Exporting an IFC File to a Model View Definition

The full IFC schema has over 1300 entities; no single exchange uses all of it. A Model View Definition (MVD) is a standardized subset of the schema scoped to one exchange scenario. It fixes which entities, attributes, property sets, and geometry representation types a conforming exporter is allowed to produce. Exporting to an MVD means two things ALWAYS done together: declaring the MVD in the file header, and keeping the actual content inside the subset that MVD allows.

Verified against the buildingSMART IFC4 Reference View specification, the buildingSMART MVD database, the IFC Header Data Implementation Guide v1.0.2, and the IFC4.3, IFC4 ADD2 TC1, and IFC2x3 TC1 specifications. See references/methods.md for the MVD registry and geometry matrix, references/examples.md for header strings and a conformance checklist, and references/anti-patterns.md for the export mistakes that break MVD conformance.

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