Wall operations fail on IFC model exported from Sketchup

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I exported an IFC 2x3 model from Sketchup with IfcWall, IfcSlab etc. properties added to various elements. I can add layers to walls in Qonic, but I can’t get the Connect tool to work on my walls (fails without error message).

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When trying to use “Split into Layers” on a wall to which I have previously added a layer, I get the message “Can’t split a single layered element”.
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What could be the reason?

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Hi @Michael_Hasse,
Welcome to the Qonic community!

The Connect tool uses some heuristics on the input geometry to decide how to parts should be connected. My guess is that in this case, the heuristics don’t work as expected on the right-hand wall because of its shape. The hole in the wall is so big compared to the rest of the wall itself the algorithm can not unambiguously decide which faces of the wall to connect. We will see if we can improve the algorithm, but in the meantime it is always possible to use a more manual approach like Push/Pull or Align Faces.

The error message in “Split into Layers” is actually as expected in this case. The tool was created to split existing IfcMaterialLayerSets in IFC files where the different layers of a wall/slab/roof are not explicitly defined. In other words, a wall in an IFC may be imported into Qonic as a single object containing some Material Layer Set of e.g. 3 materials. The “Split into Layers” tool can then be used to make these 3 materials explicit by creating a wall assembly with 3 ‘child’ parts, each containing 1 material. These 3 parts can then be individually manipulated.

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Hi @Jacob_De_Sutter,

Thanks for your very helpful explanation.
Is there a way to assign IfcMaterialLayerSets in Qonic itself?

I absolutely love Qonic so far - looking forward to watching the video from the London event.

I just realized I posted this under feature requests accidentally. Please move if appropriate.

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Hi @Michael_Hasse,

There is currently no way to assign IfcMaterialLayerSets in Qonic itself; we want to promote the idea of working with assemblies and parts instead of predefined layer sets, as we believe it is a less “restrictive” way to model building parts.

That being said, at some point in the future we might support adding e.g. multiple layers with predefined thicknesses, instead of adding single layers individually. This could be a useful productivity gain when adding/creating wall layers, but they will again be defined as assemblies and parts, and not as an IfcMaterialLayerSet.

Glad to hear you’re enjoying Qonic!

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