Sketchup 2023.1 IFC importer broken

[i.vink]

With a new update of sketchup the hope was high of being able to import IFC correctly. But saddly there still is something wrong. Importing got better because the z axis isn’t placed to high up anymore but now there are still elements missing. While importing the attached Demo Model IFC I get the following output in 2023:

Ifc file Imported

  1 IfcProject
  1 IfcSite
  625 IfcBuilding
  7 IfcBuildingStorey
  226 IfcBeam
  850 IfcBuildingElementProxy
  1 IfcColumn
  85 IfcCurtainWall
  147 IfcDoor
  548 IfcMember
  54 IfcPlate
  8 IfcRoof
  122 IfcSlab
  26 IfcStair
  47 IfcWall
  852 IfcWallStandardCase
  144 IfcWindow
  89 IfcSpace

while getting the following in 2022

Ifc file Imported

  1 IfcProject
  1 IfcSite
  1 IfcBuilding
  7 IfcBuildingStorey
  226 IfcBeam
  1474 IfcBuildingElementProxy
  1 IfcColumn
  85 IfcCurtainWall
  147 IfcDoor
  548 IfcMember
  54 IfcPlate
  8 IfcRoof
  122 IfcSlab
  26 IfcStair
  47 IfcWall
  852 IfcWallStandardCase
  144 IfcWindow
  89 IfcSpace

In 2023.1 I can only assume it imports alot of IfcBuildingElementProxy as IFCBuilding. Also some elements dissapeared.

2023:

2022:

It looks like sketchup also automatically removes IfcCurtainWall.

When will sketchup fix this? And is there a temporary workaround we can make using the ruby api?

Demo Model.zip (12.4 MB)

[paddyclown]

Hi, You might like to try a wonderful plugin by Jan Brouwer called IFC Manager - Releases · BIM-Tools/SketchUp-IFC-Manager · GitHub that saves my bacon on a regular basis when it comes to importing & exporting ifc files !
Best regards

[Odd_Haakon_Byberg]

The IFC Manager by Jan Brouwer has a very good exporter but it’s my understanding it uses sketchup´s native tool for importing.

[i.vink]

Hi thank you for your suggestion! I installed the extension and used the import from this tool. But as @Odd_Haakon_Byberg suggested it gives the same problems as the sketchup import.

Saddly this doesn’t fix the import issues, hopefully sketchup will soon come with a fix or a statement.

[paddyclown]

Ah, maybe. I admit that mostly my worry is being able to send respectable ifc files of our projects to third parties & am less worried about stuff that we receive… Worth testing.

[paddyclown]

Yes, hopefully, but don’t hold your breath, we’ve been banging on about better ifc support for literally years & Trimble doesn’t seem to see it as a priority.

[rtches]

If you only need the geometry not the data you can import the ifc file to Trimble Connect. There you can export to TrimBim format and import that file into SketchUp. You will reduce the size of your model too.
By the way, maybe @MikeWayzovski can help you with your problem…

[Odd_Haakon_Byberg]

I use Trimble connect to make a .trb file. I then import the .trb file instead.

Something strange and nice happens this way. After a while. … ( !) or after the next sketchup model save, the layers from the ifc file appears in the sketchup model.

[paddyclown]

That’s cool, but it’s a bit convoluted !
It would be so much better if Trimble finally addressed the issues on ifc management head-on…
Hého, we live in hope (?)

[paddyclown]

ooh, magic behaviour ! There is hope then

[i.vink]

This would be a nice work around, but we can not require customers to download an extra application for this one and only feature. We need a solution that does not require leaving sketchup.

[MikeWayzovski]

The IFC was created in Revit 2017, things have changed, evidentially. With the native TrimBIM import in SketchUp 2023, it makes it easier to control what elements you need in SketchUp, via the desktop app one can create a view and then export that view, only for importing.

Not all information is lost by importing the TrimBim, though, if you have the attribute inspector extension, one can inspect some, if not all.

Do you have a more recent IFC?

[Odd_Haakon_Byberg]

would be nice if that app was for Mac as well. Then the app could be the “import filter” we need for ifc imports, getting control over which layers to import.

In my workflow it still works though, I just need to manually delete the irrelevant tags after import of the .trb, so its not exactly like pressing an update button for the ifc.

My workflow is:

• put the ifc on web Trimble connect.
• download the trb export
• import the trb into sketchup
• clean out all strange colorscemes one color at the time ( colorcoding from engineers, where the color is not the real world color)
• delete all the unneeded tags
• use ThomThom Cleanup on the component

[tominthegong]

lodge a support case with Trimble, they have to fix it if it broken

[Odd_Haakon_Byberg]

What we need is a links palette, with stored location of the ifc´s, on web or locally, and import filters stored to the link, so we can:

• update the link using last used import settings

And these settings could be:

• import using .trb conversion of the ifc
• clean out all colours
• import only certain tags/layers, (list of tags is shown)
• use ThomThom Cleanup on the file, with last clean settings for the link.

The link would have the colors assigned in the model, and updates would keep that color. This would be much more valuable than the Revit importer.

When that .trb conversion and import of trb is already made, It should be easy to connect the dots and make a good workflow arrangement here.