Plugin for Importing .ifc into 3ds Max

[Anonymous]

Dears,

Please support Me in order to import the .ifc file format into 3ds Max 2019.

The below link has the plugin Still  Max Version 2015, So advise me from where I can download the Plugin for Max Version 2019.

http://www.ifcopenshell.org/ifcmax.html

[michaelsonbritt]

Hello,

See link here in A360 drive.  I contacted the developer, downloaded the source, and rebuilt for 3ds Max 2019.  It's an open source project.  Unzip into your Plugins folder, C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2019\Plugins

Not fully tested.  The build required hacking, and may not have built correctly.  But it loads in 3ds Max 2019 and is able to import an .IFC file without crashing, one both my Win10Pro and Win7Pro dev machines. Hopefully the developer will post updates on the official page in the coming weeks.

Some notes, if you're interested to build the IfcMax plugin (IfcMax.dli):

1. Download the git repository from https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell.git
2. IMPORTANT: Open the file \cmake\CMakeLists.txt and change the line 33, OPTION(BUILD_IFCMAX ...), toggling  from OFF to ON
3. Build tested in Windows10 Professional.  You'll need  PowerShell 5.0, which is native in Windows10, or it's extra install in Windows7
4. Build tested with Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition.  Ensure this is installed properly.  See attached screenshots.  During install, ensure you have the same items selected in the right column, including Git, Python 2 and 3, CMake, VC++ 2015 tools (so you can compile Visual Studio 2015 projects in 2017), and the Windows 10 SDK 10.0.10586 ... last two are IMPORTANT for 3ds Max
5. From a command prompt (Developer Command Prompt for VS2017), go the \win directory in the source code, and run:
           build-all.cmd "Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64"

6. Build issue:  If you have a message about a patch not applying correctly, edit the file \win\build-deps.cmd and delete the clause at line 289 starting with ":: Patching always blindly would trigger a rebuild each time"
7. Build issue: If you have messages "LNK2038: mismatch detected for 'RuntimeLibrary': value 'MD_DynamicRelease' doesn't match value 'MT_StaticRelease'", this is because the OCCT project mistakenly builds with linker option Runtime Library->"Multi-threaded DLL (/MD)" instead of "Multi-threaded (/MT)".  To fix this:
   • Open \deps\occt_git\build-vs2015-x64\OCCT.sln in Visual Studio, then select all projects in the Solution Explorer, and right-click->Properties to change the option, and rebuild.  This takes awhile.
   • Afterwards, copy all the .lib files from  \deps\occt_git\build-vs2015-x64\win64\vc14\libi into \deps-vs2015-x64-installed\opencascade-7.3.0\win64\lib
   • Open \build-vs2015-x64\ifcmax\IfcMax.vcxproj in Visual Studio, and rebuild.  DON'T rebuild from command line; it will clobber your work from the previous step.
   • This is a good time to edit the IfcMax project settings to point at the correct paths for the 3ds Max SDK include and lib folders, if you didn't already hack the \src\ifcmax\CMakeLists.txt for this.
8. Build issue: You might want to hack \src\ifcmax\CMakeLists.txt to point at hard-coded paths to your 3ds Max SDK include and lib folders.
9. Build issue:  There was another error that required creating a "bini" folder next to a "libi" folder somewhere and copy some build PDBs into it.  I didn't write down the details.
10. Build issue: You might need to modify some cmake file or other settings to ensure everything builds as RelWithDebInfo instead of as Debug.  I didn't write down the details.

This is NOT an exhaustive list of build steps.  But, hopefully it saves you some troubleshooting.

Happy modelling!

Michaelson Britt

[jandrewg]

thanks for this, I ended up testing this for a co-worker of mine that was having a problem with flipped faces/normals after he had taken an ifc and exported as an fbx.  This imported the ifc without any errors.  A warning to others it did take a while so for my test I hit import and grabbed  a cup of coffee. If you don't like coffee maybe some tea?

[michaelsonbritt]

Thank you for the success story!  It is true the importer is a bit slow in current form, but glad to hear it worked finally.

Would you care to share any information about your use case?  For example, what other tool is creating the .ifc files, and what operations are you performing in 3ds Max?  My current understanding is that IFC is commonly used in Europe, on the engineering side of projects.  But I'm not sure whether it's popular in other regions and market segments, and whether it's common to produce rendering and visualization of engineering data.  Thank you for any insight!

Regards,

Michaelson Britt

[Anonymous]

Dear Mr. Michael,

Please can you able to provide the same Plugin for Version 2020.2.

[michaelsonbritt]

Would you care to share any information about your use case?  For example, what tool is creating the .ifc files which you're importing?  What are you doing with the data after it's imported to 3ds Max?  And what geographical region / industry sector are you working in.  Thank you for any insight!

Michaelson Britt

[Anonymous]

Dear Mr. Michael,

I am working in Steel Fabrication and Erection industries and here we are using the Software called STRMIS (BIM), in Which I can able to export the model from (.bswx) to (.ifc).  Since I want to do some animation woks in 3ds Max I need this plugin.

Sorry for the delay reply.

[Anonymous]

Has anybody had any success adapting this for Max 2020?  Need it to open some client supplied files and not in a position to try editing the source code (even though I'd like to give that a go).  Previously had this working in Max 2016 but can no longer license that version as it's "too old" 🙄

[michaelsonbritt]

Hello,
See link here in A360 drive.  Rebuilt for 3ds Max 2020.  It's an open source project.  Unzip and find 3dsMax2020\IfcMax.dli, then copy that file into your Plugins folder, C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2020\Plugins
 
Not fully tested.  Built using Visual Studio 2015 but the recommended compiler is Visual Studio 2017 for 3ds Max 2020.  Nevertheless, it loads and is able to import an .IFC file without crashing, one my Win10Pro dev machine.
 
See build notes above, and in the included README file, if you are interested to build the IfcMax plugin (IfcMax.dli).
Special thanks to developer Thomas Krijnen for this open source project and support.

Happy modelling!
Michaelson Britt

[Anonymous]

Thanks sooo much for this.

[Anonymous]

Dear Mr. Michael,

Thank you very much for your support, for sending me this IFC  File.

Regards,

D.Suresh.

[Anonymous]

Hello, do you have a plugin for max2018, can you provide a copy, thank you very much

[Anonymous]

Updated link to IfcOpenShell download page:

http://ifcopenshell.org/ifcmax

You can thank me later.

[Anonymous]

Hi @michaelsonbritt,

It looks like the A360 link for the 2019 file has expired. Would you be willing to upload again and share the link?

Thank you very much!

[michaelsonbritt]

Hello,
See link here on Dropbox.  IfcMax built for 3ds Max 2019 and 2020.  So much for A360, this link should be permanent.

Regards,
Michaelson Britt

[roger.olofsson]

Thanks for the rebuilt. I have had an old copy of 2016 on my machine just for the ifc import.

Roger

[Anonymous]

Dear Mr. Michael,

Please can you able to provide the same Plugin for Version 2020.

The link is not working for me.

Thank you so much.

[spacefrog_]

Did you try the dropox link he posted ? Works perfectly fine for me

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nzr6el8impk6lbd/AABnyPL9CXv2o87iivDrnnLga?dl=0

[Anonymous]

Thank you sooo much!! 🙂

[robin.fosse]

Thanks!
Works in 2021 too