User defined language for IFC step physical files for text editor Notepad++
Notepad++ is a great text editor. It supports custom syntax highlighting (UDL, user defined language). Because there was no support for .ifc or .spf files I created my own UDL. It is optimized for IFC. Other STEP files may not work.
Download .ifc file: KIT IFC Examples from IfcWiki
Syntax highlighting in np++:
Just as reference: this is how this building looks in a CAD programm:
Download .ifc file: Spatial Strcture 3
Syntax highlighting in np++:
- Square brackets inside quotation marks are highlighted as delimiter but should be just text instead (see line 3 in KIT example screenshot)
- Most
.ifcfiles are quite large. Files with more than ~ 10 Megabyte make np++ really slow with syntax highlighting. If you want to load larger files maybe disable syntax highlighting for.ifcfirst or rename the file before opening it.
The Industry Foundation Classes or short IFC is a data model intended to describe architectural, building and construction industry data. One way to exchange these data models is the STEP Physical File format for IFC which is a structured text file. It is defined by ISO 10303-21:2016 which is unfortunately non-free.
Some basic syntax can be found at the Library of Congress (loc.gov) and at steptools.com (.pptx file warning).