IfcEdit¶

IfcEdit is a CLI wrapper for the full ifcopenshell.api mutation API. It exposes all editor functions — over 350 across 30+ modules — without requiring you to write a Python script. It supports four subcommands:

list — list all API modules, or all functions within a module
docs — show full documentation for a function (parameters, types, descriptions)
run — execute a mutation against an IFC file
foreach — apply an API function to each element in a JSON array read from stdin
quantify — run quantity take-off using ifc5d rules; requires the IfcOpenShell C++ geometry bindings

Installation¶

pip install ifcedit

Or install from source:

Install IfcOpenShell
Clone the IfcOpenShell repository.
cd /path/to/IfcOpenShell/src/ifcedit
pip install .

Usage¶

Discover available API functions:

$ ifcedit list
$ ifcedit list root
$ ifcedit list geometry

Read documentation for a function:

$ ifcedit docs root.remove_product
$ ifcedit docs type.assign_type

Execute a mutation (overwrites the input file by default):

$ ifcedit run model.ifc root.remove_product --product 42
$ ifcedit run model.ifc type.assign_type --related_objects 10 --relating_type 20

Write to a separate output file:

$ ifcedit run model.ifc root.create_entity -o output.ifc --ifc_class IfcWall

Dry-run to validate without modifying the file:

$ ifcedit run model.ifc root.remove_product --dry-run --product 42

Apply an API function to each element in a JSON array from stdin ({field} placeholders are substituted from each item; model is opened and saved once):

$ ifcquery model.ifc select 'IfcWindow' | ifcedit foreach model.ifc root.remove_product --product {id}
$ ifcquery model.ifc select 'IfcDoor' | ifcedit foreach model.ifc attribute.edit_attributes \
    --product {id} --attributes '{"Name": "Door"}'

Write to a separate output file instead of overwriting:

$ ifcquery model.ifc select 'IfcWall' | ifcedit foreach model.ifc root.remove_product -o output.ifc --product {id}

Quantity take-off (writes IfcElementQuantity psets back to the file; requires C++ geometry bindings):

$ ifcedit quantify list
$ ifcedit quantify run model.ifc IFC4QtoBaseQuantities
$ ifcedit quantify run model.ifc IFC4QtoBaseQuantities --selector IfcWall
$ ifcedit quantify run model.ifc IFC4QtoBaseQuantities -o model_qto.ifc

Parameter types¶

IfcEdit automatically coerces CLI string arguments to the correct Python types using the type hints on each API function:

Type	CLI input	Python value
`str`	`"hello"`	`"hello"`
`int`	`"42"` or `"#42"`	`42`
`float`	`"3.14"`	`3.14`
`bool`	`"true"`, `"1"`, `"yes"`	`True`
`Optional[X]`	`"none"`	`None`
`entity_instance`	`"42"` or `"#42"`	resolved from model by step ID
`list[entity_instance]`	`"5,6,7"`	list of resolved entities
`dict`	`'{"key": "val"}'`	parsed JSON object
`Literal["A", "B"]`	`"A"`	validated against allowed values