IfcOpenShell

IfcOpenShell is an open source (LGPL) software library for working with the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) file format. Currently supported IFC releases are IFC2x3 TC1 and IFC4 Add1.

For more information, see

• http://ifcopenshell.org
• http://academy.ifcopenshell.org

Prerequisites

• Git
• CMake (2.6 or newer)
• Windows: Visual Studio 2008 or newer with C++ toolset, MinGW not supported currently
• *nix: GCC 4.7 or newer, or Clang (any version should work, but not tested)

Dependencies

• Boost
• Open Cascade - optional, but required for building IfcGeom (official or community edition)
  For converting IFC representation items into BRep solids and tesselated meshes
• ICU - optional
  For handling code pages and Unicode in the parser
• OpenCOLLADA - optional
  For IfcConvert to be able to write tessellated Collada (.dae) files
• SWIG and Python - optional
  For building the IfcOpenShell Python interface and the Blender add-on
• 3ds Max SDK - optional
  For building the 3ds Max plug-in. All recent versions of 3ds Max (2014 and newer) are 64-bit only, so a 64-bit installation is assumed.

Building IfcOpenShell

Compiling on Windows

The preferred way to fetch and build this project's dependencies is to use the build scripts in win/ folder. See win/readme.md for more information. Instructions in a nutshell (assuming Visual Studio 2015 x64 environment variables set):

> git clone https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell.git
> cd IfcOpenShell\win
> build-deps.cmd
> run-cmake.bat

You can now open and build the solution file in Visual Studio:

> ..\build-vs2015-x64\IfcOpenShell.sln

As the scripts default to using the RelWithDebInfo configuration, and a freshly created solution by CMake defaults to Debug, make sure to switch the used build configuration. Build the INSTALL project (right-click -> Project Only) to deploy the headers and binaries into a single location if wanted/needed.

Alternatively, one can use the utility batch files to build and install the project easily from the command-line:

> build-ifcopenshell.cmd
> install-ifcopenshell.cmd

Compiling on *nix

There might be an Open CASCADE package in your operating system's software repository. If not, you will need to compile Open CASCADE yourself. See http://opencascade.org.

For building the IfcPython wrapper, SWIG and Python development are required.

Additionally, on Ubuntu (and possibly other linux flavors) the following steps install some of the prerequisites:

$ sudo apt-get install git swig cmake gcc g++ libftgl-dev libtbb2 libtbb-dev libboost-all-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libfreetype6-dev
$ git clone https://github.com/tpaviot/oce.git
$ cd oce
$ mkdir build && cd build
$ cmake ..
$ make
$ sudo make install   

To build IfcOpenShell please take the following steps:

$ cd /path/to/IfcOpenShell/cmake
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
Optionally:
    $ OCC_INCLUDE_PATH="/path/to/OpenCASCADE/include"
    $ OCC_LIBRARY_PATH="/path/to/OpenCASCADE/lib"
    $ export OCC_INCLUDE_PATH
    $ export OCC_LIBRARY_PATH
$ cmake ../
$ make

If all worked out correctly you can now use IfcOpenShell. See the examples below.

Usage examples

Invoking IfcConvert from the command line

$ wget ftp://ftp.dds.no/pub/ifc/Munkerud/Munkerud_hus6_BE.zip
$ unzip Munkerud_hus6_BE.zip
$ ./IfcConvert Munkerud_hus6_BE.ifc
$ less Munkerud_hus6_BE.obj

Using the IfcOpenShell Python interface

$ wget -O duplex.zip http://projects.buildingsmartalliance.org/files/?artifact_id=4278
$ unzip duplex.zip
$ python
>>> import ifcopenshell
>>> f = ifcopenshell.open("Duplex_A_20110907_optimized.ifc")
>>>
>>> # Accessing entity instances by type:
>>> f.by_type("ifcwall")[:2]
[#91=IfcWallStandardCase('2O2Fr$t4X7Zf8NOew3FL9r',#1,'Basic Wall:Interior - Partition (92mm Stud):144586',$,'Basic Wall:Interior - Partition (92mm Stud):128360',#5198,#18806,'144586'), #92=IfcWallStandardCase('2O2Fr$t4X7Zf8NOew3FLIE',#1,'Basic Wall:Interior - Partition (92mm Stud):143921',$,'Basic Wall:Interior - Partition (92mm Stud):128360',#5206,#18805,'143921')]
>>> wall = _[0]
>>> len(wall) # number of EXPRESS attributes
8
>>>
>>> # Accessing EXPRESS attributes by name:
>>> wall.GlobalId 
'2O2Fr$t4X7Zf8NOew3FL9r'
>>> wall.Name = "My wall"
>>> wall.NonExistingAttr
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File ".\ifcopenshell.py", line 14, in __getattr__
    except: raise AttributeError("entity instance of type '%s' has no attribute'%s'"%(self.wrapped_data.is_a(), name)) from None
AttributeError: entity instance of type 'IfcWallStandardCase' has no attribute 'NonExistingAttr'
>>> wall.GlobalId = 3
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File ".\ifcopenshell.py", line 26, in __setattr__
    self[self.wrapped_data.get_argument_index(key)] = value
  File ".\ifcopenshell.py", line 30, in __setitem__
    self.wrapped_data.set_argument(idx, entity_instance.map_value(value))
  File ".\ifc_wrapper.py", line 118, in <lambda>
    set_argument = lambda self,x,y: self._set_argument(x) if y is None else self
._set_argument(x,y)
  File ".\ifc_wrapper.py", line 114, in _set_argument
    def _set_argument(self, *args): return _ifc_wrapper.entity_instance__set_argument(self, *args)
RuntimeError: INT is not a valid type for 'GlobalId'
>>> # Creating new entity instances
>>> f.createIfcCartesianPoint(Coordinates=(1.0,1.5,2.0))
#27530=IfcCartesianPoint((1.,1.5,2.))
>>> 
>>> # Working with GlobalId attributes:
>>> import uuid
>>> ifcopenshell.guid.compress(uuid.uuid1().hex)
'3x4C8Q_6qHuv$P$FYkANRX'
>>> new_guid = _
>>> owner_hist = f.by_type("IfcOwnerHistory")[0]
>>> new_wall = f.createIfcWallStandardCase(new_guid, owner_hist, None, None, Tag='my_tag')
>>> new_wall.ObjectType = ''
>>> new_wall.ObjectPlacement = new_wall.Representation = None
>>>
>>> # Accessing entity instances by instance id or GlobalId:
>>> f[92]
#92=IfcWallStandardCase('2O2Fr$t4X7Zf8NOew3FLIE',#1,'Basic Wall:Interior - Partition (92mm Stud):143921',$,'Basic Wall:Interior - Partition (92mm Stud):128360',#5206,#18805,'143921')
>>> f['2O2Fr$t4X7Zf8NOew3FLIE']
#92=IfcWallStandardCase('2O2Fr$t4X7Zf8NOew3FLIE',#1,'Basic Wall:Interior - Partition (92mm Stud):143921',$,'Basic Wall:Interior - Partition (92mm Stud):128360',#5206,#18805,'143921')
>>>
>>> # Writing IFC-SPF files to disk:
>>> f.write("out.ifc")