Navisworks – Data Analysis and Extraction

By Garry Stockton

Extracting data from IFC file into Microsoft Excel using Navisworks

The data analysis and extraction tools of Navisworks are very good and often not considered. In a recent training course, I was given an IFC file (originally from ArchiCAD) and asked to extract only the Room Names and Numbers to Excel.

I’m led to believe they couldn't find the equivalent property data for the Room Name in other IFC led applications such as BimSight.

Below is a guide to help you through the process.

Append the IFC to Navisworks, then open Navisworks Options (right click in space) and add the Quick Properties as shown below.

Create a Find Items search with these criteria.

Once all the Spaces are selected, open the Selection Inspector. The columns here are built from Quick Properties. Click Export CSV.

Open or Import the CSV into Excel and ensure to set comma as the Delimeter.

Here you can see the information in Excel.

It is quite easy to modify the search criteria and Quick Properties in the steps above to suit the type of data you want to extract from any IFC file.