IFC export + VISIBILITY parameter = BUG

[fc]

Hi all, 

I find the visibility parameter a very useful option when building familiies. Unfortunately it doesn't work when exporting IFC. The elements set to not visible are visible in the IFC exports.

I also experienced IFC export issues with the use of phases.

An element created at phase 1 and set to demolished at phase 2, will not be visible in the IFC export of phase 1.

The IFC Exporter for Revit 2012 v1.0.4.msi was used when running into these issues.

Has anyone been able to have correct IFC exports using the visibility parameter ? and phases like mentioned above ?

Regards 

[sec-k]

I've noticed the same thing regarding visibility settings being ignored when exporting to IFC.  I posted about this issue in a LinkedIn group about 4 months ago and below are the responses.  Maybe it will be fixed in Revit 2013?

(Me) When I export a Revit model to IFC, it disregards any visibility settings within my families. I frequently use Yes/No parameters in families to control element visibility (on/off). When I export to IFC, all elements appear. What I see on screen is not what I'm seeing in the resulting IFC file. Is this a known issue with IFC? Is there a work around or solution? If I export to AutoCAD 3D solids, the families appear as they should.

(Bob Grosso) This is a known issue and it's on our list to correct. Unfortunately there really is no practical workaround cause the only way to not get those invisible elements to export is by deleting them first. Bob Grosso, member of Revit product management team.

(Me) Bob, is this on a high priority fix list? IFC is becoming more widely used and this throws a wrench in Revit to IFC exports.

(Bob Grosso) When we are able to get to it we should be able to distribute it via the open source project at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ifcexporter/files/ so you won't have to wait for a specific release or update.

(Rune Elias Tomren) Although it would be great to have this sorting function within Revit, there's several tools available to filter out desired components from an IFC file, likehttp://www.datacubist.com/ simplebim. I believe that Bimserver.org also have this functionality (free). So maybe you can use these tools as a workaround until this feature is up and running in Revit? Good luck 🙂  This feature is also on my wishlist for Solibri, and I hope to see it there soon.

[fc]

Thanks a lot for your answer. Editing IFC files is not an option considering that we deliver around 50 IFC files a week.

3D dwg is not exactly what you would expect delivering to your collaborators when working with Revit but that's what we do more and more... and our engineers don't like it at all. Autodesk defenitely needs to solve these issues.

I say issues because the one reported here is not the only one, 

- "export view only" (you need to download an extension to get that to work... how convenient !)

- phases (as explained in my first post)

- objects ending up at the origo...  while correctly placed in Revit

[Lance.Coffey]

Regarding the Phase issue, when exporting an IFC file, Revit currently exports the latest phase.

However, the option to take the Phase into account when exporting from Revit is being investigated by our developers for a future release.

[fc]

I am sure our engineers will be glad to hear Autodesk is investigating.....No wonder they refuse to use Revit.