Convert IFC model to graph

Hi, does anyone know are there available tools to export IFC model into graph which is stored in neo4j? Thanks!

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  • Thanks @Moult ! In the description it seems that it's not so easy to test it. I wonder are there more easy-to-use tools for such a conversion process for quick tests?

  • It's a pretty technical niche field right now, so programming knowledge is probably required.

  • Hi,
    I only got the freeware version of IFC StepViewer from
    https://rdf.bg/product-list/step-engine/step-viewer/
    and it seems like it has some capabilities with ontologies.

    Need some more investigations but looks very promising!

    furtonb
  • edited October 2024

    Thanks @Hans ! It looks interesting. I am using a python library called topologicpy to export IFC to graph and then store in neo4j, although it's limited to part of the data in the IFC file. I found it useful.

  • edited October 2024

    Hey @Howie, I'll maybe take a look at topologicpy later, thx a lot !
    I'm not an expert yet, but for what I know about ontologies and bim is that extracting data from ifc to create a graph is very limited.
    I would create my ontologies using another approach, that is using existing patterns and if necessary use globalization (see attached files) from the data coming from revit.

    HowieArv
  • @Hans Yes I also found that IFC-to-graph is limited. In topologicpy basically we get element and relationship entites, and property sets attached as attributes (via the ByIFCFile() method). It seems to me that the IFC graph from topologicpy is a property graph, while the ontology method creates a RDF graph. It's also about the choice of the graph form.

    Hans
  • edited October 2024

    @Howie I'm just getting started, it's still all confusing at the moment. 🤔
    I didn't know there was a difference between graphs and I'm totally unfamiliar with graphs generated by IFC.
    Very interesting discussion, I found some books and will read them soon ! As far as I understand, property graphs and rdf graphs are two different forms to structure data.

    Are those properties only available in an IFC or would it be possible to get those informations using dynamo?

  • @Hans said:
    Hi,
    I only got the freeware version of IFC StepViewer from
    https://rdf.bg/product-list/step-engine/step-viewer/
    and it seems like it has some capabilities with ontologies.

    Need some more investigations but looks very promising!

    I guess I must say property graph instead of ontology ...

    Arv
  • @Hans said:
    @Howie I'm just getting started, it's still all confusing at the moment. 🤔
    I didn't know there was a difference between graphs and I'm totally unfamiliar with graphs generated by IFC.
    Very interesting discussion, I found some books and will read them soon ! As far as I understand, property graphs and rdf graphs are two different forms to structure data.

    Are those properties only available in an IFC or would it be possible to get those informations using dynamo?

    @Hans The properties are in the model regardless of it's a Revit or IFC model which is a file format of the model. So I think for Revit models, Dynamo can be used to get the information.

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