04 - Checking construction types

Almost everything in the built environment will have a Construction Type. For example, an architect will specify a door type for every door in a project.

You can see a list of Construction Types in the Outliner panel in the Types collection. For example, if the architect has a wall types schedule with the wall type names of WT01, WT02, and WT03, you should see three IfcWallType objects with those same names in the Outliner.

You can click on these types to see more details about them in the Object Properties panel.

When selecting an object, you can also see its construction type in Object Properties under the IFC Construction Type subpanel. You can press the Select Icon to select all objects that are of the same Construction Type. You can use the hide and isolate hotkeys to quickly view them in the model.

A Construction Type defines properties that are common to all occurrences of that type. For example, if a wall type specifies a fire rating property, then all walls of that wall type will inherit that fire rating too.

A Construction Type may also specify geometry or geometric rules that are common to all occurrences of the type. For example, a pump type will define the geometry of the pump, so all occurrences of that pump will have the same geometry.

You can visually inspect types in isolation to the rest of the model. Types are hidden by default, so first enable the visibility of the Types collection in the Outliner by pressing the Visibility Icon. Then, select a type, and click on View > Local View > Toggle Local View (hotkey /) in the Viewport. Toggle the view to see the entire model again.

Note

Only Construction Types where the geometry is exactly the same for all occurrences will specify geometry. When the geometry varies based on the occurrence (such as a wall, which varies based on the wall length), the Construction Type will typically have no geometry.