The architect just carries on drawing in ArchiCAD, as always. As soon as he shares the model, the contractor or the roofer wants to see the same thing in the workshop, without having to buy ArchiCAD or BIMx themselves. Field-Viewer opens that shared model, right down to the tablet.
THE HANDOVER
Architect · engineering office
Design, permit file and IFC export from ArchiCAD.
The crew
Contractor, roofer or installer, in the workshop or on site.
BIMx is built to present a design to a client or an engineering consultancy, in ArchiCAD's own language. Field-Viewer is built for the execution phase in the workshop and on site: rugged controls, an IFC model alongside files from other packages, and taking your own measurements without calling the architect.
Just an IFC export, something most architecture practices already know from a planning application or coordination with an engineering consultancy. No separate setting or extra licence is needed for Field-Viewer on the ArchiCAD side.
The storeys simply come along in the IFC export, so that structure stays usable in Field-Viewer. The ArchiCAD layer structure itself does not translate one to one: Field-Viewer shows the layers and properties as they appear in the IFC file, so on a first project it is worth checking that together with the architect.
One IFC export from ArchiCAD is enough to get the model to the whole crew.
The architect designs and details the project in ArchiCAD, with the documentation and storeys that go with it.
From ArchiCAD, the architect or the engineering consultancy exports the model as an IFC file, readable outside ArchiCAD itself.
That IFC file ends up in Field-Viewer, alongside the pdf drawings the architect usually supplies separately.
In the workshop or on site, you view the model, switch layers on or off and take your own dimension, without installation.
ARCHITECT SHARES, CREW VIEWS
In Flanders and the Netherlands, ArchiCAD is mainly the architect's package: the design, the planning application and the coordination with the engineering consultancy happen there. Whoever actually puts up the building afterwards usually does not draw in ArchiCAD themselves. That structural contractor or roofer only sees the model once the architect shares it, usually through an IFC export.
Graphisoft already has its own viewer for that with BIMx, built to show a design to a client or an engineering consultancy in ArchiCAD's own language. Field-Viewer picks a different moment: the execution phase in the workshop or on site. There, what matters most is whether the screen stays readable in bright sunlight and whether the controls still work with gloves on, and whether the architect's model can simply sit alongside a subcontractor's detail drawing.
Here too, the model comes in via IFC, not through a direct link like with Vertex BD.
Would you rather see your own project on screen than an example of ours? Email us a publication from Vertex BD or an IFC file, with the pdf drawings alongside if you have them, to info@field-viewer.com. Too big for an email? Send a WeTransfer link instead.
Within two working days we set up a short demo in which you see your own model in the viewer: your elements, your dimensions, your drawings beside them.
We use what you send only to prepare that demo. We share your files with no one and we delete them afterwards.
Request a demo with your own project, no obligation. We will look together at whether Field-Viewer suits your team in Flanders, in your workshop or on your site.
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