IFC validation

duncan

I would love it if we could gather resources here on the tools available for IFC file validation. This is not validation of the geometry or anything like that but instead validation that the files data structure is well formed. Please help me expand the list and add your comments

FLOSS solutions:

• BIMtester (from IfcOpenShell and part of BlenderBIM Add-on) can read MicroMVD and is building support for buildingSmart IDS support.
• IfcValidator (from OpenSourceBIM) looks like it's not active any more.

Proprietary solutions:

• OpenIFCViewer ( https://openifcviewer.com/ ) has (soon?) a validation tool. Anyone here tried it?
• SimpleBIM ( https://simplebim.com/features/ ) has data validation - does that include data structure? Anyone tried it - @Moult you've talked about it in the past.

What else do people know about?

paullee

I remember Yorik / Bernd mention using IFC++ to open the file to verify if the IFC is good enough. Bernd has even a repository for proper compilation on Linux.

Good to have a discussion / wiki on 'proper' / 'orthodox' way of validation indeed :)

( BTW, some time I find IFC++ has different behavior from other like BIMServer. )

bernd

Proprietary clound solutions:

• https://snglr.com
• AFAIK solibri has started something too ... https://www.idc.ch/solibri/ueber-solibri/automatische-anforderungspruefung/

brunopostle

The first-stop for validating an IFC file is IfcOpenShell itself:

python -m ifcopenshell.validate project.ifc

..or several files at once (I just discovered lots of things I need to fix with this one):

python -m ifcopenshell.validate *.ifc

bitacovir

Related tool in the BIM workbench of FreeCAD
https://wiki.freecadweb.org/BIM_Preflight

tlang

@duncan buildingsmart Norway and Statsbygg have some publicly released mvdxml based filters that are created in the bimQ database by AEC3: https://www.bimq.de/en/
https://sites.google.com/view/statsbyggs-bim-manual-2-0-sbm2/hjem
Mr. Frode Mohus from Statsbygg sent me some links and test files to try out after I saw this presentation:
http://www.eubim.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2019-08-28_EU_BIM_Task_Group_Statsbygg_BIM_Manual_20_v101.pdf
Recommended tools with mvdxml capability are Simplebim and Xbim

Moult

For those interested, validating an IFC can also be done graphically via the BlenderBIM Add-on UI in the debug panel - in addition, there are a variety of debugging tools to see why the data isn't coming through correctly, including generating partial shapes, profiling, and inspecting relationships.

CadGiru

With validate.py
Does key, Level generate any other value than error ?

     {
            "level": "error",
            "message": "() not valid for <attribute HasProperties: <set [1:?] of <entity IfcProperty>>>",
            "instance": "#1096=IfcPropertySet('1MBM1sEgT9CgfDdbdOE4JQ',#45,'Attributter','',())"
        },

Bimlooser

I like BimTester but i'm not so able in creating IDSs.
I don't know which category belongs https://regola.io/ but could be useful, I think they used your code too

mcnill

There are 2 tools from the KIT. One is a standalone checking tool and the other one is a viewer with some semantic checking built-in i guess.
https://www.iai.kit.edu/1302.php
An other tool i often found usefull is from NIST.
https://github.com/usnistgov/IFA