Is certification a "snapshot in time" or is it renewed?

Looking at the Software Certification page, we can read that e.g. Revit received certification for IFC2x3 in 2013.

Here is the report for IFC 2x3 CV2.0 export, which was assigned to Revit 2013

https://ifc2x3.b-cert.org/ords/ifc/certification/getCertificationReport/103

Considering that Revit and most other software have evolved considerably over the last 10 years, including switching to other IFC-libraries, changing how IFC is dealt with and providing alternative means to configure the export, I wonder what such certification actually signifies for the current iteration of the software?

Unless I completely misunderstood, the certification procedure is done at one time for one version of the software. Can you even state that the software you use is certified if you are not using that version?

The only type of renewing we can read about is the IFC4 certification, for which no report is linked in the database. Is that also for a particular version of the software?

To further this topic: if you write in your project information protocol or EIR that only certified software may be applied, what are you actually specifying then? The software in general? A version of the software? A version of the IFC-export/import plug-in?

Unfortunately if you write that “only certified software may …” it is in practice a pretty meaningless sentence for exactly the shortcomings you’ve identified.

This talk goes into detail about where certification falls short and raises awareness on some ways to mitigate or trends in the industry to watch out for: Using Gherkin for ‘white box’ IFC software certification - YouTube

hi @stefkeB
I see that the certification is again a hot topic. I had a similar case here some time ago.

In my last EIRs I am simply avoiding the sentences of defining that a software should be certified according to bsI. The reasons you have listed in your post. Even if a software is certified, there are problems with exportign an IFC for that software.

What is important for me in EIR, is to state that the software should export either IFC2x3 or IFC4 and in the future IFC4.3. I need interoperability between the software as long as the software can generate the schema in relative “clean” way.

How many software programs were out in the market in 2017 exchanging IFC schema but with a pending status for certification? This is also another aspect, which I don’t quite understand, with the certification.

1 Like