Manual mapping of IFC

Hi, I have a current option to make use IFC for a project. The project has legacy data in the form of an NWD Navisworks model with assets containing property values etc.

When I go to export to IFC out of Navisworks, the default without mapping produces an empty IFC file, empty of property values. Exporting using a 3rd party addon.

My option then is to try a custom mapping, which now leads me into this forum and hoping I can get some help to understand the mapping.

I started by taking the Asset Hierarchy we use, and looking for what would be an IFC equivalent. For example, at the asset level, I chose IFCAsset, which seems to make sense. But then when I look into the definition of this on the BuildSmart website, it contains multiple other property or attribute values.

I don’t understand how to relate what I see in Navisworks, Categories and Properties to IFC entities, Atributes etc.

Does this mean then that the process of manually mapping for export is rather too much to do by simply associating a Navisworks property to an IFC entity?

Grateful for any insight to get me unstuck.

Unfortunately, any development in Naviswork has died, long time ago. I would advice looking for other tools. The BlenderBIM community is quite active!

Thank you, I unfortunately am stuck with the current format, NWD.

I am trying to make use of legacy data that was never intended for anything other than clashing. The workflow of trying to get a good IFC file could be possible, but I would need to understand which entities are related to which assets or systems.

This is where I am really stuck, as I don’t see how to make them relate.