IFC tagging strategies and limitations

VisualARQ
1

I’ve not worked at all with ifc tagging. As far as I understand, each vaobject has it’s own ifctag type:
wall–>ifcwall
beam–>ifcbeam

etc.

The VAelement by default is a proxy (generic ifc type).

There are missing some “main” ifc-type-va-objects, compared to other software, such as ramps, separate structural walls category-family and others, maybe some of you want to elaborate on this.

When placing a wall, it seems i cannot change the by-object ifc tag type, which is not a problem becaue we have the va-matching-ifc dialogue under rhino options.

When placing an element, a dropdown per object exists and i can pick from the options of the dropdown.

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Questions-Suggestions:

  1. where is the complete ifctags list is stored?
  2. which documentation does it follow?
  3. does it follow the latest? And what happens if we decide to work in 2X3 instead of 4 in a project because of other people collaborating with 2X3 in their software and vice versa?
  4. wouldn’t such an option could exist centrally per project, per template etc to select which version you want to work with?
  5. wouldn’t this lead to perfect dropdown list, accurate enough to follow ifc schemas?
  6. ifc tags that are mandatory and generic ones such as the project site, project name, etc, wouldn’t it be better to appear in the visualarq templates by default and not instructing the user to add document user texts? And if a user is about to add them manually, shouldn’t a similar dropdown list of generic ifctags appear?
  7. a ifc tag selection per style alongside with per object should exist. The ones that are being set from the options dialogue, let them be selected from there. But elements, that are generic from their nature, they should have this option. Let’s think of chimney, or distributor flow element, or fireplace etc.
  8. an appliance such as microwave element, should be a furniture object or an element one in your opinions? As far as i understand, furniture is something that’s not part of the building, when element is indeed part of the building
2

Hi @GabrielB

  1. The current list of ifcTypes are the IfcElement (walls, slabs, beams, etc..) in the IFC2x3 schema (+ the IfcGrid (which is actually an IfcAnnotation), and the IfcSpace (an IfcSpatialElement))
  2. IFC 2x3
  3. Right now you can only use the IfcElements in the 2x3 schema. When we fully implement the IFC 4, we will see how to handle this.
  4. We will see.
  5. We will see.
  6. We will provide an interface in future versions for managing this information.
  7. I agree. We need to implement this first in the Element object type. And we will do it for other object types when they can get more IfcTypes than the default one.
  8. A microwave element should be tagged (in the IFC 2x3 schema) as ifcFlowTerminal (not Furniture, indeed).