Impact For AutoCAD & BricsCAD (IFAB) is a part of IMPACT, which is a BIM software solution. BIM stands for Building Information Modelling. Information is stored in a central database.

Elements

A precast building is built with building elements. Such can be slabs, walls, columns etc. IMPACT elements are just this, building elements. Elements are database entities that contain all information of a building element. If you save a drawing, you give that drawing a name. If you save an element, you give that element an element mark, i.e. a tag. The image below shows three sandwich walls. The walls element marks are either SW2 orSW3. You can give elements any element mark you want, but there is a prefix schema set up by your IMPACT administrators.

You can never have two building elements with the same ID, even if they are made of the same element mark. But there can be many elements of a specific element mark, with unique ids. This is useful if you have identical building elements. Thus, building elements are defined as an Element Mark. There can be many instances of the element mark in you building model. All elements will have a unique id.

Drawings

There are normal AutoCAD drawings and there are IMPACT drawings. An IMPACT drawing extends AutoCAD drawings by attaching additional data to them. You do not see this visually. IMPACT drawings are always of a specific type. There are many types such as floor plans, elevations, element drawings etc. The drawing type determines which commands you can use on that drawing. Commands that are meant for floor plans do not work on elevations or vice versa. You don't have to worry about accidentally executing commands on the wrong drawing. IMPACT checks every time to make sure you don't.

Floor Plan

A floor plan is used to create IMPACT elements and work with building layout. A floor plan has a base elevation which all created elements default to. Many are used to work in 2D wireframe, but with IFAB you can work in full 3D if you want. It's possible to have many floor plans for the same building floor. If you make changes to one, you must update the others. Normally, this is done with manual labour. But not with IFAB. It has an update plan command which does that automatically, briefly described above. It is a very powerful command and is something you will use all the time. It's essential to understand the update plan command, as using it wrongly can cause irreversible effects. This command is described in this document further down.

Elevation

You can attach elements to an elevation line and generate the entire elevation line in an elevation drawing. It's possible to have more than one elevation per elevation drawing. The elevation can be generated with or without dimensions.

Element drawing

The element drawing, also known as a shop drawing, is the automatically generated drawing which factories use to produce elements. It is possible to automatically generate these for all element types. The automatic generation includes tables of construction gods, reinforcement, dimensioning, areas and weights, endcap and element section, etc. The drawings are generated based on a template which either you or an administrator set up.