IFC and COBie Export - Enabling the Required properties


 Product(s):OpenBuildings Designer (and AECOsim Building Designer)
 Version(s):CONNECT Edition and V8i
 Area: Import/Export
 Subarea: IFC

Problem

Incomplete property sets when exporting to IFC and COBie.

Solution

Open the CONNECT Edition WorkSet CFG file or the V8i Project Configuration File for the project(s) concerned using a text editor (such as Notepad++), scroll to the bottom of the file and set the value of the variable IFC_WORKSET (for CONNECT Edition) or IFC_PROJECT (for V8i) to include the appropriate property sets.

It is advisable to set this at the outset of a project so any of the properties that will be needed in later stage exports can be set early on. If additional property sets are included later in a project there may need to be an additional review of existing element properties to check for omissions.

The available settings (CONNECT Edition shown, V8i has identical option/values for the IFC_PROJECT variable) are:

The default setting is delivered as IFC_WORKSET =0 to avoid IFC specific properties taking up space in the user interface when they are not needed.

If the value of IFC_WORKSET is changed during the life of a project, the Schema Upgrade Utility (or in V8i known as the DataGroup Upgrade Utility) will need to be applied to the relevant files, please see Upgrade existing elements and their properties to the current DataGroup Schema for details of this relatively simple process.

Note:

Up to date information on the IFC Model View Definitions supported by AECOsim Building Designer can be found in the help documentation for the version that you are using.

See Also:

Additional IFC project properties in Floor Manager