Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
IFC
The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) file format was introduced as a
solution to the problems of multiple software vendors competing in 3D
space. IFC is an XML file format that can be edited in text editors such
as Windows Notepad. Although the IFC format is somewhat limited from
within Revit itself, Autodesk has made the IFC import/export tools open
source (freely available to programmers) and the Revit API has been
expanded with each release to offer greater support for getting data to and
from IFC.
Industry Foundation Classes
The current format for IFC is IFC4, although, at the time we were
writing this topic, Revit supported IFC 2×3. The format was developed
by buildingSMART, formerly known as the International Alliance for
Interoperability (IAI). More details can be found at
Using IFC can increase the number of consultants with whom you can
interact.Thereisapotentialdownside,however.Unlessyouspendadequate
time at the front end of the project discussing just how the data (format)
is to be transferred with all parties, problems can arise from data that,
when opened, is so inefficient as to be almost worthless. In some cases, it
is preferable to use the import method as described in the previous exercise
than it is to import an IFC file. On an average-size project, an IFC file can
take literally hours to import, and then the objects that are imported might
turn out to be in-place families.
