IFC Certification 2.0 Announcement

New IFC Certification Process Started - Already very Positive Feedback and Participation by Software Developers

01.05.2010: buildingSMART International has launched a new certification program aiming at improving the quality and robustness of IFC implementations. The new certification process, called "IFC Certification 2.0" is the result of intensive discussions within buildingSMART and with users of the openBIM IFC interfaces. It responds to the strong demand to improve the quality of software interfaces and to strengthen the rigidness of certification. The call for participation in an "early-bird" program of first-comers had been successfully launched. 10 software companies world-wide signed-in to participate in the first round of the new "IFC Certification 2.0" process for the improved IFC2x3 Coordination View Version 2.0.

The "IFC Certification 2.0" is an improved implementation of the former "IFC2x Certification" process. The most important achievement of the "IFC Certification 2.0" process is its nature of a detailed quality control of the IFC interfaces of participating software developers on top of the self check of the software developers themselves. The major parts of the new certification process are:

1. based on a clear and improved model view definition - IFC2x3 Coordination View Version 2.0
2. based on new test instructions to build comprehensive export test models
3. based on validated and comprehensive import calibration test models
4. based on automatic export verification with rules automatically derived from the model view definition
5. based on manual additional export and import verification as check item lists derived from the concepts of the model view definition
6. based on an web-based certification server, the Global Testing and Documentation Server, providing workflow support for (1) provision of export test instructions, (2) upload and automatic verification of export test files, (3) provision and download of import calibration files, (4) provision of applicable manual check lists for export and import files, (5) overall management of the certification process and final reporting of results

The specification of the IFC Certification 2.0 process is available >>>here (final draft dated 24-Apr-2010)<<<

It is anticipated that the first certification logos could be awarded by end of 2010. A certification logo is awarded together with a certificate stating the scope and time of validity for this certification. At the same time (end 2010) the previous certification logos will loose their validity.

new certification logo	new certificate (draft) to accompany the logo		previous certification logo step 1 (until 2009)	previous certification logo step 2 (until 2009)
			no longer valid	no longer valid

The following companies participate with these software applications:

^(*) Exchange Requirement applicable only to export, for import all three exchange requirements have to be supported. See also Questions & Answers

The following web resources support the IFC Certification 2.0 process: