Export of IFC files

There are many factors affecting the process of creating an IFC file. As a result, it is very difficult to make absolute recommendations. However, there are several things to consider that affect the file size, the time taken to export and the time taken to import into the receiving system.

Especially, when dealing with large sets of data it is generally better to split up the export to separate files rather than exporting a single large file. If any scalability issues are encountered, the below recommendations may help:

• Don’t use a fine tolerance if a coarse will do

• "Geometry" uses less memory than "Facets"

• IFC4 uses less memory than 2x3

• Don’t export lots of attributes if you don’t need them (you can use mapping to control this)

Refer to IFC Export for more detailed recommendations of what settings can be used etc.