Speckle → IFC 4.3 Exporter (Rhino)

🚧 Project Status: WIP

Hey there! This project is still under active development, so expect changes, bugs, and incomplete features. If you have any questions or suggestions, don’t hesitate to reach out at: nikos@speckle.systems

A Speckle Automate function that converts Speckle models from Rhino into IFC 4X3 files.

⚠️ Note on Model Uploads

Large models (greater than 200MB) may fail to upload due to current file size limitations. The team is actively working on resolving this issue.

How It Works

1. Receives a Speckle model version via Speckle Automate.
2. Traverses the nested Collection tree to find all BIM elements.
3. Classifies each element into its IFC type (e.g. IfcColumn, IfcWall) using the Attributes.type property.
4. Exports geometry — meshes, instances (block definitions), and curves — into IFC representations.
5. Clones properties — attributes, property sets, and quantities — from the Speckle object onto the IFC entity.
6. Writes the resulting .ifc file, compressed as a .zip.

Performance Optimizations

The exporter is optimized for file size and speed:

• Geometry deduplication — identical meshes are hashed (MD5 of vertex + face data) and shared via IfcRepresentationMap + IfcMappedItem, so instances reuse a single geometry copy.
• Shared property sets — identical IfcPropertySet / IfcElementQuantity entities are created once and linked to all elements via batched IfcRelDefinesByProperties.
• Batched spatial containment — IfcRelContainedInSpatialStructure and type assignments are written in bulk at the end, not per-element.
• Vertex deduplication & rounding — near-coincident vertices are merged (0.01mm tolerance) and coordinates rounded to 3 decimal places.
• Direction & value caching — IfcDirection, IfcCartesianPoint, and IfcNominalValue entities are reused across the file.
• Lazy material creation — IfcSurfaceStyle entities are only created when actually assigned to geometry.
• ZIP compression — output is compressed before upload.

Supported Property Formats

The exporter handles two property formats:

Nested (ArchiCAD / IFC-native)

Properties are stored as nested dicts under _properties:

_properties:
  Attributes:
    Name: "MyColumn"
    type: "IfcColumn"
  Property Sets:
    Pset_ColumnCommon:
      IsExternal: true
  Quantities:
    BaseQuantities:
      Height: {name: "Height", units: "millimetre", value: 3000}

Flat Dot-Notation (Rhino / Speckle)

Properties are stored as flat key-value pairs with dot-separated paths under properties:

properties:
  Attributes.Name: "600S162-43-50"
  Attributes.type: "IfcColumn"
  Attributes.GlobalId: "yOTS1rnOhBKW4JIfec29TS"
  Quantities.BaseQuantities.Gross Weight.value: "15.452"
  Quantities.BaseQuantities.Member Length.value: "118.938"

The exporter automatically detects the format and unflattens dot-notation keys into the nested structure before processing.

Instance Handling

Speckle InstanceProxy objects (block instances) are exported using the IFC mapped representation pattern:

• Each unique block definition becomes an IfcRepresentationMap (geometry stored once).
• Each instance becomes an IfcMappedItem with an IfcCartesianTransformationOperator3DnonUniform encoding the full 4x4 transform (explicit Axis3 for correct orientation with mirrors and non-orthogonal transforms).
• Content-based geometry hashing ensures that different definition IDs with identical geometry share the same IfcRepresentationMap.

Supports both Revit-format instances (hex hash definitionId, mm units) and speckleifc-format instances (DEFINITION: prefix, metre units).

Function Inputs

Input	Description
file_name	Output IFC filename (timestamp is appended)
IFC_PROJECT_NAME	Name for the IfcProject entity
IFC_SITE_NAME	Name for the IfcSite entity
IFC_BUILDING_NAME	Name for the IfcBuilding entity

Project Structure

main.py                 # Automate entry point — traversal, export loop, IFC writing
utils/
  traversal.py          # Walks the Speckle Collection tree
  mapper.py             # Maps Speckle objects → IFC entity classes
  properties.py         # Extracts & writes attributes, property sets, quantities
  geometry.py           # Mesh → IFC geometry conversion (IfcPolygonalFaceSet)
  instances.py          # Block instance / definition handling (RepMap + MappedItem)
  curves.py             # Curve geometry (Polycurve, Line, Arc → IfcIndexedPolyCurve)
  writer.py             # IFC scaffold creation, storey management
  type_manager.py       # IfcTypeObject creation & assignment
  materials.py          # Material colour mapping (IfcSurfaceStyle)
  helpers.py            # Shared utilities (_get, unit scales)

Getting Started

Using with Speckle Automate

1. Go to the Automations tab in your project
2. Click New Automation
3. Select your function from the library
4. Configure function inputs and parameters
5. Choose a Speckle model to trigger the automation
6. Name your automation and click Create

Resources

• SpecklePy SDK
• Speckle Automate
• IFC 4.3 Documentation