IFC to Revit — convert an IFC into native Revit elements
Linking an IFC in Revit gives you something to look at: DirectShapes with awkward categories, properties that are hard to reach, and nothing that joins, cuts or schedules. This free add-in for Revit 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 rebuilds the model instead — walls from the exporter's own centreline, floors, roofs and ceilings at their real boundary, beams and columns along their axis with the section's rotation, and pipes and ducts as real MEP curves.
It is honest about the parts it cannot do that way. Every element lands on one of five rungs — native system family, one of your own loaded families, a family generated from the IFC's own profile, a solid, or a simplified box — and the rung is written onto the element as a parameter, so you can schedule and filter by how each thing was converted.
How the workflow runs
The browser does the reading and Revit does the building, which is why there are steps rather than one button. Nothing is typed between them: once Revit is linked to your account, the plan and your family names travel on their own.
- Scan your IFC in the browser. The IFC to Revit tool reads every element and reports what each one can become, naming the reason wherever it cannot do better. Free, and nothing is installed at this point.
- Install the add-in and link it. One installer covers Revit 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026, installs for the current user and needs no administrator rights. You approve it once in your browser, so the add-in never sees your password.
- Send your family names, if you want your own families used. One button in Revit. Names only — no geometry, no parameters, no project name, no file — and they appear in the mapping step by themselves.
- Press Send to Revit. The plan, the report and the geometry travel together and land in your linked Revit's own list. There is no code to copy.
- Convert. BIMCamel tab, Convert IFC, pick your plan from the list. A check shows what is about to be created against that project's levels and units; nothing is written until you press Convert, and the whole import is a single undo step.
Installing it
Two minutes, and it does not touch your Revit templates or your families.
- Run BIMCamelRevitSetup.exe. It installs for the current Windows user only — no administrator rights, no IT ticket.
- One installer covers Revit 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026, and puts the build compiled against each version's API in that version's folder rather than asking which you have.
- Start Revit and look for the BIMCamel tab: 1 · Account, 2 · Send families, 3 · Convert IFC, 4 · Report.
- Windows may warn that the publisher is unknown — the installer is not code-signed yet. Every release publishes BIMCamelRevitSetup.exe.sha256 beside it, written by the same build, so the download can be verified before it is run.
- The add-in is free to use. It is not open source.
What it costs
The add-in is a free download and there is no licence key. Reading your file is free too: the scan, the fidelity report and the family mapping cost nothing and need no account. What is metered is the conversion itself — the step that builds a plan and writes elements into your model.
- Free account — 5 IFC-to-Revit conversions a month.
- Any pass, or Pro — 25 a month.
- Team — unlimited.
- A conversion is counted once per file per calendar month, so re-converting the same model after changing your mapping costs nothing extra. The count returns to zero on the 1st.
- You need a BIMCamel account and a linked Revit to convert; scanning stays free and anonymous.
What it will not do
Stated here rather than discovered afterwards — and the scan gives you these numbers for your specific file before you install anything.
- Curtain walls, ramps, railings, rebar and MEP equipment arrive as solids: IFC carries no parametric definition for them to rebuild from. Stairs are the partial exception — a straight flight is measured off its own treads and rebuilt as a real Revit stair on the low-confidence rung, while a turning stair keeps its solid.
- Elements whose geometry is a mesh cannot become native anything — there is no baseline or profile left in the file.
- MEP arrives as segments on a system type, not as connected systems.
- Converting a revised IFC gives you a new conversion, not a merge.
Questions people ask first
Is it free?
Yes — free to download and use, with no licence key and no trial timer. It does need a free BIMCamel account, because the add-in builds from a conversion plan this site produces and the plan has to know whose Revit to arrive in; scanning a file to see what it can become stays free and needs no account at all. The source is not published: unlike BIMCamel's two Navisworks plug-ins, this one is closed source. That is why the conversion report exists in the form it does — if you cannot read the code, the report has to be specific enough to check the result against.
How does signing in inside Revit work?
The add-in shows a short code and you approve it in your browser, where you are already signed in — the same shape as signing a TV into a streaming service, and for the same reason: a desktop add-in cannot host a login screen. The add-in never sees your password, it works with Google sign-in without any extra steps, and every machine you link is listed on your account page with a revoke button. Sign out inside Revit only forgets the account on that machine; revoking is what actually kills the access.
Which Revit versions does it support?
Revit 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. One installer covers all four; Revit loads the build matching whichever version you open. 2023 and 2024 run on .NET Framework 4.8 and 2025 and 2026 on .NET 8, so the versions are genuinely different binaries rather than one assembly registered four times.
Does it need admin rights?
No. It installs per user into %APPDATA%\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins and registers an entry in Add/Remove Programs, so you can install and uninstall it on a locked-down machine.
Does my model get uploaded anywhere?
The IFC is uploaded to BIMCamel to be scanned and turned into a conversion plan, the same as any other tool on the site. The add-in itself never sends your model: its two network actions are fetching a plan you sent to this Revit from the website, and — only if you press Send families and confirm a dialog showing the exact counts — posting the names of your loaded family types so mapping on the site becomes a picker. Names only: no geometry, no parameters, no project name, no file.
Why do I need a plan file instead of just opening the IFC in Revit?
Reading IFC well needs a geometry engine that cannot run inside Revit's process on 2025 and later, so the parsing happens on our side and the add-in executes an ordered plan. The upside is that the hard half is testable and the same decision that produced your preview is the one that builds your model — the numbers you saw and the numbers you get cannot disagree.
Will it overwrite my model if something goes wrong?
The whole import runs inside one transaction group, so it is a single undo step, and the preview inside Revit shows you what is about to be created before anything is written. If a phase fails unrecoverably the whole run rolls back rather than leaving a half-converted model, and the families it loaded are removed with it. The one thing an undo cannot take back is those families: Revit does not allow a family to load inside a transaction, so they sit outside the import's undo step — pressing Ctrl+Z removes the elements and leaves the families, which you can delete from the project browser. The add-in says so when it finishes rather than leaving you to find out.
What does it cost?
The add-in is a free download with no licence key, and reading your file is free too — the scan, the fidelity report and the family mapping cost nothing and need no account. What is metered is the conversion itself: 5 a month on a free BIMCamel account, 25 on a pass or Pro, unlimited on Team. A conversion is counted once per file per calendar month, so changing your mapping and converting the same model again costs nothing extra.
Something went wrong — how do I get help?
Every conversion writes a troubleshooting report listing each element, 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 carries no token, no email address and no machine name, so it is safe to paste into a thread. Mail [email protected] with that file attached — it is usually enough to say exactly what happened without a single follow-up question.
What happens to elements it cannot convert natively?
They still arrive: correct Revit category, every property set as parameters, and the source IFC GlobalId, as a solid carrying the element's real shape. Nothing is dropped and nothing is silently skipped — the report counts each one and names the reason.