Inquiry on how to start !
Good day everyone,
My name is Husam, and I’m a Revit modeler. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been diving into the world of IFC. I’ve read quite a bit, but I find that my understanding is still somewhat fragmented—like the pieces are there, but they haven’t quite connected into a clear, cohesive picture yet.
I’m not at all embarrassed to admit this, as I’m still new to the field and eager to learn. That’s why I’d really appreciate your guidance on how to build a solid learning path—starting from the basics and progressing to hands-on practice with real projects—so I can eventually gain a strong grasp of how to properly export and validate IFC models.
If you're willing to share how you started or what helped you the most, I’d be very grateful.
Thank you in advance for your time and advice.
Comments
Hi @HusamArafeh
3 years ago I ditched SketchUp and joined the Blender bandwagon, traumatic at first but doable with a little perseverance
Immediately I installed Bonsai (then BlenderBIM) and started modeling using the tools in T-menu (wall, slab, columns..), leveraging on very few similarities between Bonsai and SU.
I joined this community and discovered some useful (essential) YouTube channels: Sigma Dimension for 4D/5D (my field), IfcArchitect to grasp the basic things of modelling, and BIMvoice along with whatever available with Dion Moult involved.
Later I cautiosly approached open BIM (buildingsmart.org) to learn a bit more about classes, types, attributes, properties. This was not the easiest part but eventually it became somehow understandable, at least some of it, or the essential stuff.
IfcOpenShell library might help too if you are interested in automating processes using python.
That's it.
In summary: install Bonsai, preferably the latest unstable release and start modeling, the rest will follow (sooner or later)
Enjoy!
Hi @HusamArafeh
I'm in the same boat as steverugi.
Understand the concept of classes in Object Oriented Programming (OOP) for software development and everything will be easier.
Well, more or less, sometimes, for me the IFC documentation looks like 'spaghetti'. :)
Visit these pages:
On the OSARch wiki: https://wiki.osarch.org/index.php?title=IFC_-_Industry_Foundation_Classes
IfcOpenshell github: https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell
There's a lot of information.
Cheers
Thank you for the comments @steverugi
I am studying and registering all the steps I am learning with Blender Bonsai
For just learning IFC schema, the following, although a little old, is a good resource: https://standards.buildingsmart.org/documents/Implementation/IFC2x_Model_Implementation_Guide_V2-0b.pdf
Thank you very much @theoryshaw