IFC-Users

There are a number of user guidelines, documentatíons and learning examples that support the architect, engineer or other users when exploring the use of IFC enabled software solutions. IFC Users should know the following things

Software applications with IFC export/import capability

First users have to check whether the software they are using today or in future supports IFC.

• A list of Commercial Software with general IFC support
• A list of Free Software with general IFC support
• A list of IFC Certified Software with certified IFC2x support (or higher IFC2x2, IFC2x3)

General information about the use of IFC data exchange and sharing

• There is an BIM/IFC user guide (IFC Anwenderhandbuch - written in German) describing the use of Building Information Models in the area of architecture and building services (including test files) --> more
• There is an Information Delivery Manual (IDM) --> more
• There is an Exchange Guide for Five of the major 3D CAD applications, a full Danish version is available --> more and an English summary Download

Guidelines on IFC capabilities of commercial software systems

• There is a Reference Guide for the ArchiCAD IFC support --> more --> download
• There is a Documentation for the IFC-Utility 2x for ADT developed by Inopso --> more
• There is a BIM/IFC Guideline (Leitfaden - written in German) for ALLPLAN IFC support --> download

Discussion forums about the usage of IFC

• There is a discussion forum on IFC data exchange (IFC Datenaustausch - written in German) on cad.de
• There is a discussion forum on BIM/IFC Exchange on buildersnet.org

Methods and tools to convert IFC data files

IFC data files can be converted into a different representation (e.g. IFC data files into ifcXML data files), into other product data model formats (like CityGML), or into file formats of other applications (like KML for Google Earth).

• There are ways to transfer IFC into other Product Data Models
• There are ways to export IFC to different File Formats