IfcOpenShell Geometry Processing & Creation

Quick Reference

Decision Tree: Reading vs Creating Geometry

Need geometry from IFC elements?
├── Extract existing geometry? (read/process)
│   ├── Single element → ifcopenshell.geom.create_shape(settings, element)
│   ├── Multiple elements (100+) → ifcopenshell.geom.iterator(settings, model, cpu_count)
│   └── Specific entity attributes → Manual traversal (element.Representation)
│
└── Create new geometry? (write/author)
    ├── Simple wall block → geometry.add_wall_representation()
    ├── Extruded profile (beam/column) → geometry.add_profile_representation()
    ├── Arbitrary mesh (furniture/equipment) → geometry.add_mesh_representation()
    ├── Boolean operation (opening/cut) → geometry.add_boolean()
    ├── Custom parametric shape → ShapeBuilder + builder.get_representation()