usBIM.viewer+ Free IFC Editor

Developers
1

Hello everyone!

I am Michelangelo Cianciulli from ACCA software (first post but long time lurker).

We are an Italian company that strongly believe in openBIM. In fact, we are bSI Standard Member and we have 11 certified bSI software for IFC2X3 Coordination View 2.0 import/export (that’s actually more that anyone else in the world!).

We continually see (also on this forum) the need to edit the IFC models to add/update/remove informations contained in it for different purposes/workflows.

It’s clear that a BIM authoring cannot handle all of that so we came up with a BIM Tool that allows to edit the IFC model and export the modified file and we would like to share this with the community.

It is usBIM.viewer+, our (free) IFC Viewer and Editor solution.

It’s editor capabilities includes the followings:

  • Add a new entity to the model (extracting it’s geometry from one of the many 3D file supported such as SKP, OBJ, Collada, 3DS, etc.)

  • Change an existing entity geometry (choosing from a 3D model as above)

  • Move / Rotate entities

  • Remove entities

  • Add / Update / Remove Properties (IfcPropertySet)

  • Add / Update / Remove Classifications (IfcClassification and IfcClassificationReference) with helper dialog to choose from common classification systems (e.g. Omniclass, Uniclass, etc.) and with the possibility to define a customized classification schema

  • Apply filters based on Properties or Classifications

Next will be the possibility to Add / Update / Remove groupings such as IfcGroup, IfcSystem, IfcZone, IfcElementAssembly, IfcPresentationLayerAssignment, etc. which seems to be another painful point when it comes from support from BIM authorings and we have in mind some other nice editing functionalities aswell.

All the functionalities (current and future) are described more in detail in this document.

They have been tested with IFC2X3 Coordination View 2.0 files but it should work also with most IFC4 files.

If you want to try a BETA version of the software you can download it at this link extract the ZIP and launch the Setup.exe of the application.

You will only need to register a free account here to use the application.

We hope that having the possiblity to edit the IFC model will allow the users to come up with new/different use cases/workflows that today did not come to mind due to the lack of/restricted editing capabilities.

If you would like to share some feedback/ideas (of any kind) for further development it would be much appreciated.

EDIT 2019-03-14: we updated the download link as the old version contained a bug that would crash the application when adding new IfcClassifications in case of IFC4 files. This is now solved and also the application is completely translated in english.

EDIT 2019-03-20: we updated the download link as the old version contained a bug that would prevent to add new entities correctly.

P.S: forgot to mention that usBIM.viewer+ is already certified by bSI for Coordination View 2.0 Import :wink:

4 Likes
2

Good morning! This initiative looks great to edit and author IFC files!

May I ask if the source code is available? It would be great to build upon this.

Have you seen FreeCAD? It has the functionality you have mentioned (I haven’t tested changing relationships, though), and more (quantities, diffing, QA checks).

1 Like
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Hi, Michelangelo,
I am Ken Endo, chairman of bSI Construction Room. Michelangelo will make presentation at bSI Dusseldorf summit. His presentation time will be in CR6, 11AM-1PM, Wed, March 27th.

You must register and buy Ticket URL below.

Ken

1 Like
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Hi,

this looks really interesting - I will try to join the Presentation next Wednesday.

Best
Tom

5

Hello everyone, just a quick update: (btw, I am not sure why I cannot edit the first post anymore, maybe it’s too old?)

usBIM.viewer+ is not in BETA anymore, it is actually much more stable and has some new functionalities aswell such as the possibility to create Templates for Properties and Classifications (i.e. check and automatically add Properties and Classifications based on filtering rules/criteria).

The official release (and all the subsequent updates) is available for (free) download here.

If you have any feedback or want to propose new editing capabilities do not hesitate to reach us.

3 Likes
6

Here we go with another update of usBIM.viewer+ !

The BIM 2 (9.00a) version brings both new editing functionalities and viewing optimizations, here they are:

  • Properties from Excel*: You can now load and save properties and templates in the Excel file format for further editing.

  • Templates “from selection”*: You can now apply templates to the current selection.

  • Templates “all”*: It is also possible to apply the templates to all entities in the model that is currently in edit.

  • IFC4X1 and IFC4X2 files: now you can view IFC4X1 (IfcAlignment) and IFC4X2 (IfcBridge) file types.

  • Edit Groups: create/modify/remove groups (IfcGroup) and their relating properties.

  • Edit MEP Systems: create/modify/remove MEP systems (IfcSystem) and their relating properties.

  • Opening: file opening speed has been improved even for very large files.

*NOTE: These Functionalities were developed in collaboration with INECO (Engineering & Consulting - Spain).

This collaboration follows the one where, with the INECO’s BIM team, we developed an Excel to XML converter for Classification Systems that can be used directly in usBIM.viewer+ in order to assign and analyze customized Classification Systems to the IFC entities (see this post).
Detailed info can be found in the buildingSMART Spain Journal of BIM 19/01.

Download the latest version of usBIM.viewer+ for free here (it is available in EN, IT, ES, DE, FR and PTB) and get in touch with us if you have any comment, feedback, functionalities improvements or ideas!

2 Likes