F.4 IFC4x1 Release Candidate 1

Having standardized infrastructure asset data available throughout the lifecycle of the facility is an imported key to a higher efficiency in planning, constructing and operating of our infrastructure assets. A comprehensive neutral data model standard capable to present both semantic as well as geometric aspects is necessary for enabling data exchange and open data access in the context of planning, realization, and maintenance of road, rail, waterway, and other infrastructure assets, including bridges and tunnels.

One of the most crucial parts of infrastructure projects is the alignment. The construction of bridges, tunnels, roadways, rail tracks, waterways, dams, and power lines depends strongly on the alignment. This release of the Industry Foundation Classes, IFC, includes the alignment schema definition as a common resource for data exchange and sharing in infrastructure works.

The objectives for the addition of alignment information to the IFC data schema are:

• Ability to exchange alignment information from planning to construction phase of projects and from construction phase to asset management;
• Ability to link alignment information to other project information such as super elevations, cross sections and full 3D geometry of construction elements;
• Open data access of alignment information from asset management databases ;
• Lasting archiving of infrastructure information models, including alignment information.

The current release of the IFC Alignment View Definition, based on the extended IFC data schema includes:

• the Alignment as a valid combination of horizontal, vertical and 3D alignments;
• the horizontal and vertical alignment segments;
• the surface model for the existing terrain;
• the transformation of the local coordinate system into a geographic coordinate system;
• the spatial zones;
• the physical geographic and civil elements.

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