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What a BCF file is

BCF stands for BIM Collaboration Format. It is an open file format for passing issues between BIM tools - without passing the model itself.

That last part is the point. A model file is large, and everybody involved already has their own. What people actually need to exchange is the much smaller question of what is wrong and where. That is what a .bcf file carries.

What is inside one​

A BCF file is a zip archive containing, for each issue:

  • The topic - a title, a description, a status, a type, who it is assigned to, dates. This is what the app shows as an issue.
  • Comments - the conversation about it.
  • Viewpoints - a saved camera position, and usually a screenshot. When somebody opens the file in their own model viewer, the viewpoint puts them in front of the right part of the building, looking the right way.

There is no geometry in the file. A viewpoint is a set of coordinates that only means something when the receiving tool loads the same model.

Versions​

There are two versions in circulation, 2.1 and 3.0. 2.1 is the one nearly every tool reads.

This app reads both and writes 2.1. So a file exported from here opens in essentially anything. See What travels, and what does not for the rest of the detail.

Who you exchange them with​

Typically: a consultant who has run a clash detection or a model check and sends you the result; a contractor working in a different tool; anybody whose software is not this one.

The round trip is the normal pattern. Somebody sends you a file, you import it, the issues get worked on here, and you export a file back showing what has been resolved.

A note on the words​

The BCF standard calls each issue a topic. This app calls it an issue. It is the same thing - see Issue, task or topic? if you are moving between the two.