Export to IFC
Hey guys, just wanted your view on a specific issue that might become very general in the near future.
We have research going on with suppliers of manufactured building components, such as precast walls and floor slabs. One of the ways is IFC, because that is the most generic standard with preservation of parameters. As opposed to 3D-dwg.
One of the issues is that VOID is not supported by IFC. The Opening element is. This is mostly a problem because, for the very purpose of providing our manufacturers with good information, we have components such as doors and windows that manipulate more elements at the same time. No matter how you cut it, a VOID should be exported in some or any way to the IFC file or they'll not make the right cut (if any). This is a very annoying issue if you design your windows so that it makes a different cut in each (separately drawn) wall layer.
We also have components with several volumes, of which the right one is enabled/disabled with visibility checkboxes. This is mandatory if you want to preserve constraints, which doesn't work quite as well with a nested family parameter. IFC doesn't give a rat's arse about those checkboxes and show them all in concert. Ofcourse this is also very undesirable.
In my opinion, Revit needs to convert VOID to a standard supported by IFC, and purge inherently non-visible volumes. If IFC is going to be a practical file format for us, then Autodesk and/or IFC need to overcome these annoying and impractical issues. I'm posting this to see how many of you agree, and how all of you use IFC if at all.
