Exploring an IFC model ====================== We're going to load an existing IFC model and explore some common properties most users will be interested in. If you don't have an IFC model available, here's a small one for your convenience provided by the Institute for Automation and Applied Informatics (IAI) / Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. It's in German, so you may need to use some creativity when reading the data :) .. container:: blockbutton `Download sample IFC `__ .. seealso:: You can find more sample models online in the `OSArch Open Data Directory `__ Loading a model --------------- Blender's interface is divided into three panels. The left **Outliner** panel shows a tree of geometric objects. The centre main **Viewport** panel shows 3D geometry. The right **Properties** panel shows data and relationships. .. image:: images/blenderbim-layout.png The **Properties** panel has tabs to switch between different types of properties. .. image:: images/properties-tabs.png Click on ``File > Open IFC Project`` and browse to your ``.ifc`` file. .. image:: images/properties-loadproject.png After loading, you will see the model appear in the **Viewport** panel. .. image:: images/example-project.png Take a look at the **Project Info** subpanel. It shows the loaded filename, as well as the **IFC Schema**. There are two commonly seen **IFC Schema** versions: IFC2X3 and IFC4. Checking the **IFC Schema** is important because it has an impact on what BIM data may be stored. IFC4 is the newer version and it is recommended to use IFC4 models as it has significantly more BIM capabilities compared to IFC2X3. .. tip:: Blender's interface is highly customisable. Panels, panel types, colours, sizes, and tabs may be edited to suit your workflow. If you want a `Hot Pink theme `__ look no further. Navigating a model in 3D ------------------------ To navigate, can use the **Navigate Gizmo** on the top right corner of the **Viewport** panel. Click and drag on the coloured axes to **Orbit**, click and drag on the magnifying glass to **Zoom**, and click and drag on the hand icon to **Pan**. You can also click on the grid icon to switch between perspective and orthographic view. To switch to a top view, front view, or side view, click the relevant axis on the **Navigate Gizmo**. .. image:: images/navigate-gizmo.png You can also use your mouse to navigate. Hover your mouse over the **Viewport** panel and click and drag the Middle Mouse Button (``MMB``) to **Orbit**. Scroll the mousewheel to **Zoom**, and use ``Shift-MMB`` to **Pan**. If you have a numpad, you can use the numpad keys to quickly switch to top, front, or side view. Use ``7`` for top view, ``1`` for front view, and ``3`` for side view. .. warning:: Blender's hotkeys are context sensitive. This means that a hotkey has a different meaning depending on the panel your mouse cursor is hovering over. If you press ``7`` to go to top view, make sure your mouse cursor is over the **Viewport** panel. Be very careful where your mouse is, or you might press a hotkey and it will have unintended consequences! If you click on an object, such as a wall in the **Viewport** panel, you can zoom to the selected object by clicking on ``View > Frame Selected``. The hotkey is the ``.`` button on the numpad. After zooming into an element, when you **Orbit** the 3D view will rotate around the center of that element. You can also zoom to all objects in the project by clicking on ``View > Frame All``. .. image:: images/frame-selected.png Another good way to navigate is by flying or walking around similar to a video game. Choose ``View > Navigation > Walk Navigation``, or use the ``Shift-``` hotkey (the backtick key is usually to the left of the number 1 on the keyboard). With **Walk Navigation** enabled, use the ``WASD`` keys and the mouse to move around like a video game. You can use the ``Shift`` key to switch between moving fast and slow. If you scroll with the mousewheel, it will adjust the speed that you move at. Sometimes, you want to look through objects. You can toggle **X-Ray Mode** by pressing the button on the top right of the **Viewport** panel. The hotkey is ``Alt-Z``. .. image:: images/x-ray-mode.png .. tip:: Blender has lots of hotkeys to do things quickly. These can take time to learn but it is worth it as you will be much faster. These hotkeys can be customised in Blender's preferences. Overview of all objects ----------------------- The **Outliner** panel on the top right shows a hierarchy of all the currently loaded physical **Objects** in your IFC project. These **Objects** correlate to what you can see in the **Viewport** panel. Every **Object** in