IFC Release
IFC4 Add2 Release
Official landing page to publish the official IFC4 Addendum 2 release. The IFC4 Add2 is published on 15th July 2016 as a buildingSMART Final Standard.
What is new in IFC Addendnum 2 ?
The main purposes of the IFC4 Addendum 2 are the improvement of the IFC4 Add 1specification documentation and the necessary enhancements of the schema and property sets that resulted from the ongoing pilot implementations of the first two Model View Definitions, the Reference View and the Design Transfer View. The main change related to improvements to the tessellated geometry for the Reference View, and the advanced boundary representation geometry for the Design Transfer View. All changes made are downward compatible.
Two additional schema enhancements have been added after intensive discussions and considerations: new subtype of tessellated geometry enabling planar and polygonal boundaries with inner loops new elementary surfaces and intersection curves for more stable definitions of advanced b-rep's (NURBS) The documentation format has been further improved for readability. More interlinked definitions, now including property and quantity sets, ifcXML files for all examples, in addition to IFC files, etc.; The use of concept templates (chapter 4) improved, updated to Version 1.1 of the mvdXML specification and including the snippet of the mvdXML for each template; The use of concepts at relevant IFC Entities, including the snippets of the mvdXML specification for each concept root, optimized for documentation of the requested functionalities; NOTE This part is currently still experimental and focuses on documentation of concepts, it requires further improvements before being used for automatic IFC file validation purposes; An overview of all changes is provided »here« A detailed listing of all issues resolved for the beta release is shown »here«
Anticipated use of IFC4 Addendum 2
- IFC4 Add 2 for MVD development
the official Model View Definitions used in the IFC4 certification will be based on the Addendum 2. They will have the version number 1.1. IFC4 Design Transfer View V1.1 IFC4 Reference View V1.1 both MVD's are updated now to use the Add 2
- IFC4 Add 2 under ISO16739
a new work item for a first Addition of ISO16739 under the ISO59/SC13 Joint Working Group 12 (JWG12) has been approved. the goal is to use IFC4 Add2 as the source of ISO16739 Addition 1
IFC4 Add1 Release
Official landing page to publish the official IFC4 Addendum 1 release. it is a buildingSMART Final Standard.
What is new in IFC4 Addendum 1 ?
The main purposes of the IFC4 Addendum 1 are the improvement of the specification documentation and the necessary enhancements of the schema that resulted from the pilot implementations and the first Model View definitions. All changes made are downward compatible.
The documentation format has been further improved for readability. A language independent section to describe the entities and types with their attributes and relationships is now available and separate to the EXPRESS and XSD code; The use of concept templates (chapter 4) and concepts is greatly enhanced, based on the mvdXML specification to enable better MVD developments and validation; Minor schema enhancements reflect the experience from pilot implementations of the IFC4 enhancements; One additional schema enhancement has been added after intensive discussions and considerations, a simplified and far more compact definition of poly lines with arc segments See the following »summary« of the rationale behind adding this additional geometry definition An overview of all changes is provided »here« A detailed listing of all issues resolved for the beta release is shown »here«
- IFC4 Add 1 for MVD development
the first official Model View Definition for IFC4 will be based on the Addendum 1. Therefore all upcoming buildingSMART International IFC Certification are based on IFC4 Addendum 1. see IFC4 Reference View and IFC4 Design Transfer View as the first two bSI MVD's based on IFC4 Add1.
- IFC4 Add 1 under ISO16739
it is planned to create a new work item for a first Amendment of ISO16739 under the ISO59/SC13 Joint Working Group 12 (JWG12). the goal would be to approve the same enhancements as ISO16739 Amendment 1
IFC4 Release
Official landing page to publish the current IFC4 release. It contains the downloads of the IFC4 specification and the EXPRESS and XSD schema. Additional links to IFC4 related resources will be published here as well.
NOTE: This release has been superseeded by the IFC4 Addendum 1 release.
Lastest updates
A minor update for IFC4 has been published taking into account the experiences and feedback from the pilot implementations and the first Model View definitions. Since 10.07.2015 the IFC4 Addendum 1 is a buildingSMART Final Standard and superseeds the IFC4 Final release.
We recommend to you to subscribe to the ifc4 mailing list that is hosted »here« (use this link to subscribe and maintain your account), after subscription, you will receive an automatic notification with the mailing address and you will receive further announcements and information.
What is new in IFC 4 ?
The following presentation, held at the official release date, shows the major highlights of IFC4.
