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IFC classes and clash detection

Give modelled objects their IFC classes, and find where models run into each other.

Stori3D's walls, floors, roofs, stairs, columns, doors, windows and furniture go to IFC as what they are. Here's how to class everything else, and how to check models against each other before they go out.

Give an object its IFC class

Select a shape, a group or component, or part of a model you've brought in, and pick its IFC class in Properties, as SketchUp's Classifier does: Beam, Column, Covering, Curtain wall, Footing, Member, Plate, Railing, Slab, Wall, Sanitary terminal, Light fixture and more. IFC type says what kind it is, in words, such as Glass balustrade.

When you export IFC, it goes out as that class. A group or component given a class goes out as one element, with all its parts. Anything left unclassed goes out as a building element proxy.

Find clashes

Choose More tools → Clash detection… (or search for it with Shift+S).

1. Check one set Against another. A set is the building as modelled, the furniture, a model you've brought in (such as the structural engineer's IFC), or everything on a tag. A set can be checked against itself.
2. Set the Tolerance: overlaps smaller than this count as touching, not clashing. 10 mm is a good start.
3. Press Find clashes.

The clashes are listed worst first, with how far one runs into the other, or inside when one sits wholly within the other. Pick one to select both objects, frame them, and box the overlap in red; Previous and Next step through the list.

Faces that only touch, such as a sofa against a wall, aren't clashes. Nor are the building's own joins, where walls meet walls and floors, or doors and windows in their walls.

To check a consultant's model, import its IFC (see Importing), then check it against the building.

Still stuck? Contact us, or ask in the app: Help → Contact support.