the **Outliner** represents an IFC **Element**. These **Objects** have a name with the pattern ``Class/Name``. The class prefix represents the type of object, and the name is the name of the object. Examples of classes you will see are ``IfcBuilding``, or ``IfcWall``. This naming convention makes it easy to quickly spot types of objects. .. image:: images/outliner.png Objects are organised in a hierarchy. By default, this hierarchy represents a breakdown of spaces, from large spaces such as a site and a building, down to smaller spaces like building storeys and room spaces. The hierarchy will always begin with an **IfcProject** object. You can click on the triangle to toggle the hierarchy. .. tip:: In large projects with deep hierarchies, you can ``Shift-LMB`` click the triangle to recursively toggle the hierarchy. You can also click and drag the ``MMB`` to pan left and right. When there are lots of objects, you can type a name in the filter box to quickly identify objects by name or type. .. image:: images/outliner-filter.png Clicking on an object in the **Outliner** panel also selects the corresponding object in the **Viewport** panel. A good strategy to find objects is to then use ``View > Frame Selected`` to zoom to it in the **Viewport**. The **Outliner** panel is also great for isolating portions of your project. You can include and exclude portions by clicking on the **Tick Icon** next to collections of objects in the hierarchy. Let's isolate a single building storey. Start by disabling the **Tick Icon** next to the **IfcProject** collection. This will hide everything in the project. Then navigate through the hierarchy and enable the **Tick Icon** next to an **IfcBuildingStory**. .. image:: images/outliner-isolate.png Viewing element classes ----------------------- Usually the first thing you'll want to check is the **Class** of element that an object represents. The IFC **Class** is an international classification system provided by IFC. Example IFC **Classes** are Wall, Slab, and Door. Every IFC element must have a **Class**. **Classes** aren't just for categorising elements. They also indicate what types of properties and relationships it is allowed to have. For example, a Wall **Class** can have a fire rating property, but a Grid **Class** cannot. .. note:: There are hundreds of **Classes** to represent all aspects of our built environment, including non geometric classes like Task, Occupant, and CostItem. However, we'll focus only on simple physical **Classes** in this guide. Don't worry about memorising all the available **Classes**, you'll get a feel for them as you explore more. To view an object's class, click on an object in the **Viewport** or **Outliner** panel, then switch to the **Object Information** tab in the **Properties** panel. You can see the **Class** name in the **Object Metadata** subpanel. .. image:: images/element-class.png In this case, the **Class** of our roof is an **IfcSlab**. You'll notice this is the same **Class** name used as a prefix for the object name in the **Outliner** panel. You can also see the name of the actively selected object in the top left of the **Viewport** panel. .. warning:: Sometimes, an IFC model will use the wrong **Class**. For example, a chair might be assigned as the Wall **Class** instead the Furniture **Class**. There is a special class known as **IfcBuildingElementProxy**, used when the user is unable to find a more semantic **Class**. If you see many **IfcBuildingElementProxy** **Classes**, it is likely a symptom of a low quality IFC model. If this is the case, scold the project manager and ask them to do a better job. After **IfcSlab** it also says **ROOF**. This is known as the **Predefined Type** of the element. You can think of it as a further level of classification. In this case, it distinguishes our object as a roof slab, compared to other types of slabs. The **Predefined Type** is optional so you may not see it all the time. .. seealso:: You can use the `Search IFC Class `__ tool to learn the correct classes and predefined types you should see. Press the **Select Icon** to select all objects that are of the same **IfcSlab** **Class**. Then, you can isolate these elements by going to ``Object > Show/Hide > Hide Unselected`` (hotkey ``Shift-H``). To show all elements again, you can use ``Object > Show/Hide > Show Hidden Objects`` (hotkey ``Alt-H``). If you want to hide elements instead, you can use ``Object > Show/Hidden > Hide Selected`` (hotkey ``H``). .. image:: images/element-class-select.png .. note:: Remember that Blender's hotkeys are context sensitive. Make sure your mouse is hovering over the **Viewport** panel when you press a hotkey or no cake for you. You can also see statistics about the number of selected objects. If you right click on the bottom right status bar and enable **Scene Statistics** you will see information like **Objects 4/4**, which means that 4 objects are selected out of 4 available objects. This is a great way of counting objects like toilets. .. image:: images/scene-statistics.png Viewing attributes and properties --------------------------------- You can view the **Attributes**, **Properties**, and **Quantities** of the selected object in the **Object Properties** tab. Let's focus on **Attributes** first. Scroll down to the **Attributes** subpanel. **Attributes** are a limited set of fundamental data (usually less than 10) associated with all IFC elements. These are fixed by the IFC standard. .. image:: images/attributes.png Here are some common attributes and what they mean: - **GlobalId**: a unique ID for the element useful for computer geeks - **Name**: a short name, code, number, or label to identify the object for a human. If you had to annotate the object on a drawing or a schedule, the **Name** is what you should see. For example, a pump **Name** might be ``P-10-A``. - **Description**: typically the longer form of the name, written to be descriptive and readable for humans. For example a pump **Description** might be ``Water Suction Pump``. - **Tag**: this is an ID that may link it back to another BIM application. For example if the IFC model was produced using Revit or ArchiCAD, it might hold the Revit or ArchiCAD element ID. - **Predefined Type**: A further level of classification to be read in conjunction with the IFC class. .. warning:: Some IFC models have poor quality data. For example, if the **Name** of a Window doesn't match the window code (e.g. ``W01``) you see on a drawing, the project manager has clearly not put enough effort. Shame on them. **Properties** are other data associated with the object. Every project will have different **Properties** depending on what information they want to store. Each **Property** has a name and a value, and are grouped into **Property Sets**. Each **Property Set** also has a name. You can find **Properties** in the **Object Property Sets** subpanel. .. image:: images/psets.png Some very common **Properties** are standardised by international BIM standards. For example, the load bearing **Property** of a beam should always be called ``LoadBearing``. If a **Property Set** is part of the international standard, it has a prefix of ``Pset_``, like ``Pset_BeamCommon``. If you see a **Property Set** without the ``Pset_`` prefix, it is a custom property defined by the author of the IFC model. .. tip:: It's important to distinguish between **Properties** that are part of the standard compared to custom ones. When **Properties** are standardised, it makes it easy to manage data. So if you need to isolate all ``LoadBearing`` elements, you now know exactly where to look. **Quantities** are very similar to properties. They also have a name and a value, and are grouped into **Quantity Sets**. Similarly, there are also common quantities defined as part of the international standard, denoted by the prefix ``Qto_``. This prefix is short for "Quantity Take-Off". You can find **Quantities** in the **Object Quantity Sets** subpanel. .. image:: images/qtos.png Finding the location of objects ------------------------------- Every object in the built environment has a location in the world. For example, a chair will be located in a space, and a wall is typically located in a building storey. You've already seen this hierarchy of spaces in the **Outliner** panel, where an IFC project is broken down into site, building, storeys, and spaces. Sometimes, objects may have multiple relevant locations, such as a multi-storey column which can be related to multiple building storeys. Even in these cases, IFC enforces one location to be its primary location, known as its **Spatial Container**. If you click on any object, you can see its location in the **Spatial Container** subpanel in the **Object Information** tab. Press the **Select Icon** to select all objects that are in the same location. .. image:: images/spatial-container.png Checking construction types --------------------------- Almost everything in the built environment will have a **Construction Type**. For example, an architect will specify a door type for every door in a project. You can see a list of **Construction Types** in the **Outliner** panel in the **Types** collection. For example, if the architect has a wall types schedule with the wall type names of ``WT01``, ``WT02``, and ``WT03``, you should see three **IfcWallType** objects with those same names in the **Outliner**. You can click on these types to see more details about them in the **Properties** panel. .. image:: images/outliner-types.png When selecting an object, you can also see its construction type in **Object Information** under the **Type** subpanel. You can press the **Select Icon** to select all objects that are of the same **Construction Type**. You can use the hide and isolate hotkeys to quickly view them in the model. .. image:: images/properties-types.png A **Construction Type** defines properties that are common to all occurrences of that type. For example, if a wall type specifies a fire rating property, then all walls of that wall type will inherit that fire rating too. A **Construction Type** may also specify geometry or geometric rules that are common to all occurrences of the type. For example, a pump type will define the geometry of the pump, so all occurrences of that pump will have the same geometry. You can visually inspect types in isolation to the rest of the model. Types are hidden by default, so first enable the visibility of the **Types** collection in the **Outliner** by pressing the **Visibility Icon**. Then, select a type, and click on ``View > Local View > Toggle Local View`` (hotkey ``/``) in the **Viewport**. Toggle the view to see the entire model again. .. image:: images/type-local-view.png .. note:: Only **Construction Types** where the geometry is exactly the same for all occurrences will specify geometry. When the geometry varies based on the occurrence (such as a wall, which varies based on the wall length), the **Construction Type** will typically have no geometry. Filtering by materials ---------------------- Everything in the built environment is made from a physical raw **Material** resources. For example, a **Material** might be blockwork. Another **Material** might be in-situ concrete. **Materials** are grouped into categories like steel, concrete, brick, block, and so on. We can see a list of **Materials** used in the project in the **Materials** subpanel in the **Geometry and Materials** tab. Press the **Select Icon** to select all objects that are of the selected material. .. image:: images/materials.png Taking simple measurements -------------------------- The simplest form of measurement is the one that's already taken for you. The **Viewing attributes and properties** section describes how to view pre-calculated **Quantities**. Sometimes, you may wish to take manual measurements yourself. You can view the overall X, Y, and Z dimensions of the currently selected object in the **Derived Coordinates** subpanel in the **Geometry and Materials** tab. .. image:: images/dimensions.png Another way to manually measure from two points is to use the **Measure** tool. First, press the **Snap Icon** to enable snapping. Then choose snap targets in the **Snap Menu** in the top middle section of the **Viewport** panel. .. image:: images/snap-targets.png .. tip:: It is recommended to choose multiple snap targets, like **Vertex**, **Edge**, and **Face**, and **Edge Center**. You can use the ``Shift`` key to select multiple snap targets. For example, the **Face** snap target means that your measurements will automatically snap to the nearest object's surface. Now that you have configured snapping, press the **Measure Tool Icon** on the left of the **Viewport** panel. **Click** and **Drag** in the 3D viewport to take a measurement. A circle will appear guiding the first point of your measurement. While **Dragging**, press the ``X`` key to lock the measurement line along the X axis. Alternatively, press the ``Y`` or ``Z`` key to lock the measurement line along the Y or Z axis. Let go of the mouse to finish your measurement. .. image:: images/measure-tool.png To delete a measurement, just click on one point of the measurement, and press the ``Delete`` key. You can also click and drag the ends of your measurement lines to measure to another location. What else is there? ------------------- Congratulations, and welcome to the digital built environment! We've barely scratched the surface of the data and relationships available in an IFC model. We've yet to cover documents and drawings, clearance zones, tasks, cost items, structural loads and forces, analytical models, distribution system connectivity, energy analysis, rendering textures, and so much more. Our built environment and its relationships are vast and complex and it is exciting that you can join us on its digital journey! Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions. - `OSArch live chat `__ - `OSArch community forum `__