IFC Export

[Anonymous]

Hello!

We are using Civil3D 2018.2 for BIM and we want to classifiy all Elements via "Classification". 

Unfortunately the objects we have are 3D solids, which can't be used with "Classification".

So we thought about using Mass Elements, but here we got some Errors while converting. e.g. Missing faces, wrong Connections, etc.

Has someone found a workaround to make "Classification" work with 3D solids, or is there maybe an enhanced IFC Exporter somewhere (like for Revit).

Any help is welcome 🙂

KR Philipp

[MikeEvansUK]

I'm not entirely sure what elements you are trying to classify?

Someone may correct me but from Civil3d nothing [Civil3d entities] can be passed & classified to IFC apart from alignments.

Mass elements as 3d solids be classed as solids and be imported as generic mass elements.

Pipes & manholes, surfaces & other civil entities do not have an entry in IFC so you cant classify them.

There is however hope, use the Architectural object property sets to define specific entries. an example is pipe and manhole information. Add a specific text entry for "Pipe" and another for "structure".

When you export the IFC athough it will be a mass, this information goes as IFC text / note entries and can be imported into Revit as shared parameters via a file.

You can then see "Pipe" and "Structure" in the shared parameters of each object, quite how you can use this in Revit is beyond my understanding however my collegues use the name & level tags to coordinate & discuss issues.

Not going into it here but if you search here and in Revit you will find a post by me outlining the workflow.

M

[MikeEvansUK]

Oh, by the way..

People need educating on this BIM. its coordination not modelling.

Revit is not BIM.

Civil3d is not BIM.

These two products (Revit more than Civils) allow data to be exported in such a way to pass details between other building packages.

The only true BIM coordination packages are those like Navisworks which will import any file with the majority of the information attached and enable simple coordination.

For Reference see GIS (or what I would love to term CIM - CivilsInfrastructureModelling). They have been doing this for years to manage assetts but predominantly in 2d. There are no limits in classification you can make anything up and pass into different types of file for anyone to use.

In the process of Bim (the coordination process) we are only staled by limitations in software compatibility such as IFC.

One day it will probably become CIM (ConstructionInformationManagement) but only when the products can talk correctly to each other.

M

[Anonymous]

I work as an civil engineer in tunneling.

This is why we have to export tunnels, roads, bridges and/or "stone walls", anchorage, etc.

We model them in Civil 3D as 3D solids and give them attributes and then export them to ifc (2x3).

I know there is no IfcTunnel or IfcRoad licensed yet, etc but this is not my goal.

My goal is to use the classification system (which is only usable for walls, mass elements, etc but not for 3D solids) to give our Client an ifc-file where there are already some filters set (without having to modify and/or add Classification Rules  via Naviswork/Solibri, etc).

[MikeEvansUK]

Perhaps a change of logic. Have you heard of Dynamo for Bridges?

Model the corridor to check it works / feasibility etc.

Export the alignment & profile(s) using reports.

Import the alignment & profile using dynamo bridges then using a generic mass family (possibly customised) with typical sections you can model the tunnel / bridge in Revit.

I believe this would be a better workflow for this sort of thing than trying to develop solely in Civil3d.

Search for the dynamo tools and speak to the others. You could then send them an alignment / profile report and a drawing full of critical / intermediate sections.

Using the tools they could turn this into an actual Revit model.

I have tried this but I don't do revit so I got lost very quickly.

M

[Anonymous]

Yes, I heard of it and yes it could be done, but....

just because Revit can classify almost any object doens't mean we should use it for modeling stuff,

because not only Roads, Tunnels, etc need to be modelled but also surfaces and stuff like this.

These surfaces also heavily rely on the alignment and also on the surrounding roads, etc.

Which makes modeling in Civil 3D easier, because Civil 3D can make connections (to almost any element and if not possible you can add any smart element there -> autofeature lines, etc)

(We only use Revit for Buildings, etc)

So from my point of view switching to Revit just because of this is not logical.

But still good advice but for other people or heavily parametric stuff.

[Anonymous]

No other suggestions or Solutions?

[albert.lagumbayan]

There is a workaround I discovered on how to classify 3D solids.

What you do is export your 3Dsolids drawing into and IFC first, then click the Civil 3D top most left icon which is the "A" and from there click Open then select IFC. Open the IFC file that you've exported from your 3D solids drawing, you will notice once you opened the file that it has an Xref attached, open that Xref and you will see that the 3D solids you've exported earlier has been converted to Multi-View Blocks.

Multi-View blocks can be IFC classified but for some reason 3D solids cannot which is a bit weird if you ask me.

And By the way, you can only classify those Multi-View blocks to IfcCovering. If you try to classify it to let's say IfcCivilElements, it will be exported into BuildingProxyElement.

Hope that helps.