Category: IFC

20 Year overview Schema Specifications | 1997 – 2017

Official releases of the IFC specification are listed here. Schema specifications indicate how data is represented within classes and attributes.

Version Notation

IFC versions are identified using the notation “Major.Minor.Addendum.Release”.

  • Major versions consist of scope expansions or deletions and may have changes that break compatibility.
  • Minor versions consist of feature extensions, where compatibility is guaranteed for the “core” schema, but not for other definitions.
  • Addendums consist of improvements to existing features, where the schema may change but upward compatibility is guaranteed.
  • Releases consist of improvements to documentation.

Which version do I use?

The latest version, IFC 4.1 is recommended for all current developments, which is fully backward compatible with IFC 4.0. Core definitions within IFC 4.1 and 4.0 are backward compatible with IFC 2.3.

buildingSMART International Awards 2017 is open for submissions

buildingSMART International (bSI) is pleased to announce the opening of the bSI Awards 2017 submission period.

Architects, engineers, contractors, suppliers, clients and operators, students and any other interested parties are invited to submit their examples of benefiting from the use of bSI open standards and products. Submissions will be accepted from 1 May to 15 August 2017.

Richard Petrie, Chief Executive of bSI, adds, ‘It’s an opportunity for companies to showcase their application of buildingSMART open standard solutions to current challenges of interoperability faced during collaborative project delivery or asset operations’.

‘We want to recognise and celebrate the benefits of using openBIM in the construction industry. We have seen an amazing surge in the use of open technology in all aspects of the building industry, including during the design stage, at the construction site, and in facility management and monitoring, and I encourage all users who have integrated any buildingSMART methods into their work processes to submit’, says Jan Karlshøj, Chair of the bSI Awards Committee.

About the awards

The buildingSMART International Awards recognize projects that demonstrate and inspire the use of open standards developed by the buildingSMART International community to overcome interoperability challenges in the industry. There are four (4) award categories which include: Design Using Open Technology, Construction Using Open Technology, Operations and Maintenance Using Open Technology, and Student Project Using Open Technology.

The winners for each category will be invited to accept their award at the Gala Dinner of the next buildingSMART International Technical Summit, taking place in London, United Kingdom, October 30th to  November 2nd, 2017. Additional Honourable Mentions will be given out, including submissions from Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME)

All parties are welcome to take part in the competition. Entrants do not need to be members of the buildingSMART International organization. All participants must clearly demonstrate effective and inspirational use of open standards in AEC projects or services. A single team may submit proposals covering several categories, and organisations may equally participate in several categories. Eligible submissions may demonstrate be full project benefits or focus specifically on successful individual workflows.

The award winners will also receive publication of their submission on the bSI website. The aim of the award program is to inform and inspire others to take advantage of bSI open standards.  bSI Awards are not just about the success stories – we encourage competitors to share their full experiences, even highlighting the problems and challenges, as well as ideas about how buildingSMART solutions or software implementations of the standards could be improved.

How to submit your application

  • Design: Please upload at least one 3D illustration and one plan suitable for publication. If a finished project is submitted, please also upload one picture (300 dpi or higher resolution) in TIFF, JPEG or EPS format suitable for publication. Upload additional documentation, models, BCF-files and videos, if available.
  • Construction: Please upload at least one 3D illustration and one plan suitable for publication. If a finished project is submitted, please also upload one picture (300 dpi or higher resolution) in TIFF, JPEG or EPS format suitable for publication. Upload additional documentation, models, BCF-files and videos, if available.
  • Operation and Maintenance: Please remember to upload at least two illustrations (300 dpi or higher resolution) in TIFF, JPEG or EPS format suitable for publication.
  • Student Project: Please upload a minimum of two illustrations (300 dpi or higher resolution) in TIFF, JPEG or EPS format suitable for publication. Upload additional documentation, models, BCF-files and videos, if available.

Please fill in the form here (link opens in new window). You can submit the form and add any missing information at a later stage by using the link in the mail that you will receive from Google after you have submitted the form for the first time.

Please email your documents using this special link for emailing large files – https://buildingsmart.wetransfer.com/ (link opens in new window) and send to awards@buildingsmart.org. You will receive email acknowledgement that the email has been opened.

Please note that submissions will be accepted using the process above between 1 May and 15 August 2017. No submissions will be accepted after 23:59 hrs CET on 15 August 2017.

Any questions should be addressed to Jan Karlshøj at jan.karlshoej@gravicon.dk

Source: buildingSMART

ETIM International and buildingSMART International announce collaborative partnership

The recently signed partnership will strengthen the interoperability of open standards throughout the building and infrastructure lifecycle and value chain and improve the broader availability of digital product information.

During its annual General Assembly in Frankfurt in February 2017, Franz Ernst, President of ETIM International, in the presence of most of the country members of ETIM, signed a MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING between ETIM International and buildingSMART International

Following exploratory meetings between the international offices of both organisations in the second half of 2016, complemented by successful collaboration at local level in the Netherlands and Norway, the two parties agreed on the critical benefits of promoting closer coordination of their respective activities to strengthen open-standard based interoperability throughout the building and infrastructure lifecycle and value chain.

