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IFC and CAD import

Last modified by Claudia Bless on 2026/08/26 10:21

IFC import

IDA ICE imports any existing ifcSpaces which can be used for direct creation of zones and building bodies. ICE also imports styles for walls, windows and materials that can be used to provide an appropriate property set to a group of imported objects in ICE. Using IFC, it is possible to build the geometry of a building without manual editing.

See the getting started guide IFC import for more information about the IFC Import into IDA ICE.

Results from heating and cooling load simulations in IDA ICE can also be exported for merging into the IFC model. This is done by choosing Export to IFC in the Tools menu after simulation of heating and cooling loads

CAD import

IDA ICE can import drawings, either in popular CAD and vector formats (.dwg, .dxf, .dwf and other). Such drawings may be displayed in the background of the floor plan view or of the site view. They are also displayed in the 3D view. CAD drawings is normally used as background for drawing zone and building geometry in the Floor plan editor. It is not possible to automatically generate models based on 2D drawings.

There are two possible CAD-converters supported to automatically import files to IDA ICE; LibreDWG and ODA . The external converters automatically adjusts the selected CAD file to a format and file-version supported by IDA ICE. See the preferences page to setup and/or enable external CAD converters.

It is also possible to create zone and building objects in IDA ICE based on geometry that has been defined in a separate 3D editor. See further Building and zone geometry import.