Materials in IFC export

[Laura Stone]

I have exported an IFC file and it opens in Solibri but the Architect, who is using Revit, tells me that it "won’t allow us to add on material properties, the model components seem to be made up of import symbols. As a result of this we’re unable to render the model as it comes out coloured grey"

 

The objects are hardscapes and landscape areas, I can see that the hardscapes have nothing filled in under 'material' in Solibri.  Could this be the issue?  If so what IFC data maps to material?

 

A file that i had sent earlier that was just extrudes made into symbols with IFC data attached was apparently fine and they could attach materials.

 

I have tried sending an rvt file but it is very big and according the export will have no data, just geometry.

 

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Laura

[Mihail Rizov]

Hi @Laura Stone,

 

It seems to me, it's probably Revit Import problem. But, we have to find out the reason and use a workaround, if necessary.
Please, send us a small excerpt from the model that illustrates the problem, so we can try export and import in Revit.
(Also, please tell us the version of Revit that is used in your data exchange.)

 

Regards,

Mihail Rizov

[Laura Stone]

Hi Mihail

 

Here is a small extract from the file, I have just included some hardscapes and landscape areas.  The Architects are using Revit 2021.

 

I sent a revit export but it had the same issue

 

This is the latest from them:   "I’ve attached a screenshot from the previous model (27/11/20) showing the IFC parameters I mentioned in the first email that enable material changes below."

 

The previous model was the one that they could work with.

 

Thanks

 

Laura

 

IFCtest.vwx

[Mihail Rizov]

Hi @Laura Stone,

 

We still don't have Revit 2021, but tried with 2020/2018 (used Improved IFC Import Add-In, as with the standard one nothing imported).
In all cases, Revit shows the color of the geometry (from Vw) - the objects are imported as Floors with Import Symbol inside and you can assign material to both of them, but it always shows you the original geometry color.

For me, the problem is that, actually Revit can handle well only solid geometry - we'll try and will get back to you.

 

Regards,
Mihail Rizov

[Mihail Rizov]

Hi @Laura Stone,

I can confirm that assigning materials in Revit works only if the geometry is extrude/solid and not in case of surface geometry. IFC sends the geometry as is and in case of Aligned Slab, the object geometry is mesh (surface geometry).

Regards,

Mihail Rizov

[Laura Stone]

Hi Mihail

 

It seems like my colleague has solved the mystery.  We exported using these settings (attached) and it worked. I had unchecked the export site model box on the grounds that I wasn't exporting the layer with the site model on, could that have been the problem?

 

Laura

[Mihail Rizov]

Hi @Laura Stone,

 

Sorry, we can't try this, because we don't have the full model - we have only the excerpt you sent here 😉
Export Site model affects only the export of DTM object that is representing the site (and its layer must be mapped to Site story).

 

Regards,

Mihail Rizov