The slowest part of most renovation projects is not design. It is getting the existing building into the model in the first place. Someone measures the space, then someone rebuilds it wall by wall in Revit or ArchiCAD before any real work starts. That is hours of modeling to recreate a building that already exists.
A scan plus an IFC export collapses that step.
What IFC Actually Is
IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) is the open file format for exchanging building models between tools. It is not tied to one vendor. Revit, ArchiCAD, Vectorworks, Navisworks, and most BIM and coordination tools can import IFC, which is exactly why it is the right export target for getting existing conditions out of one tool and into another.
The important part: IFC carries real building objects, not just lines. A wall comes across as a wall, a door as a door, a room as a space. That is the difference between a model you can work with and a drawing you have to trace over.
What SiteScope Exports
Scan a space, refine the plan in the editor, and export IFC. What lands in your BIM tool is a structured model, not a mesh:
- Walls, with thickness and height
- Doors and windows, hosted in their walls
- Rooms as IFC spaces
- Floor slabs and stairs
- Multiple stories, stacked as separate building levels
Because it is a multi-story-aware export, a whole building comes across with its floors intact rather than as one flattened plate. You open it in Revit or ArchiCAD and start from a model of the existing conditions instead of a blank project.
What It Is Good For, and What to Check
IFC export is built to do one job well: give you an accurate existing-conditions starting point fast. Treat it that way.
It is excellent for renovation and retrofit work, where the building is already there and re-modeling it is pure overhead. It is excellent for getting a field-captured space into a coordination model. It is a huge head start over manual measurement and re-drawing.
It is not a substitute for design-intent modeling, and you should still verify it against the field the way you would verify any existing-conditions survey. A scan captures what is there, including the parts that are out of square. Check critical dimensions before you build new design work on top of the import.
Manual workflow: measure on site → re-model in Revit → start design
IFC workflow: scan on site → export IFC → import → verify → start designThe steps that disappear are the ones that add no value: the second measurement and the wall-by-wall re-modeling.
Why Architects Care
For an architect, the existing-conditions model is a cost with no design payoff. Every hour spent rebuilding a building that is already standing is an hour not spent on the actual project. Anything that turns that from a day of modeling into a scan and an import is time straight back into design.
That is the use case IFC export is built around: not replacing your BIM tool, but feeding it the one thing it cannot generate on its own, an accurate model of what is already on site.
What to Pull Out of This
- IFC is the open BIM exchange format. Revit, ArchiCAD, Navisworks, and most coordination tools import it, which makes it the right way to move a model between tools.
- SiteScope exports a structured IFC model (walls, doors, windows, rooms, slabs, stairs, multiple stories), not just a mesh, so objects come across as objects.
- It is built for existing conditions and renovation. Use it as a fast, accurate starting point, and verify critical dimensions against the field before building design work on it.
- The value for architects is eliminating the manual re-modeling of a building that already exists.
If existing-conditions modeling is eating your project hours, the scan-to-IFC path is the shortcut. See how SiteScope handles documentation for architects.