The IFC-Bridge project – Extending the IFC standard to enable high-quality exchange of bridge information models

The paper reports on the buildingSMART International project IFC-Bridge that developed an extension of the vendor-neutral data exchange standard Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). The paper highlights the importance of a well-defined development process and the involvement of an international expert panel. It also discusses the need to focus on "low hanging fruits" by considering only the most widespread bridge types and implementing the data exchange scenarios that provide the most benefit. The paper describes both the development process and the outcome -- the actual extension of the IFC standard. In this regard, emphasis is given to the general principles of extending IFC, such as minimizing the number of new entities.