#### 5.4.3.3 IfcDistributionElement

| Elément de distribution
| haustechnische Komponente (allgemein)

This entity is a generalization of all elements that participate in a distribution system. Typical examples of IfcDistributionElement are (among others):

- building service elements within a heating systems
- building service elements within a cooling system
- building service elements within a ventilation system
- building service elements within a plumbing system
- electrical elements
- elements within a communication network

The IfcDistributionElement is further specialized in the IFC model. Direct instantiation of IfcDistributionElement without an assigned subtype of IfcDistributionElementType provides the meaning of an distribution element proxy.

> HISTORY New entity in IFC1.5.

> IFC4 CHANGE The entity is marked as deprecated for instantiation - will be made ABSTRACT in future releases.

## Building Automation

The following concepts are inherited at supertypes:

- IfcRoot: Revision Control
- IfcElement: Property Sets, Spatial Containment, Table Mapping

Instance diagram

Identity

The Identity concept applies to this entity.

Classification

The Classification concept applies to this entity as shown in Table 19.

Source | Name | Tokens | Description
--- | --- | --- | ---
ASHRAE | BACnet | ('{D:0..65535},'.','{D:0..65535}') | 32-bit decimal BACnetObjectIdentifier indicating type ID and instance ID (e.g.'12.15' for Digital Input #15).
IETF | IPv4 | (‘{D:0..255}’,’.’,’{D:0..255}’,’.’, ’{D:0..255}’,’.’, ’{D:0..255}’) | 32-bit decimal address for an IPv4 network (e.g.'192.168.1.1').
IETF | IPv6 | ('{X:0000..FFFF}',':',{X:0000..FFFF}',':',{X:0000..FFFF}',':',{X:0000..FFFF}',':',{X:0000..FFFF}',':',{X:0000..FFFF}',':',{X:0000..FFFF}',':',{X:0000..FFFF}') | 128-bit hexadecimal address for an IPv6 network.
IETF | MAC | (‘{X:00..FF}’,’-‘,{X:00-FF}’, ’-‘,{X:00-FF}’, ’-‘,{X:00-FF}’, ’-‘,{X:00-FF}’, ’-‘,{X:00-FF}’) | 48-bit hexadecimal form of MAC address.
OPC Foundation | OPC | (’.’,’{S}’,’{*}’) | Hierarchical ItemID in alphanumeric form (e.g. 'B204.Tank2.Temperature)
SmartLabs | Insteon | ('{X:00..FF}','.','{X:00..FF}','.','{X:00..FF}') | 24-bit hexadecimal instance address.
ISO/IEC | LonTalk | ('{X:00..FF}',':','{X:00..FF}',':','{X:00..FF}',':','{X:00..FF}',':','{X:00..FF}',':','{X:00..FF}',':','{X:00..FF}') | 48-bit hexadecimal neuron ID.
Zigbee Alliance | Zigbee | ('{X:0000..FFFF}',':',{X:0000..FFFF}') | 32-bit address comprised of 16-bit network identifier (PAN ID) followed by 16-bit node identifier.
Z-Wave Alliance | ZWave | ('{X:00000000..FFFFFFFF}',':',{X:00..FF}') | 40-bit address comprised of 32-bit network identifier followed by 8-bit node identifier.
PCS | UPB | ('{X:00..FF}',':',{X:00..FF}') | 16-bit address comprised of 8-bit network identifier followed by 16-bit node identifier.
KNX Association | KNX | ('{D:0..15}','.','{D:0..15}','.','{D:0..255}' | 16-bit address comprised of 4-bit Main Line number followed by 4-bit Line number followed by 8-bit device number.
X-10 | X10 | ('{S:A..P}{D:1..16}') | 8-bit address comprised of alphabetic House Code (A-P) followed by numeric Unit Code (1-16)
Table 19 — IfcDistributionElement Classification

Classification is a general facility in IFC to organize objects according to a specified notation format which may form a fixed-level hierarchy or an extensible hierarchy. Classification may be industry-specific, region-specific, company-specific, or project-specific. Objects may participate in multiple classification schemes.

For the purposes of building automation, classification is used to uniquely identify a device (or partitioning) within a control system. The same device may be accessible from multiple control systems, and thus may use multiple classification schemes. For some protocols, classification notation may follow a strict format such as hexadecimal numbers, while others may use variable-length ASCII or Unicode strings with prescribed delimiter characters.

Top-level control systems (those directly declared at IfcProject) may be accessed by connecting to a specified URL using a specified protocol. Such URL is not necessarily HTTP and is not necessarily accessible on the Internet (in most cases unlikely). The URL is specified at IfcClassification.Location and is associated to the IfcDistributionSystem using the IfcRelAssociatesClassification relationship. Such classification may also specify an address format for accessing devices within, and an optional hierarchy of provisioned (or detected) addresses of devices within the system.

If the control system is part of a closed network, it is necessary to qualify the system by a port where it is hosted. Such port may be contained in a router or gateway device (e.g. IfcCommunicationsAppliance). The hosting device may be accessed by recursively traversing the system where such device is accessed (e.g. an IP network) and ultimately a port on the local computer where such data is to be accessed.

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

Product Assignment

The Product Assignment concept applies to this entity as shown in Table 20.

Type | Description
--- | ---
IfcEvent | Indicates an event that is handled from the device occurrence.
IfcProcedure | Indicates a procedure that is called on the device occurrence.
IfcTask | Indicates a task that is scheduled to be executed on the device occurrence.
Table 20 — IfcDistributionElement Product Assignment

Device occurrences may be controlled or monitored programmatically according to assigned procedures and events. Such logic occurs within IfcTask occurrences that execute on IfcController devices. Event assignments indicate that when the assigned device instance raises the event, that any logic following the event is executed. Procedure assignments indicate that when the procedure is called (e.g. from user, in response to event, or as part of task), then the procedure is invoked on the device. Task assignments indicate that the task is to be run on the assigned device (e.g. a dedicated controller or PC), where such task may possibly impact other devices addressible from the control system.

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

XSD Specification:

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

EXPRESS Specification:

ENTITY IfcDistributionElement

| SUPERTYPE OF(ONEOF(IfcDistributionControlElement, IfcDistributionFlowElement))

| SUBTYPE OF IfcElement;

| INVERSE

END_ENTITY;

EXPRESS-G diagram

Attribute Definitions:

Inheritance Graph:

ENTITY IfcDistributionElement

| 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 IfcElement

Tag | : | OPTIONAL IfcIdentifier;

| INVERSE

ContainedInStructure | : | SET [0:1] OF IfcRelContainedInSpatialStructure FOR RelatedElements;

| ENTITY IfcDistributionElement

| INVERSE

END_ENTITY;

Link to this page