IFC Space Program Conformance

Compares the model's IfcSpaces against a room brief you define inline: flags missing required rooms (count shortfall) and spaces below their required floor area. Run it on its own, or stack it with other checks in the Validation Center.

Check an IFC model against a room program. List the rooms the brief requires — how many of each, and the minimum area — and get back the shortfalls: room types the model has too few of, and individual rooms smaller than they're allowed to be.

The brief and the model diverge quietly. A schedule of accommodation is agreed early, the design develops for months, and nobody re-counts. Then a planning submission, a funding review or a client sign-off asks the direct question — are all the required rooms there, at the required sizes? — and the answer is worked out by hand from a room schedule that may itself be out of date. This asks the model.

When to reach for it: During design review, to confirm the model meets the architectural brief. Compares the IfcSpaces in the model against a schedule of accommodation you define and flags what's missing or undersized.

What you get: A findings list of required rooms missing from the model (count shortfall) and spaces below their required floor area — exportable to BCF, HTML, or CSV.

Example: Verify the design meets the architectural brief (required rooms and minimum areas) during design review.

How a requirement matches a space

Each requirement is a room name, a required count, and optionally a minimum area in square metres. A space in the model satisfies a requirement when its Name or its LongName equals the requirement's name, compared case-insensitively and ignoring surrounding whitespace. Both fields are checked because exporters disagree about which one carries the human-readable room name, and matching only one of them would make the result depend on the authoring tool rather than on the building.

That also means the room names in your program have to match the room names in the model. If your brief says "Consulting Room" and the model says "Consult Rm 01", nothing matches — and the check reports a shortfall that is really a naming mismatch. Extract IFC Data exports the space names so you can align the two, and Bulk Rename IFC Elements can normalise the model's names if that's the right fix.

Two findings: not enough, and not big enough

Count shortfall — HIGH. Fewer matching spaces than the program requires. This is the finding that matters for a compliance submission or a funding condition: the room isn't there.
Under-area space — MEDIUM. A matching space whose floor area falls below the minimum. Each is reported individually, so you know which room to look at rather than that "some rooms are small".

Areas compared in real square metres

Each space's floor area is read from its quantity sets, preferring NetFloorArea, and converted to square metres using the model's own length unit before being compared against the minimum. That conversion is the part that makes the answer trustworthy: a model authored in millimetres carries area numbers a million times larger than one in metres, and a check that compared raw values against a square-metre minimum would clear every millimetre model and fail every metre one.

Spaces with no area quantity can't be measured, so run the Floor Area Takeoff first — it reports exactly which spaces are missing an area quantity, and Add IFC Base Quantities can compute and write them from geometry. A program check on a model whose spaces have no areas will find no under-area rooms, which is not the same as there being none.

How to check an IFC model against a room program

Upload your IFC file
Enter the room brief inline — required room names, counts, and minimum floor areas
Click Run
Review missing required rooms and spaces below their required area
Export to BCF, HTML, or CSV

Under the hood

BIMCamel parses IFC files in the browser using the open-source web-ifc engine and renders models with @thatopen/components + three.js. Heavy operations (clean / optimise / validate / convert) run on disposable server-side workers using the same web-ifc stack plus our own .NET pipeline; results stream back to your browser as soon as they're ready. Uploads sit on our servers only as long as your tier's retention window allows and are never used to train AI.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check a model against a schedule of accommodation?

Enter the required rooms — name, required count, and optionally a minimum area in m² — and run. You get back the room types the model has too few of, and each individual room smaller than its minimum.

How are rooms matched to requirements?

By name: a space matches when its Name or LongName equals the requirement's name, case-insensitive and trimmed. Both fields are checked because exporters disagree about which carries the human-readable room name.

Why is it reporting rooms as missing when they're in the model?

Almost always a naming mismatch — the brief says "Consulting Room" and the model says "Consult Rm 01". Export the space names with Extract IFC Data to compare them, and either align the program or normalise the model's names with Bulk Rename IFC Elements.

Does it handle models authored in millimetres?

Yes. Each space's floor area is converted to square metres using the model's own length unit before being compared to the minimum, so the comparison is unit-correct whether the model is in mm or m.

What if my spaces have no area quantities?

They can't be measured, so no under-area findings will be raised for them — which is not the same as their being large enough. Run the Floor Area Takeoff to see which spaces are missing an area quantity, and Add IFC Base Quantities to compute and write them from geometry.

What's the maximum IFC file size?

Up to 25 MB as a guest, 100 MB with a free account, 500 MB on Pro, and 1 GB on Team. The caps are on upload size only — every tool itself is available on every tier.

What happens to my file after processing?

Your file is uploaded over HTTPS and processed on our servers. Guest uploads are stream-only — the working files are deleted as soon as your download finishes. Free accounts keep results for 7 days; Pro keeps them 90 days and Team 180 days. Files are never shared with third parties or used to train AI.

Is IFC Space Program Conformance free?

Yes. IFC Space Program Conformance is free to use — guests get 3 runs a day with 25 MB uploads, and a free account raises that to 10 runs a day with 100 MB uploads. No trial clock, no watermarks.