Official Model View Definitions for IFC 4.3

Developers MVDs
1

Hi,
Where can I find the definitions of the official Model View Definitions (Reference View, Alignment Based Reference View, Design Transfer View) for IFC 4.3?

There is no direct link in the IFC documentation. Also, there is no directory for 4x3 in the technical repository at Index of /MVD/RELEASE
(by the way: the Design Transfer View for IFC 4 is also missing there)

2

There are two official ones for 4.3. They are listed in the documentation: Introduction - IFC 4.3.2 Documentation

The best overview of what is part of which MVD can be found on the fundamental concepts page: 4 Fundamental concepts and assumptions - IFC 4.3.2 Documentation

By the way: Design Transfer View never materialised into an official MVD.

3

Thank you, Leon, for these hints and links.

I try to understand the meaning/relevance of MVDs. The various documentations available online are not entirely clear.
I still have some questions about the importance of MVDs in the context of IFC4x3:

  • Is there a machine-interpretable definition of the MVDs, or can they only be read from the HTML pages?
  • The link you provided to the MVD definitions points to https://ifc43-docs.standards.buildingsmart.org/. This page is explicitly referred to as ‘under development’. How stable/reliable are the MVD definitions made here?
  • Why is the Design Transfer View listed as one of three MVDs but not further specified in the documentation? Will there be a definition of the DTV in the (near) future?
  • Does the validation service (https://validate.buildingsmart.org) test against the MVDs? (According to the currently available documentation, this does not seem to be the case. → Is it planned?)

Thanks for additional explanations.

4
  • Everything on the “output” repo is generated from the “development” repo. The source is in the ‘development’ repo, HTML; PSD; EXP; etc… (all in ‘output’) is all generated.
  • The HTML page indeed says it is in development. It also says " The structure and semantic contents of this are exactly the same as the ISO IFC 4.3 but with additional examples and clarifications in the documentation. It may also contain typo fixes. This is a further elaboration of the ISO release without changes to the schema and specification." Part of the further clarification could be the MVD definitions and (general) usages. In other words: just like always, the MVDs can have updates.
  • Design Transfer View is an intended MVD that is not defined/developed/published yet.
  • Yes; validation service checks against all normative rules and industry practices. Validation service actually makes an even more granular split of IFC into ‘functional parts’ (that together make up an MVD → see https://standards.buildingsmart.org/documents/IDM/IDM_guide-CompsAndDevMethods-IDMC_004-v1_2.pdf)