With IFC being the international standard for BIM, we offer this Extension to equip your CET Designer with an option to export your drawings to IFC 2x3. The IFC Extension is downloaded and installed from the Marketplace.

What is IFC?

IFC, or Industry Foundation Classes, is the global, primary standard used to describe, share, and exchange open BIM data, i.e. construction and facilities management information.

As a file format, IFC is neutral (not the product of or favoring any particular vendor) and non-proprietary.

IFC is supported by about 150 software applications worldwide and this kind of interoperability is crucial as construction is becoming increasingly collaborative. It is registered by ISO and is an official International Standard ISO 16739-1:2018.

Advantages of IFC

• Replaces RevLink as a way for designers and architects to work together.
• Does not require an additional add-in in Autodesk Revit.
• Designers do not have to rely on having Autodesk Revit installed to verify their drawing as there are many free IFC viewers available.

How does it work in CET Designer?

The IFC Extension allows you to import an existing IFC drawing into CET Designer. On the component tab, there are two import options and one export option, which are all described below.

• Import building
• Import single level
• Export

Import building

This option imports the entire building while respecting the original positioning of objects in the file. More specifically:

• Allows import of one or more levels inside an IFC model.
• After import to CET Designer, the elevation of each level is the same as its original IFC elevation. This means that some models or levels may appear below a zero elevation.
• The model is always Locked in position when imported. To make modifications to the IFC model, you must first right-click on it and select Unlock position.

Import single level

This option imports a single level of your choosing into a block. Objects imported in the block maintain their relative positioning to the associated levels. More specifically:

• Allows import of only one selected level of an IFC model.
• In CET Designer, the selected level is always placed at a zero elevation. This will, however, not affect the export of your drawing to IFC as original IFC elevations are recovered at export.
• The level is imported to CET Designer as a block. To make modifications to the IFC model, you must first enter Block edit mode.

How to import an IFC file

To import an IFC file into CET Designer, follow these steps:

1. On the IFC Extension component tab, confirm your IFC Settings.
2. Determine which type of import is required, as described above, and click the corresponding Import button.
3. Browse for the IFC file that you want to use and click Open.
4. Select which floor(s) to import.
5. Select which objects to import. Hover over the different elements for more information on which symbols are part of that element:
   
6. Confirm by clicking the Import button.

How to export to IFC

To export a drawing from CET Designer to IFC, follow these steps:

1. In CET Designer, prepare your drawing area by ensuring that the level elevations are correct. This can be done in two ways:
   1. Create multiple levels at elevations that match your intended building or floor.
      or
   2. Import the building/floor plan as an IFC file.
2. Design your space.
3. Go to the IFC Extension component tab and click the Export button.
4. Name the file and click Save.
5. Decide on Level of Detail and Filter out elements that should not be included in the export.
6. Confirm with OK. The file is now exported to the *.ifc file type.

IFC Settings

Import Building

• Keeping the checkbox selected means that each IFC building story is mapped to a CET Designer level, i.e. multilevels are automatically created in CET Designer to represent each story that exists in the IFC file.

2D Graphics

• This slider controls the precision of 2D graphics generated during import. A higher accuracy could potentially slow down the import time.

Tools

Show IFC Details

Allows you to view the IFC data of each object in the IFC model. To use, click the button to open the dialog and then click on any object in the imported IFC model.

Find Zero Point

Use this button to zoom in on the zero point of the imported IFC model.