IFC stands for Industry Foundation Classes and is an open standard used by software developers in their CAD (Computer-Aided Drafting) programmes for engineering and architecture companies. The Research report recently published by STAND-INN,” IFC Development process-Quick Guide” explains the use and benefits of IFC.

STAND-INN, one of six ‘network’ projects on standards within the larger Europe INNOVA initiative, aims to bring about improvement in business process and sustainability in construction, with an emphasis on Building Information Models (BIMs) and IFC Standard.

The IFC standard was developed by the IAI (International Alliance for Interoperability) to handle 3D file data. Major CAD vendors helped to develop the standard and the tools to support it. The IAI is a division of the ISO (International Standards Organization), the body that controls the IGES and STEP data standards. The IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) standard is being used in leading construction projects in Europe and beyond. IFC is used as a basis for the Building Information Modelling (BIM), a 3D model of the building project and a rich source of information shared by all the project participants.

The IFC system is a data representation standard and file format used to define architectural and construction-related CAD graphic data as 3D real-world objects. Its main purpose is to provide architectural CAD users with the ability to exchange data between complementary applications such as CAD and estimating tools. The IFC system provides a set of definitions for all object element types encountered in the building industry and a text-based structure for storing those definitions in a data file. It uses a plain text file, the only truly universal computer data format. Individual CAD developers store data in whatever compact binary file format best suits their system. To implement the IFC standard, each CAD company must create programming within its own software structure. The developers provide Save As IFC and Read IFC commands, which map the IFC object definitions to their CAD system's representations of these objects.