Managing a project involves many parties and most often models from several project software that needs to be merged and checked for collisions and other errors. BCF is a file- format that allows BIM software to communicate questions and reference specific building elements between IFC enabled software.

How to get started

Most often a merge of models is done via a third-party software such as Solibri Model Checker. Here a clash detection or and other boundary issues tests are run, before being exported in BCF.

Now, how can you work with the outcome easiest in Revit? Here, the BCF Manager comes into play. With the manager you can import BCF files and visually see where issues from the different tests is located directly in your BIM model.

Use BCF manager without IFC export

You can use the BCF Manager in Revit projects without exporting IFC files by creating issues in BCF manager.

Select elements in Revit and create a related issue and add comments with the command new. Save the file and send to a colleague working with the same project. The issues can also be exported back to Solibri as solved or with comments.

Another option is to communicate within a Revit project (without creating IFC-files) by creating comments and save as a new BCF-file.

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 Want to test it out? Download for free here.

Issues

All issues in the file are displayed in a list view. Use new and delete to create new or delete issues and edit to modify the details of the issue. When creating a new issue, you can either pre-select the elements that need to be addressed or picked the elements while creating the BCF issue. In the latter you will be asked if you want to pick elements from linked or current project.

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A new issue gives the following information

  • Status: the current state of selected elements can be open, in progress, reopened or closed
  • Author: the creator of the issue
  • Assignee: the person to whom the issue is addressed to

When creating the issue, you can also export an issue image and a 3D view at the same time, as well as add additional comments to the BCF file if needed. After creating the issues, you can filter them by their status and/or assignee.

Want to test it out? Download for free here.

Filtering issues

The BCF Manager also supports filtering out issues by their status and assigned person.

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Filtering by assignee

You can filter out issues assigned only to you or any other team member involved.

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Filtering by status

By choosing to show only active issues, you can filter out closed issues and only leave open the ones that are active (open, in progress and reopened).

Components

The menu includes options to create a new 3D view like the view saved with the issue. You can also zoom or create a section box for selected components, as well as remove the section box from active 3D view. Finally, there’s a list of the components included in the selected issue. The category and type of Revit element is displayed, and selected components are highlighted in Revit.

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Want to test it out? Download for free here.

Comments

All comments about the selected issues are displayed in a list view, use add, edit and delete to manage the comments.

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Want to learn more?

You can test the feature out in a free trial here:

Do you have other tips on how you can check issues and in Revit? Leave a comment below to share your knowledge!