Names (for IFC)

[_c_]

Hello,

I am a new AC user from the German version (but I am not German) and am struggling to find a reliable way to fetch names of things.

Is there a singular parameter that fetches all conceivable names? I can use "Building Material / Composite / Pro­file / Fill" in schedules, but cannot find this parameter in the list of properties.

[Nathan Hildebrandt]

What specific property are you wanting to fetch and where are you wanting it to export in IFC? Depending on what it is you may need to do some mapping to Archicad Properties and then mapping those properties in the IFC Translator to their corresponding IFC Property. 

[_c_]

Hello Nathan,

thank you for your answer. I am creating some IFC Translators for general and specific purposes and wish to set up a cohesive naming standard for my building parts. This is proving to be challenging anywhere I am not using composite parts, which is more or less everywhere 🙂

[_c_]

In Archicad there are no Families (Revit) or Styles (Vectorworks), so it seems to be impossible or at least rather inefficient to set up a singular parameter to be used as general ifcEntity's name in translators.

The way I am experimenting now looks rather azardous to me and am wondering if this is sensible at all: I set up a property and cascaded possible rows of calculations. See screenshot.

How do you usually access such things in Archicad? 

[Nathan Hildebrandt]

That is definitely a complex way to try and solve the problem. Personally, my template has very well structured attributes that I apply to all elements so that they can produce the same output no matter what they are modelled with. I then go into the IFC Translator - IFC Property Mapping and set up something like the following

Native Elements - Building Material / Cut Fill / Composite / Complex Profile

Doors / Windows / Skylights / Objects - Cut Fill

My template has matching BMAT / Cut Fill / Surface naming so therefore if I model a column using the native column tool I can use a BMAT and then if I use an Object I have a Cut Fill. With both being the same name by mapping them in the translator I get the same naming conventions for both columns. It also enables me to not end up with objects being automatically named by their library part name which is of no benefit to the receiver of my models. Hope this helps enough. If not I might have to record a video.

[_c_]

Are you saying that there is no other way but use Cut fill names?

We need no cut fill name to be part of the naming standard, while we wish to assemble the name from properties, if possible.

• a column would be named something involving structural usage and size,
• similar for a Beam, etc.
• A wall or slab through the Composite defining it.
• Now even starting from Profiles, this gets tricky, since we should name profiles in a similar fashion to the composites, whenever they are used as Wall or Slab respectively.

And BTW, how do I fetch the property "Native Elements - Building Material / Cut Fill / Composite / Complex Profile" while in the Properties Manager (I think it is called like that in En)? I see something like this only for Schedules, but is not accessable otherwise.

We are on AC 24, upgrading soon to 26.

[Nathan Hildebrandt]

For IFC export you are best not to use Archicad Properties. I suggest setting up your own mapping in the IFC Export Properties Mapping Translator. This way you have more access to information across all element types. Here is a more complex set-up I put together about 5 years ago.

[_c_]

Thank you,

I didn't know that one could further assemble data at that level. This is much better.

[_c_]

There isn't a way to embed some conditional statements?

Such as parse whether it is a flange or something else?

[Nathan Hildebrandt]

No you can only take information from the element. You might be able to include some Archicad Properties and include those in the IFC naming if you need that additional description. This is a video from a little while ago where I did this mapping in Archicad 18. https://youtu.be/u-LiZh9NSEo