BIM programming

Abstract

This chapter describes different possibilities for programming BIM applications with particular emphasis on processing data in the vendor-neutral Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) exchange format. It describes how to access data in STEP clear text encoding and discusses the differences between early and late binding. Given the increasingly important role of ifcXML in the exchange of IFC data, the chapter also examines different access variants such as SAX (Simple API for XML) and DOM (Document Object Model), and discusses the different geometry representations of IFC and their interpretation. Furthermore, the chapter gives a brief overviewof the development of add-ins as a means of allowing existing software to be adapted to user-specific needs. The chapter ends with a brief overview of cloud-based platforms and a short introduction to visual programming.