Export to Excel

The Export to Excel tool exports model data into an Excel file.

This tool will export all included objects with all included properties to a new Excel file. Each object class is written to its own Worksheet. In addition to the included properties, the IFC GUID (globally unique id) will always be written as the last property on each Worksheet.

This tool is provided for backward compatibility and for enabling Excel export from templates and scripts. From the user interface, the recommended solution is to use the new Bimsheet technology, because it gives you vastly more control over what data is exported and how it is formatted. It even allows you to connect your existing Excel calculations to BIM!

You can also use the ‘legacy Excel export’ from Bimsheet, which gives you the same result as the tool, but with a preview and the possibility to edit the data before exporting. You might, for example, want to delete some unnecessary worksheets before exporting. However, this is slower than just running the tool, so use this only if you need the preview.

1. Add a Bimsheet palette to your workspace

2. Populate the Bimsheet palette with legacy export data. Click the button with the 3 horizontal lines and choose ‘Create Legacy Excel Export’

3. Configure the export. Please note that the File Name has no meaning in this context, because you define the file name when you later save from Bimsheet in step 5.

4. Preview the data in Bimsheet and make adjustments if needed.

5. Save the Bimsheet as plain Excel. Click on the button with the 3 horizontal lines and choose ‘Save as Plain Excel File’.

Settings

File Name

The full path and name, including file extension, for the new Excel file.
 

NOTE: The export will fail if this configuration is not given. In this case, a message will be written into the log if logging is enabled.

The extensions .xls and .xlsx are supported. Using .xls results in an older Excel 97-2003 Workbook that has a limit of 256 for the number of columns. In .xlsx, the limit is 16 384.

Format Output

Defines whether the resulting Excel file should be formatted or not.

On

Set the format of headers to bold and right-align numeric values.

Off

Do not format any cells. This can be considerably faster than formatting the cells.

Date and Time Format

Defines the format for Date, Date Time and Time of Date properties.

Current Culture

Exports date and time values using the format defined the Windows current culture settings of the computer.

IFC

Exports date and time values using the format defined in the IFC4 specification for IfcDate, IfcDateTime and IfcTime.

Escape Date and Time

Defines whether Date, Date Time and Time of Day properties should be escaped/prefixed with a apostrophe character. Prefixing a cell value with a apostrophe in Excel forces Excel to treat the value as text and turns off any automatic data type recognition that might otherwise apply.

On

Escape the cell value.

Off

Do not escape the cell value.

Include IFC Matadata

Add additional rows below the property name containing IFC metadata, like PropertySet, property name and data type.

Template and Script

When you run the tool from a template or script, use the configuration options below to get the desired result.

You should use a template for trimming the model, i.e. choosing which objects and properties are included, before running this tool. Otherwise you will export all objects and properties, which can be a lot.