IFC4precast is a bSI Final Standard

IFC4precast has been officially recognized as a "Final Standard" by buildingSMART International, marking the release of IFC4precast for all software vendors and allowing it to be increasingly applied.

The achievement of this milestone is the result of several years of hard work and continuous commitment of the participating companies from Germany, Austria, Italy, and Finland. With the successful software validation, the internationally consolidated and finally approved standard was confirmed by the bSI Standards Committee Executive as well as other related Committees and Chapters. With the finished MVD (Model View Definition, or subset of IFC Schema), the added value of vendor-neutral data exchange is now available to the precast concrete industry: CAD, MES and PPS systems can be even better coordinated thanks to the international standard.

Under the umbrella of buildingSMART International, the group was supported and enabled to go through the internationally valid, standardized process step by step to achieve this standard.

The project group has prepared a video introduction that provides a comprehensive view of the project and its results. Here you can find the video presentation.

IFC has been used in the construction industry for a long time as a standard exchange format between different planning solutions, yet up to now the technical possibility to generate production-relevant information was missing and IFC was used as a collaboration interface. The interfaces currently available on the market between CAD / MES / ERP and PPS systems are reaching their limits in terms of content due to the increasing complexity of the components and further plant automation.

The goal of the project was to create an internationally standardized, uniform interface that is maintained by the industry. This is based on already existing interfaces established in the prefabrication process.

The detailed objectives of the project included:

  • To bring open and interoperable BIM more strongly into the precast sector
  • To link CAD, MES and PPS systems more closely in order to establish a common data exchange format capable of enabling more area-specific decision-making
  • Exchange based on the international IFC 4 standard
  • Transparent and unambiguous traceability of data across both the building model and the building lifecycle

As part of the deliverables, the group developed an Information Delivery Manual (IDM) and a Model View Definition (MVD).

The project has been supported by buildingSMART International and buildingSMART Germany. Members of the project group are:

  • fdu GmbH
  • iabi - Institute for Applied Construction Informatics e.V.
  • IDAT GmbH
  • Allplan Software Engineering GmbH - Competence Center Allplan Precast
  • Progress Software Development GmbH
  • RIB SAA Software Engineering GmbH
  • Trimble Germany GmbH
  • Unitechnik Systems GmbH

The two speakers, Benno Strack (fdu) and Stefan Maier (RIB SAA), represent the working group within the bSI Building Room and buildingSMART Germany.

In the final standardization phase (see bSI Process), the documentation was completed and all necessary IFC information was provided in a schematic-compliant manner. Likewise, a successful software validation was performed.

The work results are published here:

IDM -> https://www.buildingsmart.org/standards/bsi-standards/standards-library/

MVD -> https://technical.buildingsmart.org/standards/ifc/mvd/mvd-database/