant software, not against it.
Technology Stack
| Component | Technology |
|---|---|
| Platform | Blender 4.5+ |
| IFC Engine | IfcOpenShell |
| Coordinate Systems | PyProj |
| Language | Python 3.11+ |
| License | GPL v3 |
The Developer
Saikei Civil is developed by Michael Yoder, PE at Desert Springs Civil Engineering PLLC in Nampa, Idaho.
Michael is a licensed Professional Engineer with a passion for making civil engineering tools accessible to everyone. He believes that open standards and open-source software are the future of infrastructure design.
Part of the OSArch Ecosystem
Saikei Civil is proud to be part of the OSArch (Open Source Architecture) community, alongside:
- Bonsai — Native IFC for buildings
- IfcOpenShell — The open-source IFC toolkit
- BlenderBIM ecosystem tools
We share the vision of a truly open, interoperable built environment.