IFC 4.3 schema implementation in Archicad 29

[Martin Jan Rosa]

Hello GS, I'm currently exploring the implementation of IFC 4.3 in Archicad 29 and I've found that in terms of the IFC schema extent and class naming, the state seems to me as completely identical to IFC4.

Are there any plans for further adaptation (or rather extension) according to the IFC 4.3 schema?

As one example that immediately caught my attention – in the mapping, IfcBuildingElement is listed everywhere instead of IfcBuiltElement (renamed in IFC 4.3). Sure, this is only a "cosmetic" issue at first glance, however in IFC 4.3 the IfcBuiltElement class should be non-abstract, and I can genuinely imagine cases where I would use it (for example, instead of the often overused IfcBuildingElementProxy in practice). Additionally, it now contains many more classes that, while primarily infrastructure-related, can also be useful for building design.

[Belinda J]

I noticed the same. I thought that support of IFC4.3 meant that it would have the content too, but apparently it only supports the import and export of IFC4.3.

Exporting/importing IFC 4.3 only goes as far if you don’t have to use IFC schema specific entities etc. However, in Finland, starting from January 2026, there will be requirements for IFC models that we cannot meet with Archicad or at least we have to do a lot of manual work because of the missing IFC properties etc.