An introduction to IFC and Revit's capabilities

Users IFC
#1

Good morning all,

I’ve noticed that many of the Revit users I work with day-to-day are not used to creating IFC files. To address this issue I have written an article describing some of the fundamental concepts of IFC and how they can be authored with Revit. It is not comprehensive, and there are many concepts that are not covered, but it’s a start. Shout out thanks to @jonm who did some of the tests with me.

You can read it here:

https://thinkmoult.com/how-to-create-better-ifc-files-with-revit.html

Feel free to share to help promote OpenBIM methodologies :slight_smile:

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#2

Thank you very much for the valuable information!!!

#3

Blockquote ## IFC object types in Revit
…
This creates a little catch: Revit doesn’t allow two parameters with the same name, one as a type-based, and one as an instance-based parameter. This limits you to either name your types properly, or name your elements properly, but not both. I don’t know of a workaround

Moult, one workaround to get two parameters of the same name, be it Type or Instance, is to use one shared project parameter and one non-shared project parameter. That also introduces some problems where add-ins or macro’s refer to parameters by name, which therefore is considered bad practice.
As long as one is a Type parameter and one is Instance, and the name is not the same as a built-in parameter (which in the background can be available as read only for an instance object while the UI shows the parameter only as Type), I’m ok with it.

#4

Hah! Cute little trick! I’ll test it on Monday and if it works I shall update the article. Thanks for letting me know!

#5

What I feel is that Autodesk doesn’t support BuildingSMART well because it seems that main supporters of BuildingSMART are Graphisoft (Autodesk’s old competitor) and other competitors

But for sure these days Autodesk has realized that there’s a need to empower IFC and also CityGML, because some countries have started “digital schemes” nationally and internationally

Personally I think there’s a need to integrate IFC/IFD + CityGML + GS1

2 Likes
#6

@Ekkonap I have tested the workaround and indeed it works. I have updated the article :slight_smile: Thanks very much!