Setting Up IFC Parsing ​

This tutorial walks you through building an IFC Parsing Setup (IFC PS) from nothing, in the order that works: get the file split into panels first, then name the parts, then tune what the machines and the measurements make of them.

Prerequisites ​

• You must have manager or admin access.
• Have a sample IFC file ready to test your configuration.

What is an IFC Parsing Setup? ​

The IFC standard is open, and every BIM application exports it its own way. What one exporter calls REFERENCE another writes into a property set, and a stud is recognised by its name in one file and by its profile in the next. A parsing setup is how you tell produuz.it to read your files.

A company can have several setups, and each project uses one.

Step 1: Create the setup ​

1. Go to Company settings → IFC Parsing Setups.
2. Click New, or clone an existing setup if one is already close to what you need.
3. Give it a descriptive name, such as Cadwork Standard or Tekla Wall Panels.

The editor opens on seven tabs. The filter box at the top left of each tab searches the settings by name and by the values inside their rules, so typing STIJL lands on every rule that uses it.

Every setting has an (i) button that opens the help panel on the right. Leave it open while you work; it follows whatever you pressed last.

Step 2: Hierarchy and project ​

Nothing else works until the file is split correctly, so start here.

• Levels detection — which IFC class or property groups elements into a module, a panel and a subassembly.
• Unit and project properties — what is read off each module and panel once it has been recognised: its name, its unit id, and the phase and batch it belongs to, plus any extra values of yours that should travel with it.
• Assembly filter — which assemblies are produced at all. A project file usually holds more than your factory makes: foundations, in-situ concrete, a neighbouring building. Leave both lists empty and everything is split.

Step 3: Panel part categories ​

A category says what a part is: a top rail, a stud, a plate, a brick, an opening. This is the tab that turns elements into parts.

Each category holds rules, and a part matches the category when any one of its rules matches. A rule is three fields: the IFC property to look into, the type of match (full word, prefix or contains), and the value.

Start with the frame and the plates. Bricks, openings and the areas can wait until the basics come out right.

Step 4: Custom part branches ​

Branches are kinds of part beyond the built-in timber and plate: windows, connectors, airtightness, electrical, plumbing.

Each branch has a name, its own rules, the geometry it resembles — wood-like, plate-like or generic — and two switches: whether its parts go through logistics, and whether they count in the panel measurements.

That second one matters more than it looks. A branch is recognised before a part falls back to timber or plate from its category, so a part your setup knows perfectly well can end up with no category — and a part with no category is outside the panel width, height, thickness and surface. Turn it on for cladding and window frames; leave it off for brackets that stick out past the frame.

Those measurements also draw your rack loads, so getting them wrong is not only a wrong number in a report.

Skip this tab if everything in your panels is timber and sheet material.

Step 5: Part properties ​

Categories say what a part is; properties say where each of its values is read from. Name, reference, material, finish, comment, weight, volume, and the zone or layer the part belongs to.

Leave a property empty and produuz.it falls back to its default source, which for the name is the element's own Name attribute.

Step 6: Custom part classes ​

A category says what a part is. A class says how your factory treats it.

Classes are entirely your own: nothing is built in, and a part is an I-beam only because a rule you wrote says so. Give each class a name and the rules that recognise it. A part gets the first class in the list whose rules match, so put the more specific ones first.

A class does two things.

Its name is what settings that behave differently per kind of part look up, the framing nail matrix of the machine setups first of all.

Its behaviours say what the class does to the four panel measurements — width, height, thickness and surface. Press Behaviours on the class row. Everything is off by default, and off means the part counts, so a class with no behaviours changes nothing.

See: Custom part classes

Step 7: Operations and machines ​

Nail lines, saw cuts, drills, milling and glue are modelled as elements too. The rules here tell them apart from parts, and the properties below them — nail spacing, mill depth, tool ID — feed the machine files directly.

Operations never count towards the width, height, thickness or surface of a panel, so a saw mark that hangs below the bottom rail does not make the panel taller.

Step 8: Steel cage part categories ​

Only if you produce steel cages. It is a secondary flow with its own rails, profiles, plates and welding seams. Leave it empty otherwise.

Step 9: Test it on a real file ​

1. Open a project and upload your sample IFC.
2. Split the file and generate the designs.
3. Open one in the viewer and check:
   • parts land in the right categories, and nothing lands in unknown;
   • the names, references and materials read correctly;
   • the panel width, height and thickness match the model;
   • hidden and ignored elements behave as you meant them to.

Parts showing up as unknown means no rule recognised them. Find one in the model, look at its properties, and add the rule that catches it.

Step 10: Assign it to your projects ​

1. Open a project's settings.
2. Select your setup as its parsing setup.
3. Every file processed in that project from now on uses it.

Next Steps ​

• Build a Project — upload files and generate designs using your setup.
• Production Lines Setup — configure your production workflow.