Importing IFC Data

You can import Industry Class Foundation (IFC) data interactively.

  1. Select the required profile in Preferences.
    • For Coordination
    • For Construction.
    • For Design
    1. If you have selected For Construction, select how to import the geometry.

      • Exact
      • Tessellated
      • Optimized Exact

    See IFC for more information.

  2. Check whether the imported file requires large range support or not, and select the design range accordingly.

    Converter for IFC does not support hard coded tolerances in large range design.

  3. Import the IFC file as explained in Import.

    • Available extensions are *.ifc or *.ifczip.
    • Supported versions are IFC2x3, IFC4, IFC4x1.

  4. Optional: Select the Use Filter check box.
    1. Specify the filter parameters, such as the profile.
  5. Optional: Select one or both options to manage import as a back ground process.

    Note: These options are available only for files stored on disk.

    • Run in Separate Process: Automatically runs the import in another process (DataExchangePLMBatch. For more information, see Using DataExchangePLMBatch.

      The import dialog box closes, the import is run is the background. you are informed of the end of the import.

    • Save Parameters: Saves the xml file used by DataExchangePLMBatch (if Run in Separate Process is selected) and/or filter parameters (if Use Filter is selected) to the specified location.
      Note: The name of the xml file containing the parameters "ifc_file_name".xml.

      If no location is specified, the file is saved in CATTemp.

  6. Select the objects to import, and the profile to use.

    • See Import for more information about the profile proposed by default.
    • Entities under a same Building Storey are grouped by type for easy selection.
    • The size of the file is limited to 2GB.

  7. To manage geolocation in destination structure, in the Referential box do either of the following:
    • Select Local: The Part in which the import is done is not geolocated. Then define the length Unit (meter, kilometer, etc.) in which the data are stored in the file.
    • Select the Coordinates Reference System (coordinate types) in which source data are expressed, from the list of the CRS saved in the database. It is automatically chosen when defined in the source file.

A progress bar displays the total number of objects to create and the number of already created objects.

The Converter for IFC supports:

  • IFC structure elements
  • AEC structures elements
  • Facetted BREP solids
  • Procedural geometry (based on 2D profiles)
  • IFC 2x3 property sets
  • Compressed IFC files (*ifczip)
  • Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
  • Mapping of IFC 2x3 data to IFC 4 data (required to support AEC).
Notes:
  • Transparency is supported for IfcFacetedBrep, IfcFacetedBrepWithVoids, and classes derived from IfcSveptAreaSolid.
  • Transparency is not supported for IfcFaceBasedSurfaceModel and IfcShellBasedSurfaceModel.
  • Geometry that has been defined far (i.e. outside the maximum supported limits) from the origin of the imported model is imported. The value corresponding to the shifting of the model is written on the root object as geolocation information (readable by any Civil app). However, as it implies shifting the centroid of the bounding box of the whole model towards the origin, cases where some geometry is defined near the origin while other geometry is defined far from the origin are not supported.

See Introductory Concepts for more information.