possibility to export to IFC from BricsCAD or other options to convert 3D-data to ArchiCAD?

Philipp Kuebart

Hello,

I'm very new to BricsCAD and have a question regarding the possibilities to export 3D data that I created in BricsCAD for a client who works with ArchiCAD. My files contain mostly lines and hatches, some Polylines, arcs, circles, and text (it's plans from a building survey of a facade that I measured with a total station). I saved the files as 2004-dwg, and although it's possible to open them in ArchiCAD, the client tells me that he can't really work with them in 3D mode, because the lines are either not shown at all in 3D mode or shown as kind of a block without the possibility to use snap.
He was told by the ArchiCAD support that it would be best for him to import the data from an ifc-file.

Is there a possibility to convert data from BricsCAD into ifc, maybe with a 3rd party tool? I didn't find a direct export function in my BricsCAD (V13.1.22).
Or does anyone of you have experience with exchanging 3D data between BricsCAD and ArchiCAD?

Thank you very much in advance,
Philipp

Sakko

Hello Phillip,

i would say that your client should go to this site....
http://www.archicadwiki.com/DWG/Import
and get informed about the possibilities to import DWG files directly into Archicad !
As you can read there are different possibilities for this... its's just a matter of choosing one.
Why use IFC (especially for 2D geometry) if you have DWG ???

Philipp Kuebart

Hello Konstantin,

thank you for your reply and the link.

I think I have been inaccurate in my description. Although the objects in my drawings are lines, polylines etc., they are not 2D elevations but are all measured and drawn in 3D to describe the exact geometry of the existing facade in space (+/- 2cm).

As I understand it from the table given there, the only way to import 3D data from dwg into ArchiCAD is by importing it as an object, and this seems to be where the client has problems to snap and work with the layer structure from the dwg. Importing IFC or 3DS might be easier, but I don't know if I can get my data from BricsCAD into these formats.
So I was wandering if someone has experience what could be a good way of bringing 3D data from BricsCAD into ArchiCAD.

The plans/files are to be used as the basis for designing and prefabricating a new facade that will be placed before the existing one. The facade consists of about 30 different areas that are each in a different file, but with the same World Coordinate System, in order to make it possible to also design the corner details. I attached 2 small files from the project, maybe this is easier than trying to describe it in words.

Thank you and best regards,
Philipp

example_facade1.dwgexample_facade2.dwg

Sakko

Hello Philipp,

you have described it very well...you use hatches(2D object), Polylines(2D object), Text(2D object), Lines(3D object).
It's just that your objects are drawn in 3D space and not on the 2D XY plane!
It seems to me that the Merge Option could be the Solution ...and i don't know of any IFC exporter from DWG to IFC for the objects you use.
I assume that the best way would be the "merge" option of Archicad :

http://help.graphisoft.com/ac15_help_INT/Files/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm#href=07_Interoperability.10.62.html#1007874
and also
http://help.graphisoft.com/ac15_help_INT/Files/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm#href=07_Interoperability.10.60.html

Regards
Konstantin

Philipp Kuebart

Hello Konstantin,

thank you very much. I forwarded the suggestion to use the merge function to the client and hope this helps. I will report back once I have an answer from him, or if we need to find a different solution.

Best regards and have a good weekend,
Philipp

Knut Hohenberg

So let's keep our fingers crossed... but having worked some years on ArchiCAD (albeit several years ago), I doubt that your client will get happy with your 'wireframe' models.
ArchiCAD makes a strict distinction between the (3d) model and derived (2d) views. Looking at your drawings, I doubt they can be automatically converted to something that ArchiCAD would import as a model, so my advice would be to restrict data exchange to 2d, if your client accepts this.
You could then use BricsCAD's flatten command to project your geometry onto the ground and elevation planes, and your client would have to build a model according to their needs with these 2d-drawings as a reference.
Should this not be acceptable, you will probably have to turn your wireframe into a surface (mesh) model yourself - which is likely to be a quite laborious task. In this case I would suggest you have a look at blender, which can import your drawings as dxf, generate the surfaces rather comfortably, and allows you to write them out as 3ds.

Philipp Kuebart

Hello,

sorry for not reporting back on this issue for all this time.
The thing is that from the information I got from the other office I can't accurately describe how they worked with the files in the end. They are located in a different city, so I never saw myself how it looked like in their ArchiCAD project. From how I understood them it seems that it was easier to work with the flattened 2D-Files that I exported from BricsCAD as dwg, as opposed to the 3D-Files imported via the merge-function which seems to not support snapping for line elements.
In comparison to all the hassle with ArchiCAD, the transition of the 3D-data to Nemetschek (that the direct client in this project is working with) went flawlessly.

Best regards,
Philipp