Quick Start
Build your first IDS specification in about two minutes
IDS is a buildingSMART standard for declaring information requirements on
IFC models. Instead of writing IDS XML by hand, this editor lets you build
the same document visually: drop facet nodes, wire them into a
Specification, and the editor produces a valid .ids file you can hand
to any conforming checker.
This page gets you to your first exported IDS in about two minutes. Once you've done it, the Editor interactions page covers every shortcut and selection trick.
Walkthrough: walls must have a Fire Rating
One specification end-to-end — from blank canvas to exported XML.
Click Specification in the palette. Give it a name like "Wall Fire Rating".
Click Entity, set its Name to IFCWALL, then drag from the entity's right-side port to the spec's Applicability port.
Click Property. Set Property Set to Pset_WallCommon and Base Name to FireRating. Leave the value empty — that's a wildcard meaning "must exist, any value passes". Wire it into Requirements.
Top-right of the canvas: green = your XML is valid. Toolbar → Export → IDS (.ids).
<value> means "this property must be present, regardless of what it's set to". To require a specific value (or a list of allowed values), seeMatch any valueandRestrictions.Where to next
- Editor interactions — every shortcut, multi-select, duplicate, copy/paste.
- Match any value — leave the value field empty for existence-only checks.
- Restrictions — enumerations, regex patterns, numeric bounds, length limits.
- Facet Reference — what each facet matches and how it serialises.
A handful of practical notes
- IFC entity names are upper case in IDS XML:
IFCWALL, notIfcWall. The editor enforces this. - Property data type is optional in IDS, but recommended — the editor will suggest the right one based on the property name.
- The validation pill top-right of the canvas tells you the moment something is wrong; you don't need to export to find out.
- The default canvas already contains a working
Walls-FireRatingspec — feel free to edit it as a starting point rather than build from scratch.