IFC standards for cultural heritage buildings

#1

Hi, I am quite new to the IFC topic and this is my first post.

Currently I have seen the list of all IFC entities and was wondering which are suitable to describe cultural heritage buildings as they often have a slightly more complex geometry in terms of “a straight wall” does rarely exist.

Please excuse if I posted this wrongly. If you give me advise, I can change the category / re-post the threat.

Thank you,

Tobias

#2

Geometry is quite well supported e.g. walls are not limited to straight lines and can be represented by any geometry type available in the schema. This features also the most advanced representations, such as IfcAdvancedBrep where the edges can be represented by NURBS curves and the faces themselves can be curved.

#3

Faceted BRep is also often a good (albeit not parametric) format for arbitrary formed geometry, e.g. slanted walls, cracked beams or deformed slabs.

I don’t see any inherent limitation considering heritage. I experience limitations with the way modern BIM software libraries are focused on current-day libraries, products and materials (e.g. industrially fabricated bricks - with straight mortar lines; Steel & Aluminium profiles).

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#4

Hi,

first of all thanks for your reply. It looks like the two BReps you mentioned are exactly what i searched for. I will now have a more detailed look at the advanced/faceted BRep.

Is it possible to link a .tif to a surface (might reduce filesize by abstacting a surface and then giving aditional topological information by providing a .tif depth map) I believe it would save space as the information would be 2D instead of 3D.

Best,
Tobias

#5

yes, see IfcImageTexture

However current software - BIM Authoring tools and viewers rarely support this feature.

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