Hello,
Sketchup Pro natively has an option to “export IFC mapped items” when exporting IFC. What does this setting do exactly? This doesn’t seem to be documented anywhere.
I believe it’s possible to assign some IFC-specific attributes to components (like Site, Storey, Class, Type etc.), but I don’t think their geometry can be defined in an IFC-specific manner? I mean the way you normally model architectural and structural elements in a typical BIM application like Revit, Archicad or Vectorworks, where you don’t just model out “fake mesh”, but define outline and extrusion for slabs, baseline and extrusions for walls, path and profile for beams etc.
I found some old plugins for Sketchup attempting to do this, but not really killing it, to say at least.
So I’m just wondering, like, what’s the limit of Sketchup’s native capabilities for exporting “workable” IFCs that are at least remotely close to industry standard? I think the exported geometry will never be truly editable in BIM programs, unless someone comes up with a solution like BlenderBIM for Blender. Or, unless you’re fine with tracing all the elements from scratch inside that BIM program. Cuz I’m not.
SketchUp does not export according to Building Smart standards exactly, to get a decent IFC I recommend you to use 2 plugins:
- Ifc manager which allows you to add the necessary Pset of each IFC category and export from there. (Release SketchUp-IFC-Manager 4.3.1 · BIM-Tools/SketchUp-IFC-Manager · GitHub)
- Add IFC Quantities to Selection that allows you to add the Pset of the Quantities and export also to the IFC with the IFC Manager plugin.(Extension | SketchUp Extension Warehouse)
IFC geometry is in essence similar to the face geometry in SketchUp. That is why IFC, exported from any application, is rarely editable in other applications than the one used to create the original model. Have tried between Revit and Archicad rather unsuccessfully.
Ansii, that’s not quite true. IFC can hold geometrical properties like the ones I mentioned above: slab outlines, wall, beam and column baselines, thickness of elements, number of stairs and many others. It obviously doesn’t carry all the props you’re able to define in BIM apps, as their native formats are way more sophisticated than IFC. There certainly are many limitations, but basic elements should do. I was actually able to use BlenderBIM addon inside Blender, which is not even close to an industry-standard BIM app, but has an amazing addon that introduces BIM modeling capabilities. Still in early dev stage, but I made some walls with doors and windows, slabs and even steel beams and imported to Archicad as fully editable elements, just as if they were created in Archicad from scratch. Mind-blowing. Revit, however, kinda struggles despite being THE “industry-standard” BIM solution, and that by the way confirms my deep hate to Autodesk.
Okay, I’m still looking for an answer on what “export IFC mapped items” does.