Rhino IFC Tree Viewer
Using the Geometry Gym IFC Tree Viewer in Rhino
The IFC tree viewer allows the user to load one or multiple IFC files into a Rhino document for viewing in a tree-like structure and provides an easy way of interacting with loaded Rhino Geometry associated with IFC files. The ggRhinoIFC Tree Viewer can help with a number of things including:
Navigating an IFC file (Particularly through geometry selection)
Export Specific Parts of IFC files
Troubleshooting IFC files
Perform simple modification of IFC files
The viewer can be found within the Rhino properties window. If the viewer is not shown in the properties window, click on the cog icon in the properties window and select ggRhinoIFC from the list_._
You can also use the gg_IFCShowPanel_ command in the Rhino command line or by selecting it from the ggRhinoIFC menu.
Load IFC file into the Tree Viewer
There are two options when loading in an IFC file:
Load by default when importing the file using ggImportIFC
Manually using ggIFCLoad (geometric representation not added to Rhino)
In order to load by default ensure that the ggRhinoIFC panel is the visible view within the properties window. This tells Rhino to automatically import and populate the IFC file into the viewer on Import of an IFC file. However, if the IFC Panel is not the foremost visible on import it will not. This allows the user to choose whether to load to the tree viewer or not.
The second option is to load a file manually using the ggLoadIFC command or by selecting Load IFC from the ggRhinoIFC drop-down menu in Rhino. This will only load the file into the tree viewer and will not add any of the geometric representations to Rhino.
If you wanted to load the file into the viewer but did not make the viewer the foremost property view, then simply perform the manual ggLoadIFC operation separately after import.
Once the file is loaded a + icon will appear next to the IFC wording within the viewer. Now the file is loaded in the tree viewer.
You can load an IFC file into the viewer without the requirement of loading the geometry prior. In this case, skip the step of ImportIFC and just use the LoadIFC command. You can generate specific geometry directly from the tree viewer at a later time if required.
Importing Multiple Files
The IFC Tree Viewer allows you to import multiple IFC separately which is helpful when trying to overlay different discipline models or understanding discrepancies between multiple models.
Navigating
Once the file has loaded you can navigate the file as you like by traversing down the tree structure of the file by expanding elements of the file.
Navigate by Geometry
By clicking on a geometric element in the Rhino viewport the element will automatically be scrolled to in the tree viewer.
This can be very helpful when trying to understand how the element is described in the file.
View Geometry From the Tree Viewer
Geometry will be automatically selected within the Rhino Viewport when an item is clicked or selected within the tree viewer. This can be very useful when visualising which geometry is nested within aspects such as Building Storys or Assemblies.
Tree View Context Options
Isolate (Export) Specific Objects
if an Isolate option is available when right-clicking on an element within the IFC tree viewer, it means that this element can be exported as a simpler ifc file. This is a very useful feature of the IFC Tree Viewer and allows certain sections, sub-sections or single elements to be exported as separate .ifc files directly from the tree viewer.
For example, you can export all the objects of an entire floor by right-clicking on the IFCBUILDINGSTOREY object in the tree viewer and selecting the Isolate option.
You also still export the entire IFC file from the tree viewer by right-clicking on the root Project element.
Modify Object
We do allow some modification of the IFC file from within the tree viewer. If an element within the IFC can be modified then you will get a Modify context option. This will allow you to modify basic properties on the object.
Modifications are completed using the Rhino command line. When modify is selected a command line should appear showing the modification options available for that object.
First, select the modification parameter that you would like to change and then press enter once you are happy with your change. Select enter again to confirm all changes to the element.
Delete Element
You can Delete an object from the IFC file (within Rhino) and also the Rhino Viewport by selecting the Delete.
Be careful with this. It cannot be undone. This will not change the imported IFC file. However, if you want to save a copy of the file with the deleted element removed you should export using the steps above.
Import (Geometry) to Rhino
Ifc Elements which have geometrical representations can be generated in Rhino on-demand using the Import to Rhino option. If you have already imported the Rhino Geometry into Rhino you will not likely require to use this. But if you
For example, if you have not used the ggImportIFC command to import the geometry and you only want to view the geometry for the second story of the building you can use this command to only import the second level geometry.
The tree viewer allows you to traverse through the finer details of a geometrical representation (for example a face of a mesh, or the vertex of that mesh face) in order to understand how the geometric representation is made up.
Set Construction Plane
The Set Construction Plane context menu allows you to set the construction plane in Rhino from a particular object local plane definition. If you want to draw objects at level 3 of a building you can select set construction plane at that level to set the basis of your modelling from.
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