IFC4 - What is new - the major highlights
- IFC4 at a glance
enhances the capability of the IFC specification in its main architectural, building service and structural elements with new geometric, parametric and other features enables numerous new BIM workflows – including 4D and 5D model exchanges, product libraries, BIM to GIS interoperability, enhanced thermal simulations and sustainability assessments improves readability and ease of access to the documentation with numerous implementation concepts and fully linked examples contains ifcXML4 schema, fully integrated into the IFC specification in addition to the EXPRESS schema is fully integrated with new mvdXML technology and allows easy definition of data validation services for IFC4 data submissions corrects technical problems found since the release of the IFC2x3 enables the extension of IFC to infrastructure and other parts of the built environment
- Why implement IFC4 ?
Keep your customers happy by improving your IFC support Take advantage of the technical improvements and consistency of IFC4 Remember, it is now possible to formally support model view definitions and validate them Base your development of a fully documented IFC4 Model View Definition MVD thanks to mvdXML formal specification Benefit from IFC the easy way with Simple ifcXML Use multi-lingual property definitions linked to the buildingSMART data dictionary to customize your products Broaden your IFC support with the new IFC4 objects and workflows – it will help you to attract new customers Reach a wider market with IFC4 – as a full ISO standard, it will become a pre-condition for tenders in some markets
IFC2x3 TC Release
Release Notes
The purpose of this technical corrigendum is to correct several known minor technical problems found since the release of the IFC2x Edition 3 specification and to improve the documentation generally.
Technical corrections include the deletion, modification, or addition of a number of where rules in the EXPRESS schema. As well, a number of functions in the EXPRESS schema have been modified and a new one added. Several derived attributes have been removed from the EXPRESS schema because of ambiguity that could not be resolved satisfactorily.
The modification of the defined type IfcCompoundPlaneAngleMeasure to allow optionally for the expression of angles to a fraction of a second is the only change of the EXPRESS schema that is reflected in the exchange file. This change therefore affects the specification (and existing software implementations) minimally but is an important first step in bringing the IFC and geospatial information specifications into alignment.
Clarifications have been introduced to the accompanying documentation in a number of places. All these changes have been made to realize the intent of the specification developers and to remove difficulties that implementers were having with data creation and validation. The IFC2x3 to IFC2x3 TC1 change log should be consulted for more details.
Purpose of the Technical Corrigendum
The main purpose of the technical corrigendum is to reflect the required improvements of the documentation that became evident during the implementation if this IFC release. It mainly relates to ambiguities, potentially erroneous explanations, missing guidance on using certain classes and geometric use cases or similar. It is not meant to change the schema that would require a recompilation of the toolboxes used for implementation, nor the *.ifc exchange files, so that files remain upwards and downwards compatible.
IFC2x3 Release
The IFC2x3 release has been published in Feb 2006 as a successor of IFC2x2 Edition 2. It soon has been established as the common ground of IFC implementations, combining previous IFC2x and IFC2x2 implementation threads. IFC2x3 is mainly a quality improvement release not adding scope but refinements on top of IFC2x2.
Since July 2007 the IFC2x3 release has been superseded by the IFC2x3 Technical Corrigendum 1 - a fully upward and downward compatible corrigendum with mainly documentation improvements. It is strongly recommended to download and use IFC2x3 Technical Corrigendum 1 from now on.
IFC2x2 Release
The initial IFC2x2 release has been published in Mai 2003 as the first successor of the new IFC platform IFC2x. It introduced many extensions to better support the building service and structural domain, e.g. it contains the first IFC sub model for structural analysis, and many extensions for electrical, plumbing and building control definitions. Also the inclusion of 2D content within the model space of a BIM model (line, text, symbols) and presentation information (color, hatching, surface properties, like shading and rendering) are new in IFC2x2.
Issues with the initial IFC2x2 release have been fixed within the IFC2x2 Addendum 1 release, published in July 2004. The required fixes led to an upward compatible schema change. The IFC2x2 Addendum 1 release had been recommended for implementation and certification.
Since July 2007 the IFC2x2 release (as all previous releases of IFC) has been superseded by the IFC2x3 Technical Corrigendum 1 - it is strongly recommended to download and use IFC2x3 Technical Corrigendum 1 from now on.
IFC2x Release
The initial IFC2x release has been published in Nov 2000 as the first IFC platform release. It introduced the concept of a core model and domain extensions. It had been the first IFC release that got a broader implementation base and implementations had been certified using an earlier certification program.
Issues with the initial IFC2x release have been fixed within the IFC2x Addendum 1 release, published in Nov 2001. The required fixes led to an upward compatible schema change. The IFC2x Addendum 1 release had been recommended for implementation and certification.
Since July 2007 the IFC2x release (as all previous releases of IFC) has been superseded by the IFC2x3 Technical Corrigendum 1 - it is strongly recommended to download and use IFC2x3 Technical Corrigendum 1 from now on.