Autodesk makes Revit IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) exporter open source

13 September 2011 Geoff Zeiss

Autodesk has announced that the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) exporter for Revit is now available as open source code, licensed under LGPL.  Revit has supported IFC file export since 2005.  Models can be exported to the standard IFC file format which can be imported into any design program that is compliant with the IFC standard, enabling greater interoperability in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry.

By licensing the Revit IFC exporter code as open source software, the objective is to encourage full data exchange within a Building Information Modeling workflow, enabling Revit users  greater flexibility to customize IFC file output for the needs of specific project or government IFC file input requirements.  Users can add custom parameter sets to elements exported to IFCs, or custom quantities to the elements exported. Users may also, for example, change the representation of the exported elements, should they find another, more useful encoding.

The Revit IFC exporter open source code is managed by a five-member steering committee composed of one Autodesk employee and four members of the AEC Building Information Modeling (BIM) community. The Revit IFC Exporter Open Source Committee is chaired by Emile Kfouri, BIM application development manager, Architecture, Engineering and Construction Solutions, Autodesk.

Access to the Revit IFC exporter open source code, as well as information regarding the Revit IFC Exporter Open Source Committee, can be found at the SourceForge repository.  For more information about the IFC standard visit the buildingSMART organization site.

OSGEO logo Autodesk has been involved with the open source community since 2006, when it supported the formation of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGEO), and contributed MapGuide Open Source, FDO, and CS-Map code to the foundation.

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial software industry and 15 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include the convergence of BIM, CAD, geospatial, and 3D. In recognition of his efforts to evangelize geospatial in vertical industries such as utilities and construction, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014. Currently Geoff is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. From 2001 to 2012 Geoff was Director of Utility Industry Program at Autodesk Inc, where he was responsible for thought leadership for the utility industry program. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Enterprise Software Development at Autodesk. He received one of ten annual global technology awards in 2004 from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to Autodesk Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions. VISION* Solutions is credited with pioneering relational spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and long transactions (data versioning) in the utility, communications, and public works industries. Geoff is a frequent speaker at geospatial and utility events around the world including Geospatial World Forum, Where 2.0, MundoGeo Connect (Brazil), Middle East Spatial Geospatial Forum, India Geospatial Forum, Location Intelligence, Asia Geospatial Forum, and GITA events in US, Japan and Australia. Geoff received Speaker Excellence Awards at GITA 2007-2009.

View article by Geoff Zeiss

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*