IFC-BASED MODEL EXCHANGE AND SHARING BETWEEN BUILDING DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

One of the challenges in the domain of building is directly exchange model data without human interaction among various software vendors. The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) serves as a common product model between similar and dissimilar IT systems for the architecture, engineering, construction, and facility management(AEC/FM) industries covering all life-cycle phases. According to the research on the IFC standard and the middle ware technology, this paper establishes an IFC mapping model that supports the data exchange and sharing. Based on this IFC mapping model, an IFC interface widget with IFCs data input and output functions for STEP Part21 file is proposed and compiled. The techniques and methods adopted in this development are also depicted in detail. Finally, an example is provided to verify the proposed IFC parser tool, showing how to exchange model data between Revit Architecture and our building information management platform. The purpose of this paper is trying to develop a common method for the data sharing and reusing by adopting IFC standard. This paper provides the reference for similar software development.