Idea for the integration of expressions of properties for construction materials and objects.

[Abraham Smith]

Expressions for construction materials or from the property mapping menu to export IFC so that object properties are also integrated. That would integrate everything in one place.

It would be possible to adapt the "Apply Splitting Rule" menu for expressions

An example applied would be the following:

I have a Countertop object, but I need a property of its Sink opening type to be able to generate a type name of those elements, in conjunction with the WBS builder codes and generate the IFC deliverable.

Ideally, in this case, this property of the object is obtained from an expression, and reading that property of the object can generate an appropriate translation. Example image below:

The problem is that this option does not yet exist to be able to bring these object properties to a menu that generates expressions, so it is necessary to do a rework translating from a text reader, in order to replace the generated properties with the properties that I want to generate in the deliverable. Or even generating some external property of classification to be able to do it with the expressions, but it is doing double work in both cases. I leave the first flow below:

Step 1. The output property is generated for later IFC translation.

Step 2. The IFC is opened from a text reader and the generated properties are replaced with the final properties.

step 3. If the IFC is opened from any viewer and it is verified that the properties are correct.

The same can be applied for measurements of your smaller parts, like your upper and lower lashes.

In the case of building materials,

it sometimes happens that expression parameters are needed within the properties of building materials, such as Interior/Exterior, since many budgeters work with Revit standards, that is, they model everything. as separate layers instead of modeling by composite elements (and that's a lot of work). This creates a gap when generating the names of each layer separately. It also happens with the WBS codes of the builders. Ideally, the change of the names and codes when changing the parameters of the construction materials is parametric.

See example of name from the construction material (item) and what is desired from expressions in the compound element (system):

Item

System

The problem is that if it is decided to create a construction material for each necessary parameter, the number of these increases exponentially. It is important to take into account that the budgeters also need the quantity parameters of each item, in order to carry out their construction simulations with the work times.

Thank you for reading. Greetings

Sincerely Abraham Smith

[Laszlo Nagy]

Sorry, I do not fully understand what the exact wish is.

Do you want to be able to use Building Material Properties in this Dialog too, and apply splitting rules to them?

Maybe it would be best if you gave a very specific example of what you want to achieve?

Like, what is the exact data that you would like to map to an IFC Property?

[Abraham Smith]

Hello @Laszlo Nagy   good morning and thank you very much for the answer!

I already put more information about the workflow that I want to get expressions with the properties of the objects. I will be doing another example with the construction materials.

Kind regards

Sincerely, Abraham Smith

[Laszlo Nagy]

OK, now I understand what you are trying to do.

Yes, you are right, Library Part parameters cannot be used in Property Expressions, so you cannot create a Property the value of which would be dependent on the value of a Library Part parameter.

But, it is possible to achieve what you want, even now. To do that you would have to modify the scripts of the Library Part. You would have to create a new parameter. Let's say, with the name "SinkType". Then, using IF/THEN commands, you would use the Parameter Script to set the value of the "SinkType" parameter depending on the value of the "iSinkNum" parameter.

Then, in the IFC Property Mapping Dialog, you would map to "SinkType" parameter to the IFC Property. 

[Abraham Smith]

Yes @Laszlo Nagy  , the issue is that it would be necessary to place this new object in several ongoing projects, and the objective is to generate cost information with the available parameters.

There is also the issue of construction materials, I already added an example.

I had not thought of that solution... Thanks for your answers!

[Laszlo Nagy]

OK, I would like to ask you two things in order to be able to help you:

1. Please place your answers with their explanation and images in new posts below my posts. Please do not modify the original post for each question I ask. It is confusing, I have to scroll up and find what you changed in your original post instead of just reading your answer post to my question post.

2. Please do not cut off screenshots. I would like to see the whole Dialog as it may contain info I need to understand.

So, if I understand correctly, you have Building Material Properties, such as CODE or REVIT FAMILY NAME. When you export the Composite elements using these Building Materials as IFC, you want these Building Material Properties to be mapped to certain IFC Properties.

But, I suppose that you want to map the Building Material Property to the IFC Property of the Component, not the IFC Property of the Element. Right?

Could you post a screenshot of how would you like to see those Building Material Properties in the generated IFC file? Maybe a screenshot in Solibri or another IFC viewer?

By the way, Archicad 26 has a new feature called "Component-level property mapping at IFC export" that may be the answer to your situation. Please read this page of the Archicad Help for details:

https://help.graphisoft.com/AC/26/INT/index.htm#t=_AC26_Help%2F005_NewFeatures%2F005_NewFeatures-23....

If this works, you may not need to create Element Properties for each Building Material Property of each component.

[Abraham Smith]

Suppose we have a general construction material (ALV) for all the cores with ceramic blocks, but depending on two parameters, CODE and REVIT FAMILY NAME, with values marked in "XXXX", "XXX" and in "Xcm" are parameters depending on its position (XXX = INT/EXT), its thickness (Xcm = 9/11.5/14/19cm) and the end of the code (XXXX = 0001/0002/etc.). So you would need to exchange those "X" of the item, for parameter values of the compound (system). The same with each lining (item) of the same composite wall.

before: the building material is called ALV and contains property values to be filled depending on its parametric attributes.

after: the building material is called ALV115 and contains property values filled in from its parametric attributes.

I tried with AC26 but IFC parameters cannot be called for expressions.

[Laszlo Nagy]

I could not find any way to make this work. This would require Property Expressions to be available for Building Materials, or Expressions to work not only for elements, but sub-elements (Composite skins or Complex Profile components) as well. So, at this point, this is indeed a wish.

[Abraham Smith]

Yes, it would be great if it were available not only in the construction materials, but also in the properties of the objects (without having to do it from GDL)... that's why it's an idea that I want to plant from the IFC translators. Thank you @Laszlo Nagy