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[IFC] Removing the concept of IfcTypeObjects?
Playing off this conversation about streamlining the schema, could there be any argument for further streamlining, by removing the concept of IfcTypeObjects all together, as well? And introduce a concept like IfcRelDefinesBy. Conceptually this IfcRelDefinesBy could be used with other entity types as well.
Comments
Having skimmed that link, I've established that this is all over my head, but the gist is to simplify IFC relationships for human understanding and I for one feel like I would be part of that demographic. I've just made 15 custom IFc types and with the whole representation thing I have broken the types 15 times, and fixed more than I can count, so I'm in favour of simplifying it all, as a simple Ifc user through Blenderbim myself.
On the other hand I've already had everything crash several times trying to cut a detailed window, so the 2d representation is very useful for optimisation for drawings, however this really prevents IFC from being 'BIM' in my opinion since you can have 2d representations that do not update or at all represent the 3d model.
I'm sure it's much more complicated as someone who actually codes with Ifc but even as a just using it as a file type it would make my immediate life easier, including selling it (using IFC) to colleagues. But Creating an IfcType is still less complicated and time consuming as creating a parametric family in revit in my opinion.
And ya might aswell get rid of the Ifc Object type too ;)
The concept of a type versus an occurrence is pretty fundamental to how the AEC industry works. For example, we have door type drawings, and then individual occurrences of those doors of each type. This is also inherent in how elemental costing is done, where cost estimations happen per type. Facility management also distinguishes between product types (i.e. by a manufacturer of a particular model number) and individual occurrences (with its own bar codes / serial numbers / asset tags). So I think object types are here to stay.
The original proposal was to do with simplifying the way geometry mapping occurs to align it more to how the majority of modern 3D scenegraphs works.