An inside look at the IFC Building model

With the increasing interest in building information modeling in the AEC community, the issue of interoperability as a means to integrate the various model-based applications into a smooth and efficient workflow has emerged to the forefront of professional attention. And to most AEC professionals, the word interoperability has become synonymous with the IFC effort. But what exactly is the IFC (Industry Foundation Classes)? While technical information about the IFC building model is documented in detail and is readily available for software developers who need to work with it, there is practically no information for the average AEC practitioner who wants to have a better understanding of the IFC model. AECbytes' second feature article addresses precisely this shortfall. Read it to obtain a broad overview of the IFC model without being overwhelmed by its technicalities.

Coming up this month is a newsletter that showcases select reader feedback to the BIM acronym article as well as to Paul Seletsky's recent Viewpoint article proposing PEN as alternate acronym to BIM. Look out also for the product review of the just-released Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2005; a Viewpoint article by Paul Teicholz, former director of Stanford's CIFE; and a newsletter exploring the implications of the upcoming Web Services technology for the AEC industry. So stay tuned!

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Thank you
Lachmi Khemlani

Editorials > April 2004