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IFC export

Floor plan to IFC

Export a FloorGen plan as an IFC4 building model for a BIM program: a storey for each floor, walls with their door and window openings, a named space for every room with its area, floor slabs and stairs. It is made in your browser, in millimetres, with no watermark, and it is free with an account.

free account
Shift+Enter for a new line
Export the 3-bed ranch as IFCThe export guide
What each part becomes in the IFC file
In your planIn the IFC file
  • The houseIfcBuilding (one more for each detached building)
  • A floorIfcBuildingStorey, at its height
  • A wallIfcWall, mitred at the corners
  • A door or windowIfcDoor or IfcWindow in an opening cut through the wall
  • A roomIfcSpace with its area and height, and a slab
  • A floor or balcony surfaceIfcSlab
  • A stairIfcStair, a solid for each tread

From FloorGen's IFC writer (IFC4, STEP text).

A .ifc file, STEP text
IFC4
Always, whatever your project's units
mm
Watermarks
0
With an account, on every plan
Free

The IFC export, in detail

How to export a floor plan to IFC

  1. Open or draw your plan. The IFC file is built from the plan's walls, openings, rooms, floors and stairs, so the plan needs at least a wall or a room. An empty plan answers "Nothing to export yet: draw a wall or a room first."
  2. Open Export. Click Export in the top bar, or press Alt+6, and pick the CAD and 3D tab.
  3. Choose IFC. Under Format, choose IFC. The line under it says what the file is for. The preview is the live 3D view, for reference; the file holds the model, not that picture.
  4. Download. Click Download IFC. You get <project>-3d.ifc with every floor in it. Sign in first if you have not: exporting needs a free account, like every export.

What the IFC file holds

  • The structure. A project, a site, the house as a building and each detached building as another, with one storey per floor at its elevation, basements below zero.
  • Walls with openings. Each wall is an IfcWall over its mitred outline. Door and window openings are cut through it and filled by an IfcDoor and an IfcWindow of the opening's size.
  • Rooms as spaces. Every room is a named IfcSpace with its net floor area and height, and a floor slab. A room you left out of the totals carries no area, so a BIM area schedule matches FloorGen's totals.
  • Slabs and stairs. Floor and balcony surfaces are slabs. Each stair is one IfcStair made of a solid for every tread.

What it does not hold

The file is a base model to start from in a BIM program, not a finished BIM model. Left out: roofs, furniture and fixtures, lifts, railings, beams, electrical and other services, decks, colours, materials and layers. Curved walls become short straight segments, and arched, gable and round heads of doors and windows become rectangles. Sloped slabs are flat. FloorGen writes IFC but does not read it back in; to bring a CAD drawing in, use DXF import.

Who needs an IFC file

Architects, engineers and BIM coordinators work in IFC, the open format that BIM programs and model checkers exchange. A DXF carries lines, and a glTF carries triangles; neither knows which line is a wall, which shape is a room or which floor it is on. IFC keeps that, so the model can be listed, measured and coordinated by storey and by room. If you only need lines for a CAD drawing, floor plan to DXF is simpler.

Programs that open IFC

Any program that reads IFC4 should open the file. That includes the BIM authoring programs (Revit and ArchiCAD import IFC), the free viewers (BIMvision), FreeCAD, and Blender with the Bonsai add-on. Your program shows its own units; the file is always in millimetres. Exporting the same project again gives the same IDs inside the file, so a BIM program can track what changed between versions.

Questions

Is the IFC export free?
Yes. It is free with an account, on every plan, and the file has no watermark.
Which IFC version is it?
IFC4, written as STEP text (a .ifc file). The units are millimetres whatever your project uses.
Does the file include furniture or the roof?
No. It has the structure of the building: storeys, walls with openings, doors and windows, rooms as spaces, slabs and stairs. Roofs, furniture, fixtures, lifts, railings, colours and materials are not in it.
Can I import an IFC file into FloorGen?
No. FloorGen writes IFC but does not read it. It reads PDFs, photos and ASCII DXF files; see DXF import.
Is my plan uploaded to make the IFC?
No. The file is built in your browser and downloaded from there.
Can the AI assistant export IFC?
Yes. Ask FloorGen AI for an IFC export of the plan and it builds the same file, which you download from the reply.