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5.1.3.42 IfcRelationship

RV ⓘ
AbV ⓘ

ABSTRACT This definition may not be instantiated

5.1.3.42.1 Semantic definition

IfcRelationship is the abstract generalization of all objectified relationships in IFC. Objectified relationships are the preferred way to handle relationships among objects. This allows keeping relationship-specific properties directly at the relationship and opens the possibility to later handle relationship-specific behaviour.

There are two different types of relationships, 1-to-1 relationships and 1-to-many relationships, used within the subtypes of IfcRelationship. The following convention applies to all subtypes:

  • The two sides of the objectified relationship are named Relating+ and Related+
  • In case of the 1-to-many relationship, the related side of the relationship shall be an aggregate, representing a set with cardinality 1..n

5.1.3.42.2 Entity inheritance

5.1.3.42.3 Attributes

# Attribute Type Description
IfcRoot (4)
1 GlobalId IfcGloballyUniqueId

Assignment of a globally unique identifier within the entire software world.

2 OwnerHistory OPTIONAL IfcOwnerHistory

Assignment of the information about the current ownership of that object, including owning actor, application, local identification and information captured about the recent changes of the object.

3 Name OPTIONAL IfcLabel

An optional name for use by the participating software systems or users. For some subtypes of IfcRoot the insertion of the Name attribute may be required. This would be enforced by a where rule.

4 Description OPTIONAL IfcText

An optional description, provided to exchange informative comments.

Table A

5.1.3.42.4 Concept usage

Concept Usage Description
IfcRoot (2)
Revision Control General

Ownership, history, and merge state is captured using IfcOwnerHistory.

Software Identity General

IfcRoot assigns the globally unique ID. In addition, it may also provide a name and description for the concept.

Click to show 2 hidden inherited concepts Click to hide 2 inherited concepts
Table B

5.1.3.42.5 Formal representation

ENTITY IfcRelationship
ABSTRACT SUPERTYPE OF (ONEOF
(IfcRelAssigns
,IfcRelAssociates
,IfcRelConnects
,IfcRelDeclares
,IfcRelDecomposes
,IfcRelDefines))
SUBTYPE OF (IfcRoot);
END_ENTITY;

5.1.3.42.6 References

Edit on Github

6 contributor(s): ArturTomczakDion MoultGeert HesselinkThomas KrijnenstefkeBbSI-Bot
Last change: Typos and small patches in content and entities (#986) * Typos and small patches in content and entities * revert redundant changes * Update docs/schemas/core/IfcKernel/Entities/IfcObjectDefinition.md Co-authored-by: Thomas Krijnen <t.krijnen@gmail.com> * Update docs/schemas/core/IfcKernel/Entities/IfcPropertySetDefinition.md Co-authored-by: Thomas Krijnen <t.krijnen@gmail.com> * Update docs/schemas/core/IfcKernel/Entities/IfcPropertyTemplateDefinition.md Co-authored-by: Thomas Krijnen <t.krijnen@gmail.com> * Update docs/schemas/core/IfcKernel/Entities/IfcRelDeclares.md Co-authored-by: Thomas Krijnen <t.krijnen@gmail.com> * Update docs/schemas/core/IfcKernel/Entities/IfcRelationship.md Co-authored-by: Thomas Krijnen <t.krijnen@gmail.com> --------- Co-authored-by: Thomas Krijnen <t.krijnen@gmail.com> Co-authored-by: ArturTomczak <artomczak@gmail.com> by Geert Hesselink on 2025-09-18T09:21:05+01:00

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