Clarifying the Role of IFC STEP (SPF) in IFC5 and Its Relationship with Modern Formats like JSON

Developers IFC5 (alpha)
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  1. Continued Relevance of STEP (SPF):
  • Will STEP (SPF) remain the primary format for IFC5 compliance, particularly for regulatory submissions or archival purposes? Are there scenarios where STEP is mandatory versus optional?
  1. Adoption Roadmap:
  • Does buildingSMART endorse a hybrid approach (e.g., STEP for design authoring, JSON for facility management)? What certification criteria apply to tools supporting multi-format workflows?
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There are a lot of things still unknown on IFC 5.
Iā€™m pretty confident to say the primary format for IFC 5 will not be SPFF.
Currently is looks to become JSON, but that is not a final decision yet.
JSON is also an ISO standard that is supported for archiving purposes.

There will not be a separate format per workflows.