IFC to Revit — rebuild an IFC as native, editable Revit elements
Rebuild an IFC as native Revit elements — walls, floors, ceilings, beams, columns, pipes and ducts — with a free add-in for Revit 2023-2026. Everything else arrives as a correctly categorised, fully propertied solid, and a report says which was which and why.
Convert an IFC into real Revit geometry — walls, floors, ceilings, roofs, doors, windows, pipes and ducts as native Revit elements you can edit, tag, schedule and cut — instead of the linked mesh Revit gives you by default. Scan your file here first, free and with no account, and see exactly what will convert before you install anything.
The scan is the point. Every IFC is different, and whether this is worth doing on YOUR file depends entirely on how it was exported. The scanner reads the file and sorts every element onto one of five rungs, with the reason for each, so you find out that a third of the model is triangulated mesh before you spend an afternoon on it rather than after.
When to reach for it: When a consultant sends you an IFC and you need Revit geometry you can actually edit, schedule, tag and cut — not a linked mesh. Typical cases: taking over a model from another team, rebuilding a legacy IFC as a Revit project, or getting an architect's shell into your structural model as real walls and floors rather than DirectShapes.
What you get: Parametric Revit elements where the IFC genuinely supports them, correctly categorised solids where it does not — everything converts, and a report tells you which was which and why. Walls, floors, ceilings, roofs, pipes and ducts come in as Revit system families built from the IFC's own baselines and thicknesses; doors and windows are placed into their host walls and cut real openings; steel members are matched to your loaded families by section. Where the file carries no parametric description at all, the converter measures one off the geometry — a wall's thickness from its faces, a stair's risers from its treads, a roof's pitch from its surface — and says so, on a separate rung labelled low confidence. Stairs and terrain only ever arrive by that measured route, and only when the run is straight. Everything it cannot measure honestly still comes in, as a solid in the right category with its properties intact: schedulable and taggable, just not parametric.
Example: Take a consultant's IFC and get editable Revit geometry instead of a linked mesh you cannot schedule or cut.
Why Link IFC is not enough
Revit can already open an IFC, and for looking at a consultant's model that is usually the right answer. What it produces is a DirectShape per element: the right shape in the right place, with its properties, and nothing else. It is not a wall. It will not host a door, will not join to your walls, will not cut in a section the way a wall does, and will not schedule as one.
That matters the moment the IFC stops being a reference and starts being the model you are working in — taking over a project from another team, rebuilding a legacy IFC as a Revit project, or bringing an architect's shell into a structural model. Then you need elements, not shapes.
So the work here is rebuilding, not translating. A wall is reconstructed from the IFC's own baseline and thickness as a Revit wall, with its material layer set turned into a compound structure where the file carries one. A door is placed into the wall the IFC names as its host, and cuts a real opening.
What actually comes back native, and what does not
Being straight about this is the whole product. Roughly: walls, slabs, ceilings, roofs and MEP runs rebuild as native Revit system families. Doors and windows become hosted loaded families that cut their walls. Steel beams, columns and members are matched to families you already have, by section, when the profile can be read from the file.
Stairs, ramps, railings and curtain walls do not, and never will. IFC does not carry a parametric definition of a Revit stair or a curtain wall grid, so there is nothing to rebuild from — that is a limit of the exchange format, not a feature waiting on a roadmap, and it is listed as permanent rather than "coming soon". The same goes for equipment: a boiler in an IFC is a shape and a name.
Everything in that second group still arrives as a solid in the correct Revit category with its properties intact, so it schedules, tags and filters. It is simply not parametric. And any element whose IFC body is a triangulated mesh lands there too regardless of its class, which is why the scan matters: a file exported as mesh throughout cannot be rebuilt by anyone, and you should know that in thirty seconds rather than after the import.
Use the families you already have
A converted model is only useful if it matches your office standards, so the add-in can send the NAMES of the families and types loaded in your project up to your account, and the converter then matches the IFC's types against them. A door called "M_Single-Flush 0915 x 2134mm" in your template gets used for the IFC's equivalent instead of a generated stand-in.
