#### 6.1.3.5 IfcDistributionPort

| Port de distribution
| Anschluss / Port

A distribution port is an inlet or outlet of a product through which a particular substance may flow.

Distribution ports are used for passage of solid, liquid, or gas substances, as well as electricity for power or communications. Flow segments (pipes, ducts, cables) may be used to connect ports across products. Distribution ports are defined by system type and flow direction such that for two ports to be connected, they must share the same system type and have opposite flow directions (one side being a SOURCE and the other being a SINK). Ports are similar to openings in that they do not have any visible geometry; such geometry is captured at the shape representation of the enclosing element or element type. Ports may have placement that indicates the position and orientation of the connection.

> HISTORY New entity in IFC2x2

> IFC4 CHANGE Ports are now related to products and product types using the IfcRelNests relationship; use of IfcRelConnectsPortToElement is now reserved for dynamically attached ports (such as drilling a hole in a tank).

## Building Automation

Ports describe strongly-typed connections on objects that may transmit and/or receive a signal (or any physical flow). Communications ports may describe connector types and supported protocols. Ports may define a position and orientation relative to the product geometry.

Ports may define a material profile indicating the connection cross-section. For pipe-based or duct-based ports carrying physical substances such as water or air, the profile indicates the flow cross-section. For cable-based ports transmitting electricity, the profile indicates the connector pin-out, where each pin is a nested port having a single profile.

Ports may optionally be nested into sub-ports for detailing electrical pin-out specification. For example, a power type port (PredefinedType=ELECTRICAL) may have sub-ports for Phase, Neutral, and Ground, where placement and material profile is indicated.

Ports may also be nested into sub-ports for detailing modulated signals, having no placement or material profile. For example, an electrical power line may have modulated signals for TCP/IP networking or lighting control.

Each port has a flow direction indicating whether it is a SOURCE or SINK. For pipe-based or duct-based ports (having a gas or liquid physical flow such as air or water), the flow direction corresponds to the physical flow. For cable-based ports, the flow direction does not represent the flow of electrons, but rather the higher-level logical operation as indicated.

The following concepts are inherited at supertypes:

- IfcRoot: Revision Control

Instance diagram

Identity

The Identity concept applies to this entity.

Exchange |  |  |  |  |
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Import |  |  |  |  |
Export |  |  |  |  |

Property Sets

The Property Sets concept applies to this entity as shown in Table 37.

PredefinedType | Name
--- | ---
CABLE | Pset_DistributionPortCable
Table 37 — IfcDistributionPort Property Sets

Exchange |  |  |  |  |
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Import |  |  |  |  |
Export |  |  |  |  |

Product Assignment

The Product Assignment concept applies to this entity as shown in Table 38.

Type | Description
--- | ---
IfcDistributionSystem | For ports that host a control system, the corresponding system must be assigned to the port to indicate how the system may be accessed programmatically.
Table 38 — IfcDistributionPort Product Assignment

Exchange |  |  |  |  |
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Import |  |  |  |  |
Export |  |  |  |  |

Port Connectivity

The Port Connectivity concept applies to this entity.

Exchange |  |  |  |  |
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Import |  |  |  |  |
Export |  |  |  |  |

Port Types

The Port Types concept applies to this entity as shown in Table 39.

PredefinedType | SystemType | Description
--- | --- | ---
CABLE | CONTROL | Data which is specific to controlling devices.
CABLE | DATA | Arbitrary data which may include but is not limited to control.
CABLE | ELECTRICAL | Electrical power which may transmit modulated data through sub-ports.
CABLE | SECURITY | Data which is specific to a security system.
CABLE | SIGNAL | Arbitrary raw signal for analog or digital I/O
Table 39 — IfcDistributionPort Port Types

Exchange |  |  |  |  |
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Import |  |  |  |  |
Export |  |  |  |  |

XSD Specification:

<xs:element name="IfcDistributionPort" type="ifc:IfcDistributionPort" substitutionGroup="ifc:IfcPort" nillable="true"/>
<xs:complexType name="IfcDistributionPort">
<xs:complexContent>
<xs:extension base="ifc:IfcPort"/>
</xs:complexContent>
</xs:complexType>

EXPRESS Specification:

ENTITY IfcDistributionPort

| SUBTYPE OF IfcPort;

FlowDirection | : | OPTIONAL IfcFlowDirectionEnum;
PredefinedType | : | OPTIONAL IfcDistributionPortTypeEnum;
SystemType | : | OPTIONAL IfcDistributionSystemEnum;

END_ENTITY;

EXPRESS-G diagram

Attribute Definitions:

FlowDirection | : | Enumeration that identifies if this port is a Sink (inlet), a Source (outlet) or both a SinkAndSource.
SystemType | : | Enumeration that identifies the system type. If a system type is defined, the port may only be connected to other ports having the same system type.

Inheritance Graph:

ENTITY IfcDistributionPort

| ENTITY IfcRoot

GlobalId | : | IfcGloballyUniqueId;
OwnerHistory | : | OPTIONAL IfcOwnerHistory;
Name | : | OPTIONAL IfcLabel;
Description | : | OPTIONAL IfcText;

| ENTITY IfcObjectDefinition

| INVERSE

HasAssignments | : | SET OF IfcRelAssigns FOR RelatedObjects;
Nests | : | SET [0:1] OF IfcRelNests FOR RelatedObjects;
IsNestedBy | : | SET OF IfcRelNests FOR RelatingObject;
HasContext | : | SET [0:1] OF IfcRelDeclares FOR RelatedDefinitions;
IsDecomposedBy | : | SET OF IfcRelAggregates FOR RelatingObject;
Decomposes | : | SET [0:1] OF IfcRelAggregates FOR RelatedObjects;
HasAssociations | : | SET OF IfcRelAssociates FOR RelatedObjects;

| ENTITY IfcObject

ObjectType | : | OPTIONAL IfcLabel;

| INVERSE

IsDeclaredBy | : | SET [0:1] OF IfcRelDefinesByObject FOR RelatedObjects;
Declares | : | SET OF IfcRelDefinesByObject FOR RelatingObject;
IsTypedBy | : | SET [0:1] OF IfcRelDefinesByType FOR RelatedObjects;
IsDefinedBy | : | SET OF IfcRelDefinesByProperties FOR RelatedObjects;

| ENTITY IfcProduct

ObjectPlacement | : | OPTIONAL IfcObjectPlacement;
Representation | : | OPTIONAL IfcStrippedOptional;

| INVERSE

ReferencedBy | : | SET OF IfcRelAssignsToProduct FOR RelatingProduct;

| ENTITY IfcPort

| INVERSE

ConnectedFrom | : | SET [0:1] OF IfcRelConnectsPorts FOR RelatedPort;
ConnectedTo | : | SET [0:1] OF IfcRelConnectsPorts FOR RelatingPort;

| ENTITY IfcDistributionPort

FlowDirection | : | OPTIONAL IfcFlowDirectionEnum;
PredefinedType | : | OPTIONAL IfcDistributionPortTypeEnum;
SystemType | : | OPTIONAL IfcDistributionSystemEnum;

END_ENTITY;

Examples:

- Air terminal element
- Air terminal library object

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