Component Name in IFC

[squall_tmo]

Hi,

I'm trying to export an IFC file to a cost-estimation software.
I'd like to keep elements geometry, to ease filtering elements by ARCHICAD Properties, but when I do this way Component quantities are listed like "Component1.Projected Area...", "Component1. Volume...", "Component2.Projected Area..." and so on.

Is there a way to see the material name?
Something like "Concrete.Projected Area.." instead of "Component1.Projected Area.."

Many thanks for you help!

[squall_tmo]

Great!

Many many thanks again Laszlo!

[Minh Nguyen]

Hi,

Thank you very much for your question! This was a very complex topic, it took us quite some time to get to the bottom of this.

For IFC4, we've implemented a solution that connects Building Material information with the different Components of the element. This solution has even become an IFC4 standard so that all IFC4 models should work like this. However, Solibri can't handle material information with their IFC4 import, and in general, we can say that Solibri's IFC4 compatibility is not very stable at the moment. There is no such thing as IFC4 import certification either, which makes the use of this format still a bit limited in most of the cases.

Currently, the best option is to use IFC2x3 and explode these elements into Building Element Parts. This way, the parts will preserve material and can be used for Information Takeoff.

Regarding Solibri issues, please always use the latest version as they are constantly developing and improving their IFC4 support. Furthermore, we are going to let them know about this issue so that they will be aware whenever they come to a point to implement this material-component connection and come up with a solution for this matter.

I hope this information will answer your question! Feel free to ask me again if you have any concerns about it!

Thank you very much, and have a great day!

Best regards,
Minh

[squall_tmo]

Hi Minh,

Many many thanks to you and your colleague for your work!
I'm really glad you to do this work that quickly: you are really great!

Waiting for the new release!

Best regards

[Minh Nguyen]

Hello,

Thank you, too, for raising your concern regarding this! We are aware of such issues thanks to your comments! I hope that it will be addressed soon.

Have a great day!

Best regards,
Minh

[squall_tmo]

mnguyen wrote:
Hi,

Thank you very much for your question! This was a very complex topic, it took us quite some time to get to the bottom of this.

For IFC4, we've implemented a solution that connects Building Material information with the different Components of the element. This solution has even become an IFC4 standard so that all IFC4 models should work like this. However, Solibri can't handle material information with their IFC4 import, and in general, we can say that Solibri's IFC4 compatibility is not very stable at the moment. There is no such thing as IFC4 import certification either, which makes the use of this format still a bit limited in most of the cases.

...

Best regards,
Minh

Hi Minh!

I'm afraid to disturb you, but I tried some other IFC4 exportation and, even with AC24, the result looks the same...

Did you implemented the feature in ARCHICAD 24? And how does it work?

Many thanks for you attention!

[Minh Nguyen]

Hello,

Thank you for the question!

Could you help me to clarify a bit more about what you would like to achieve here?
As I can see in the previous conversation, the issue was with Solibri's IFC4 compatibility. Are you still having it with Solibri?

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
Minh

[vdentello]

mnguyen wrote:
Hello,

Thank you for the question!

Could you help me to clarify a bit more about what you would like to achieve here?
As I can see in the previous conversation, the issue was with Solibri's IFC4 compatibility. Are you still having it with Solibri?

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
Minh

Regarding Component Quantities, There's an issue in Archicad Exporting logic. Whenever you opt to "Explode" all compoments to Building Element Parts, walls that were not composites in Archicad will STILL bring a "Component 1." Prefix before area.

The result of this is that you can in no way add up similar materials in solibri if you happend to model it in a case where it didn't need a composite.

Why? Because the property from Building Element Parts is called "Area" and Archicad will name properties from Elements that had a single element as "Component 1.Area" even though they don't have a Component 2.

[Minh Nguyen]

vdentello wrote:
Regarding Component Quantities, There's an issue in Archicad Exporting logic. Whenever you opt to "Explode" all compoments to Building Element Parts, walls that were not composites in Archicad will STILL bring a "Component 1." Prefix before area.

The result of this is that you can in no way add up similar materials in solibri if you happend to model it in a case where it didn't need a composite.

Why? Because the property from Building Element Parts is called "Area" and Archicad will name properties from Elements that had a single element as "Component 1.Area" even though they don't have a Component 2.

Hello,

Thank you for sharing the issue and I am very sorry about the experience!

Unfortunately, this is currently a limitation of the workflow. We are working on how to better address this in the future releases of Archicad. What you said is totally valid: when the element is exploded (and for Basic elements), we shouldn't have a prefix at all, since it doesn't make sense to use Component1 when there's no other components.

We have raised this issue again to the development team, hopefully, this behavior will change soon! Thank you very much for your understanding, and once again I am very sorry for the inconvenience!

Best regards,
Minh

[squall_tmo]

Hi Minh!

Many thanks for answering!

I hope this "feature" will be developed soon, because QTO with external software is quite impossible right now by using IFC4.

Thanks again!

Matteo

[wjakubowski]

Hi! 
I've got additional question to this topic. Is there a way to do the same in AC22? 'Explode all elements into parts....' with 'Material Preservation'?
For now, we've got 'Component 1-5' etc.