Names only. No geometry, no parameters, no project name, no file leaves your machine, the dialog states the exact counts before anything is sent, and nothing is sent without you pressing the button. You can also override any individual mapping by hand, and your explicit choice always beats the automatic one.
Every conversion writes a report
The add-in produces a troubleshooting report for every run, listing each element with the fidelity that was planned, the fidelity that was achieved, and the reason for any gap — including Revit's own message when it refused something. It records which family was used for each type, which walls got which thickness, and how many warnings Revit raised.
It is designed to be pasted into a support thread: it carries no token, no email address and no machine name. If a conversion disappoints you, that file is the thing to send, and it is usually enough to say exactly why.
What it costs, and what is free
Reading your file is free and always will be. The scan, the fidelity ladder, the reason given for every element and the family mapping cost nothing and need no account — you can find out whether this is worth doing on your model without signing up for anything or installing anything.
What is metered is the conversion: the step that builds the plan your Revit writes into the model. A free account gets 5 conversions a month, any pass or a Pro subscription gets 25, and Team accounts are unlimited. The count resets on the 1st.
A conversion is counted once per file per month, not once per click. Changing your mapping and converting the same model again is free, which matters because getting the mapping right usually takes more than one attempt. The add-in itself is a free download with no licence key.
What you need
- An IFC file — IFC2X3 or IFC4. The scan runs in your browser and needs no account.
- A BIMCamel account to build the conversion itself. Free accounts get 5 conversions a month; Pro gets 25; Team is unlimited.
- Autodesk Revit 2023, 2024, 2025 or 2026, and the free BIMCamel add-in. One installer covers every version, installs per-user and needs no admin rights.
- The add-in is free to use. It is not open source.
How ifc to revit works
- Upload your IFC and run the scan — free, no account, no install. It tells you what would come in as native Revit geometry and what would not.
- Create an account and install the free Revit add-in (2023–2026, one installer, no admin rights), then link Revit to your account.
- Optional: press Send families in Revit so the converter can match the IFC's types to families you already have.
- Press Send to Revit. The plan, report and geometry travel together — no codes to type.
- In Revit, pick your plan from the list and press Convert. It is one undo step, and a report says what was built.
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
Can I convert IFC to Revit without a plugin?
You can scan your IFC here with no account and no install, and see exactly what would convert and at what fidelity. Producing native Revit elements does need the free add-in, because only something running inside Revit can create a Revit wall. Anything claiming to make an RVT without Revit is either producing a mesh or reverse-engineering the file format.
How is this different from Revit's own Link IFC?
Link IFC gives you a DirectShape per element: the right shape in the right place with its properties, but not a wall — it will not host a door, join to your walls, cut properly in section, or schedule as a wall. This rebuilds the elements as native Revit objects where the IFC supports it, so you get things you can actually edit.
Will everything come in as native Revit elements?
No, and the scan tells you what will before you start. Walls, floors, ceilings, roofs, pipes and ducts rebuild natively; doors and windows come in hosted and cut their walls; steel members match your loaded families by section. Stairs, railings, curtain walls and equipment arrive as correctly categorised solids, because IFC carries no parametric definition to rebuild them from.
Does it work with IFC2X3 as well as IFC4?
Yes, both. Most files in circulation are still IFC2X3, including everything exported by older versions of Revit, and the scan reports which schema your file uses along with the application that wrote it.
Which versions of Revit are supported?
Revit 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. One installer covers all four, installs for the current user only, and needs no administrator rights.
Does my model leave my machine?
The IFC is uploaded to be scanned and converted, which is what makes the browser scan possible. What does NOT leave your machine is anything about your Revit project: when you share your family catalogue the add-in sends type names only — no geometry, no parameters, no project name, no file — and it states the exact counts before sending.
Can I undo the import?
Yes. The whole conversion is a single Revit transaction, so one Ctrl+Z removes it. Nothing is written to your model until you press Convert, and before that you get a summary checked against that specific project — its levels, units and worksets.