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IFC and input data for facility management

  1. M by Massimo on 9 Feb 2021, edited 1 Apr 2021 #

    Hello everybody, my question is about IFC and facility management.

    I read that is not always necessary, in a IFC file, to store geometric informations and it would be awesome if there would be a method to store useful building informations for facility management in IFC format (ex. rooms area, doors, windows, fire extinguishers, etc...) but without actually drawing the entire building in a 3d model.

    So, the question: is it possibile to input building data in IFC format without necessarly drawing it in a 3d model?

    Thanks in advance for answers.

  2. M by Moult on 11 Feb 2021 # +2 votes

    @Massimo good question. The BlenderBIM Add-on actually used to support re-exporting IFC data without any geometry. You can actually build a full IFC model in the BlenderBIM Add-on without any geometry at all - just use empty objects! Keep in mind that when I say no geometry, I mean no representations. It is often useful for facility management to still have object coordinates and some COBie requirements also require basic bounding boxes. So indeed, you can use the BlenderBIM Add-on for this purpose. This would be a fantastic video (ping @condur) to demonstrate.

    I should build a feature that lets you omit the coordinates too, to make it purely data-only.

    There is also IFCCSV which can help extract and bulk edit IFC data without considering geometry, but I'd call it an editor, not an authoring tool.

  3. C by c4rlosdias on 12 Feb 2021 # -1 votes

    @Moult , is there a possibility to add non-geometric data such as, for example, of the IFCTASK class or cost data such as that of the Ifccostitem class?

  4. M by Moult on 12 Feb 2021 #

    @c4rlosdias unfortunately no, they are not yet supported. It has been on the todo list for a while. Note that however the BlenderBIM Add-on will preserve them if they do exist (most other BIM platforms will purge this data when you import the IFCs - not so for the BlenderBIM Add-on).

  5. S by shanmama on 23 Feb 2021 #

    BACnet is OK? I recently read some papers on BACnet and IFC data exchange, and I can send them to you if you need. But I always believe that there is a gap between academic papers and the construction industry

  6. M by Massimo on 23 Feb 2021 #

    @shanmama i thought BACnet was a communication protocol for building automation...but if you have something new, i would be happy to read it!

  7. A by adarsh on 23 Mar 2021, edited 23 Mar 2021 #

    Hello OSArch Community! I'm a masters student in Construction and Real Estate Management @ HTW University, Berlin. I'm a civil engineer myself, and I'm new to the world of IFC (so please forgive me if I make mistakes ;) ). I would like to ask about an issue I recently encountered while using BlenderBIM:

    I tried to import a .ifcxml file exported from CAFMconnect into BlenderBIM. I got an error message and could not open it. I intended to try if BlenderBIM can be used to view/edit IFC files that contain FM information that is exported from any CAFM systems.

    So, is BlenderBIM able to open IFC files that don't have geometrical information?

    Thanks in advance, and so excited to be a part of the community!

  8. D by duncan on 23 Mar 2021 # +1 votes

    @adarsh I merged your question with this one as there is a lot of overlap.

  9. M by Moult on 24 Mar 2021 # +1 votes

    @adarsh the BlenderBIM Add-on certainly can open IFC files that don't have geometry, though it won't show the products, but it will show the tree. You can use the IfcCSV tools to schedule out these non geometric elements, as well as IFC COBie tool to see whether or not it complies with the COBie requirements.

    However, your question is specifically about .ifcxml, which generally has a lot poorer support. It may be the our implementation of IFC XML isn't good enough, or that your IFC XML is invalid. The only way to know is if you share your file with me. Would that be possible?

  10. A by adarsh on 24 Mar 2021 #

    @Moult Thank you very much for your reply. I have attached the file here: https://we.tl/t-noodi4YAAQ

    Also, since I'm a newbie, it would be great if you could share some information or links where I can learn how to use IfcCSV and IfcCOCie tool. Thanks in advance :)

  11. D by duncan on 24 Mar 2021, edited 24 Mar 2021 # +1 votes
  12. A by adarsh on 24 Mar 2021 #

    @duncan Perfect. Thank you :)

  13. M by Moult on 27 Mar 2021 #
  14. A by adarsh on 29 Mar 2021 #

    Thank you so much, @Moult for looking into the issue.

  15. M by Moult on 1 Apr 2021 # +1 votes

    @adarsh update that it should be working again in the next release.

  16. A by adarsh on 1 Apr 2021 #

    Thanks, @Moult. Looking forward to the update :)

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