With this IFC export manual, the goal is to give the user a guide on how to export the IFC for the right purposes. An IFC file can quickly become heavy and large when you have a lot of information to get out of the model. That is why when exporting an IFC, you need to uncheck unnecessary information. When uploading a model to Bimsync, it is not always necessary to have a lot of information and a high level of detail in the model. A little later in this manual we will return to what settings we recommend to make the model a little smaller and a little easier to work with. Here we will go through step by step the most appropriate way to export an IFC from Revit to Bimsync.
When Revit is open and you are ready to export, you may want to do the following.
Top left we find "File" tab.
Remember - You may want to have a dedicated folder for your IFCs, so you always have control over where your file is located!
Clicking on the "File" tab will bring up this window.
Here we choose -> Export -> IFC.
Modify setup - This is where we perform the necessary settings for IFC exports.
When we are inside Export IFC we click on Modify setup.
Another window will appear.
General
We'll take you through the various settings.
1. Selection of IFC version.
2. IFC type selection.
3. If you have used the phase tool
in Revit, here you can choose and only
export new or existing structures.
4. Space boundaries are all about
how room information can br
used further.
a. 1st Level - Ex on use: Quantity withdrawals, FDVU.
b. 2st Level - Ex on use: Energy analysis, light analysis.
5. Project Origin Project origin, this we put on Current shared coordinates- Present shared
coordinates.
6. Here you can f. Ex dividing walls horizontal if modeled over several floors.
7. Includes steel components if modeled.
Additional Content
1. Exports 2D components, filled
regions (scratches).
2. Export inbound IFC files as
own files.
3. Export only visible objects to
IFC file.
Property Set
1. Exports all Revit Property sets (pset / properties)
2. Export standard IFC properties.
3. Exports calculated quantities of objects.
4. Export batch lists
5. Export one-off Property Set
Level Of Detail
This is about how detailed we have for example. cups or handrails or maybe bicycle wheels. There are 4 different levels of detail.
Extra Low, Low, Medium and High.
When high, it gets the most detailed as shown in the picture below.
When exporting IFCs from Revit to be used in Bimsync, we recommend not to set the level of detail to high. There will be a lot of details and extra polygons in models when exported with higher level of detail and this is not always necessary and will make the model navigation slower. This is an example of the difference between exporting with the Extra low and High setting.
The appearance of the model will be close to the same, but the number of polygons will decrease drastically and the navigation in Bimsync will be a lot faster.
Advanced
1. Export parts like standard IFC element.
2. Select this option to allow mixing of BRep and extrusion geometries for a unit.
3. Select this option to use the active view to generate the geometry. Note that this may have unexpected results if used on a non-3D view.
4. Select this option to use the family and type namesfor references.
5. Select this option to use a simplified approach for calculating room volume (based on
extrusion of 2D space boundaries) which is also standard when exporting to IFC 2x2.
6. Select this option to include the height from the Z-offset for local position in IfcSite. Remove the option to exclude it.
7. Select this option to save the generated IFC GUIDs to the project file after export. This will add "IFC GUID" parameters to items and their types and Project information for project, website and building guides.
8. Select this option to export "Bounding box" representations. This option remains automatically selected for GSA export.
IFC Options
Here within the IFC options we make the settings for exporting a model to an IFC file. Here you can customize
setup properties for exporting a model to IFC. What was mentioned at the start of this manual is
it is not necessary to bring too much information out of the model. Feel free to tick off unnecessarily
information before export.
It is possible to view grids in Bimsync, and if you have these in your Revit model it is in IFC Options you can set grids to be exported in the IFC. By default these are not exported from Revit.
Here is a link to a youtube video that can also be helpful: