Algorithm for efficiently extracting IFC building elements from an IFC building model

This research proposed two algorithms, which may reduce the size of IFC files, by extracting only the information requested by each project participant. The extraction algorithms could help to increase the productivity related to the exchange project information between them. One of the algorithms extracted entities related to the required building elements and instances recursively explain these entities from an IFC file. The other one eliminated the unnecessary entities and instances from the file. This research compared the IFC file extracted by the two algorithms to identify the more efficient algorithm. The extraction algorithm was more efficient than the elimination algorithm because the size of an IFC file through the extraction algorithm was almost 1/11 of the file size when the elimination algorithm was used. The identified algorithm could reduce the file size to 8.7 of the original size when extracting information related to the slab element in an IFC file.