ETIM and bSI will work together on a joint project in respect of the buildingSMART Data Dictionary (bSDD) and ETIM’s product classification standard.  In particular this will consider the inclusion of a single representation of the ETIM standard on the bSDD platform taking account of the governance and work flow requirements of both standard systems.

read more Source: buildingSMART

buildingSMART International Summit – Jeju, Korea | September 2016

Registration is open for our next working Summit being held on Jeju Island, Korea.
September 25 – September 29. Places are now filling fast and we encourage you to register soon.

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The Registration site and more details are here.

The summit is a special opportunity to meet with world leaders in the development and delivery of open data exchange standards and digital best practice. We expect all the buildingSMART Chapters from around the world to be represented, providing an opportunity for experts to share knowledge for further enhancement of buildingSMART’s openBIM processes and standards.

There will be plenary sessions presenting information about the most recent standards, processes, tools and projects, as well as the main schedule of working sessions dealing with key themes.

We have a very comprehensive agenda which includes;

  • The latest developments for Infrastructure; Roads, Rail, Bridge and Asset Management as well as the IFC4 alignment deployment
  • MVD development for Buildings
  • New specialist areas, Airports and Construction for users of digital data standards
  • Digital standards for Regulation authorities
  • buildingSMART Data Dictionary (bSDD) working sessions
  • Working sessions aimed at Users in the AEC industry

We look forward to welcoming you on Jeju and at our future Summits.

Registration for Summit on Jeju, Korea

Source: buildingSMART

IFC4 Add1 Release | Open BIM

IFC4_add1IFC4 Add1 – the first addendum of IFC4 incorporating necessary improvements that had been identified during the pilot implementations and the development activities for the first Model View Definitions.

Final version IFC4 Add1 released in July 2015 as buildingSMART Final Standard. Baseline for IFC4 Reference View V1.0 and IFC4 Design Transfer View V1.0

  • IFC4 – (formerly IFC2x4) – has been released as the new IFC platform for the upcoming years in 2013. It incorporates several extensions of IFC in building, building service and structural areas, enhancements of geometry and other resource components, and numerous quality improvements, fully integrated simple ifcXML specification, and a new documentation format
    • final version IFC4 released in March 2013
    • see IFC4 Add1 for minor updates to be incorporated for official IFC4 Model View Definitions

IFC4 support information:

source: buildingSMART | international home of openBIM

buildingSMART International’s Singapore Summit

In October, over one hundred experts assembled in Singapore to work on the creation of world’s future open building and infrastructure data standards.

Since the last working summit in London, 5 standards have been endorsed as buildingSMART Final Standards, and the number of initiatives in progress is healthier than ever with 27 Activities currently developing a broad range of new output.

The key milestones achieved during the summit include:

  • 24 nations attended 52 meetings
  • Key note presentations from Autodesk, Trafikverket and Nemetschek Group set the tone on user expectations
  • the Standards Committee Executive (SCE) agreed to put forward; ISO IDM Standard, mvdXML Trust in BIM deliverables and IFC for LAND XML report as final standards and technical reports.
  • A memorandum of understanding between bSI, Trafikverket, Rijkwaterstat and Liikennevirasto (the Swedish, Dutch & Finnish Traffic Agencies) was signed, ensuring funding and leadership of new infrastructure initiatives.
  • The Compliance Program finalised the proposal for the development of a buildingSMART accreditation scheme
  • The Technical Executive model was progressed to ensure harmonization across all the initiatives to providing consistent and quality output worthy of the bSI brand.

Focus on what the User needs was a key theme throughout the week and significant strides in improved leadership and coordination strategies were made.

The full set of resolutions and presentations from the summit are posted at Standards Summit Program

The list of standards work is to be found on the Activities page.

buildingSMART International is very grateful to the Singapore Chapter and their sponsors for the excellent organisation and hospitality that ensured this summit was such a  great success.

Be sure to join us at our next Summit in April 2016 in the Netherlands.

London Watford Standards Summit Successes

Over 160 people from 19 different nations gathered in London Watford for the buildingSMART International Standards Conference.

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Key milestones achieved during the summit include:

  • The inaugural meeting of the Standards Committee (SC) took place
  • The Standards Process, launched in Toronto, was used throughout the summit
  • The Standards Committee Executive (SCE) agreed to put forward, S1004 IFC alignment 1.0 and S1001 Coordination MVDs for IFC4 (Design Transfer View) and S1002 (Reference View), for endorsement as bSI Final Standard
  • 4 Initiation requests were received to create a bSI Standard Proposal
  • 1 Development request to approve as bSI Candidate Standard
  • 4 Deployment request to approve as bSI Final Standard
  • Room Charters continued to be developed ready for final issue in June

The full set of resolutions and presentations from the summit are posted at Standards Summit Program

View the Activities list for a complete picture of Standards and Technical Reports progress

buildingSMART International thanks the UK Chapter, their sponsors and BRE for the excellent organisation and hospitality.

source: buildingsmart.com