IFC that opens with the data still in it.
Material layers, openings linked to their fills, quantities computed from the geometry — and a check that stops two elements collapsing into one in the viewer.
An IFC viewer with a wall selected and the Material tab open, four layers listed with thicknesses. The most valuable screenshot on the site.
What a plain export leaves out
SketchUp's own IFC exporter writes no material entities at all, and skips anything nested inside another classified object — which is where windows and doors live. They look present in 3D because they are part of the wall's mesh; open the object tree and they are simply not there.
Archeform writes both back into the file after export. The entities are ordinary IFC4 — nothing proprietary, nothing that needs Archeform at the other end.
Layers, with thickness and priority
Compositions export as IfcMaterialLayerSet: a material per layer, thicknesses in the file’s own units, functions mapped to the IFC categories and priority as a ratio. IFC viewers list them layer by layer in the element’s material properties.
Openings linked to their fills
IfcOpeningElement built from the opening’s real outline — an arched window gets an arched opening — with the relations that tie wall to opening and opening to fill.
A check before you send it
Duplicate identities are the failure nobody sees: a viewer keys objects by their identifier, so two elements claiming the same one collapse into a single object with no error anywhere. Copying a storey is the usual cause.
One click finds them, along with duplicate names, and fixes them — never touching the first occurrence, so your naming is left alone.
The rest of it.
Walls & openings
Draw a chain, and the corners mitre themselves and stay mitred. Windows and doors live in the wall as parameters, so nothing breaks when the wall moves.
Roofs
Not just rectangles. An L, a U, a plan with a wing — the hips, valleys and ridges are computed from the outline, so complicated roofs stop being a modelling exercise.
Floors & stairs
The parts of a building that are tedious to model and easy to get subtly wrong. Draw the walking line and the treads, landings, soffit and the opening in the slab above follow.
Structure
IPE, HEA, HEB, UPE, angles and hollow sections from the catalogue — with joints cut to follow the profile, not sliced flat.
Services
Ten systems, product catalogues, bends and tees that appear where they belong, and connection ports that snap to the fixtures.
Documentation
Plans per storey, named sections, hatching by material at your drawing scale, schedules, and a LayOut file at the end of it. This is where the SketchUp ecosystem stops.