Thạch Bi Church — 3D model and design simulator
A personal project to help my hometown church in Vietnam make better decisions about lighting, sound, fans, electrical routing and construction details. It brings a virtual 3D model, comparative simulations and engineering records together so that the community can review ideas before spending limited resources.
This is an evolving design study. The model and simulator produce planning estimates; they are not approved construction drawings or a substitute for checked engineering design and on-site measurements.
This is an open-source project, and help is welcome. Experienced engineers, architects, craftspeople and software contributors can review the work, report a problem or send a pull request. Software is under the MIT licence; the project's documents, data and images are under CC BY 4.0. Third-party drawings and photographs are excluded: see NOTICE.
Why I started
My hometown is a small village in Ninh Bình, Vietnam, formerly in Nam Định Province. Our community has deep Catholic roots, connected to the early history of the faith in Vietnam. The church has long been part of our everyday lives.
As I write this in October 2026, our old church is about 34 years old. Parts of it have deteriorated, and it can no longer comfortably serve the number of people who come there. Construction of the new church began in February 2026. The foundation is already finished, and construction is underway. Building a new church is a major undertaking for a small village. Families contribute what they can afford, and some people contribute their time and labor at the construction site.
When I was a teenager, I also helped with small construction projects at the church. I now live abroad and follow the building work through the parish's Facebook updates. Seeing elderly neighbors turn up and work through hot days has stayed with me. I kept wondering how I could help from far away, beyond making a donation.
On Sunday, 4 October 2026, my brother-in-law called and asked whether I could use AI to help optimize the church's lighting and electrical control boards. I replied, “Of course, I'm very happy to help.”
That conversation became the starting point for this project. Through my personal AI projects, software experience and knowledge of civil engineering, I saw a way to contribute: build a virtual model of the church, compare equipment placements, examine the assumptions and make the results understandable to the people making decisions.
The work has grown to include sound, fan-based air movement and ventilation, electrical routes, and the coordination of complex construction details. I intend to share daily progress as I develop it, including mistakes, unresolved questions and lessons learned.
My hope reaches beyond this one church. Communities with limited budgets and limited access to specialist engineers deserve thoughtful design and careful evaluation too. I want to explore how technology, transparent records and help from experienced people can make that work more accessible and make better use of local resources.
What the project does
- 3D visualization: explore the church, walk through it, compare seating layouts and inspect the architecture, sanctuary, materials and proposed details.
- Lighting studies: adjust fixture positions, aiming and settings; compare estimated illumination at seats and other evaluation points.
- Sound studies: compare loudspeaker and microphone positions, speech clarity, delays, room reverberation and feedback risks. A listening mode helps explore the proposed arrangement.
- Fans and ventilation: compare local air movement, fan noise and ventilation assumptions. The current brief uses fans and ventilation, with no air conditioning.
- Electrical coordination: inspect matching 2D/3D route geometry, equipment and route IDs, boards, circuits and geometric lengths. Develop main/sub-board manual controls and quick operating modes alongside the web interface.
- Equipment records: maintain six Excel registers by usage category, each with the same Equipment, Electrical Lines and Route Points sheets, plus guidance. A summary reports quantities, modeled usage and missing engineering information.
The immediate priority is to coordinate the positions of lights, speakers, microphones and fans, then refine their wiring and physical controls. Energy use, maintenance access, repairability and long-term operation matter alongside appearance and comfort.
Construction update — 7 October 2026: the project owner confirms the February 2026 start, completed foundation and ongoing construction. Exact milestone dates, site photographs and verified as-built measurements will be recorded as they become available. The digital model remains a design study; this progress update does not establish that its geometry matches the work already built.
Planned web app
The web app roadmap proposes Next.js on Vercel: a public church homepage and image gallery, a construction timeline, a 3D visit and read-only engineering views. A later inspection view will help Father find upcoming work and inspect source-backed object positions, dimensions and specifications.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
