IFC Quantity Extractor
Read the quantities a model already carries and total them per class and per storey, in the units the model states.
Drop your IFC here
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Large models work best on a desktop browser. Files above roughly 500.0 MB may exceed browser memory.
How it works
- 1Select an IFC file. It is read from your disk by your browser and goes no further.
- 2Every element is read with its quantity sets, instance and type.
- 3Totals are grouped by IFC class and quantity, never mixed across classes or kinds.
- 4Narrow to the classes and storeys you are pricing.
- 5Export the summary or the full element-by-element list as CSV, Excel or JSON.
About IFC Quantity Extractor
A takeoff from a model usually starts with a long detour: open the file in a full application, build a schedule, group it, total it, export it. The quantities were already inside the IFC the whole time.
IFC stores them as element quantity sets, most often called BaseQuantities. A wall carries its length, its net side area and its volume. A space carries its floor area. A door carries its dimensions. This tool reads all of it and rolls it up.
Two decisions shape everything the tool does. The first is that nothing is computed from geometry. A browser could measure a solid, but the number would not match the authoring tool's own, because net against gross, deductions and joins are decisions made upstream that the geometry no longer records. A figure you cannot reconcile is worse than an empty cell.
The second is that nothing is totalled across classes or kinds. Each row is one IFC class and one named quantity. The kind is read from which value field IFC populated, not inferred from the name, so a quantity an exporter called something unusual still lands in the right column.
Units come from the model's own unit assignment and are shown beside every total, because the same number means very different things in metres and in millimetres and exporters do not agree.
If a model comes back empty, the export skipped quantities. That is worth knowing early, and it is a setting rather than a problem.
Questions
- Where do these quantities come from?
- From the model. IFC stores quantities as element quantity sets, usually named BaseQuantities or Qto_something, written by the exporter. This tool reads what is there and totals it. It does not compute anything from geometry.
- Why does my model have no quantities at all?
- Because base quantities are an export option and it is off by default in several authoring tools. The geometry is present, the quantities are not, and nothing in the file records that they were skipped. Turn the option on and export again. That is the honest fix, and it is why this tool reports an empty result rather than filling one in.
- Could it calculate quantities from the geometry instead?
- In principle a browser can measure a solid. In practice the number would disagree with the authoring tool's own, because deductions, joins and the definition of net against gross are decisions the authoring tool made and the geometry no longer records. A takeoff figure you cannot reconcile against the model it came from is worse than no figure, so this tool does not produce one.
- Why are areas from different classes not added together?
- Because the sum would be meaningless. Wall side areas and window areas are both areas and belong to different measurements entirely. Every total here is one IFC class and one named quantity, and lengths, areas, volumes, counts and weights are never mixed. The kind is read from the field IFC populated, not guessed from the quantity's name.
- What units are the numbers in?
- The model's own, read from its unit assignment and shown beside each total. This matters more than it sounds: the same value can be metres in one export and millimetres in another, and a takeoff that assumed one of them would be out by a factor of a thousand. If the model does not state its units, the tool says so rather than assuming.
- Is my IFC file uploaded anywhere?
- No. The file is read by your own browser using a WebAssembly IFC parser. The model is never sent to FreeBIMTools or anywhere else, and there is no upload endpoint for it.
- Can it read a Revit .rvt file?
- No, and no browser tool honestly can. RVT is a proprietary format that needs Revit itself. Export an IFC from Revit with base quantities enabled and this tool will read it.
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