# spatial reservation for equipment movement **URL:** \ **Category:** Users\ **Created:** [June 24, 2026, 4:41pm UTC](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/t/spatial-reservation-for-equipment-movement/6528 "2026-06-24T16:41:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DanPeel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@DanPeel](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/u/DanPeel)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2026, 4:41pm UTC](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/t/spatial-reservation-for-equipment-movement/6528/1 "2026-06-24T16:41:24Z")
How do people typically model a volume of space which is reserved for something such as the movement of a piece of equipment or the clearance required for servicing a piece or equipment etc? Is this an example of what IfcSpatialZone RESERVATION is intended to do? How do i link it to the object that it relates to? ---
**Author:** ![Yuefeng](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/aeb1de/32.png) [@Yuefeng](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/u/Yuefeng)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2026, 5:50am UTC](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/t/spatial-reservation-for-equipment-movement/6528/2 "2026-06-27T05:50:43Z")
I would use IfcVirtualElement with PredefinedType = CLEARANCE for this in IFC4.3. To link it to the related equipment, IfcRelAssignsToProduct is a reasonable option because the clearance volume is not a physical part of the equipment, but a virtual object assigned to or associated with that product. Spatial containment can still be handled separately using IfcRelContainedInSpatialStructure. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/buildingsmart1/original/2X/5/58ac543b01266feb84c166c71b064e226c90e1fd.png) ---
**Author:** ![DanPeel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@DanPeel](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/u/DanPeel)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 7:24am UTC](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/t/spatial-reservation-for-equipment-movement/6528/3 "2026-06-29T07:24:21Z")
I knew there must be something somewhere to do this - many thanks! ---
**Author:** ![marko.ripatti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bbce88/32.png) [@marko.ripatti](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/u/marko.ripatti)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 5:36am UTC](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/t/spatial-reservation-for-equipment-movement/6528/4 "2026-06-30T05:36:02Z")
Hi, there is also other opportunity to model maintenance/clearance zone. Please see [Support for HVAC maintenence zone export - Developers - buildingSMART Forums](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/t/support-for-hvac-maintenence-zone-export/2513/10) ---
**Author:** ![DanPeel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@DanPeel](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/u/DanPeel)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 7:06am UTC](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/t/spatial-reservation-for-equipment-movement/6528/5 "2026-06-30T07:06:33Z")
@marko.ripatti So what was your preferred solution? The virtual element solution suggested above works for me although i havent yet found a simple way to achieve the IfcRelAssignsToProduct relationship with our authoring software (Revit). ---
**Author:** ![marko.ripatti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bbce88/32.png) [@marko.ripatti](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/u/marko.ripatti)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2026, 7:47am UTC](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/t/spatial-reservation-for-equipment-movement/6528/6 "2026-07-01T07:47:35Z")
@DanPeel Maintenance/clearance zones are modeled in our products (in certain way) and those zones are then exported to IFC as clearance geometry ([standards.buildingsmart.org/IFC/RELEASE/IFC4/ADD2\_TC1/HTML/link/clearance-geometry.htm](https://standards.buildingsmart.org/IFC/RELEASE/IFC4/ADD2_TC1/HTML/link/clearance-geometry.htm)) with our own (MagiCAD) IFC Exporter . Just to check: are you coding IFC exporter to Revit or are you using Revit IFC export and try to configure families so that Revit would export them as spatial reservations? ---
**Author:** ![DanPeel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@DanPeel](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/u/DanPeel)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2026, 8:24am UTC](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/t/spatial-reservation-for-equipment-movement/6528/7 "2026-07-01T08:24:37Z")
Revit IFC Export with families set up to export as spatial reservations. Your approach seems to achieve the same end result as that suggested by Yuefeng? I agree that it would be nice for some sort of consensus on how to do this though. ---
**Author:** ![marko.ripatti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bbce88/32.png) [@marko.ripatti](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/u/marko.ripatti)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2026, 12:03pm UTC](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/t/spatial-reservation-for-equipment-movement/6528/8 "2026-07-01T12:03:16Z")
Yes, consensus would be nice. @angel.velez @pasi.paasiala what you say, should we make a official proposal how to deal with clearance/maintenance zones? Please see [Support for HVAC maintenence zone export - Developers - buildingSMART Forums](https://forums.buildingsmart.org/t/support-for-hvac-maintenence-zone-export/2513)