Exporting IFC with custom colors

Question: I need to export model objects to an IFC file, but the items must be in a specific color (for example, 80-40-40, RGB). How can I do this?

Answer: You can only change the color of an exported IFC object by changing the color of the parts in the Tekla Structures model. The best thing to do is to create a separate Representation for your particular IFC export. Here are the steps:

1. From the View Properties, access the Object Representation dialog box while the representation is set to standard. 

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2. In the Object Representation dialog box, click Object group.
3. Next, in the Object Group - Representation dialog box, create a New filter and Add a row with your Category, Property, Condition, and Value according to the representation that you want to create. In my example, I will be creating a particular color representation for parts in my model named COLUMN.
4. Save as with a unique name, then Close the Object Group - Representation dialog box. 

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5. Back in the Object Representation dialog box, click Add row and, on the new row, set the Object group to the one you have just created.
6. Move the new row above the All row. 

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6. From the Color drop-down select Choose color.

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7. In the Color dialog box, click Define Custom Colors >> to expand the window.
8. Manually input your RGB or HSL value.
9. You can click Add to Custom Colors to add this color to the drop-down for future use. However, this step is optional. 
10. Click OK.

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11. In the Object Representation dialog box, click Apply and Save as with a unique name.
10. Click OK. 
13. Back in the View Properties dialog box, set the Representation to the one that you just created and click Modify.

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Export IFC

1. Go to the File menu and select Export>IFC.
2. In the Export IFC dialog box, load the presets of the software to which the IFC is being exported. 
3. On the Advanced tab, be sure to select the Use current view colors checkbox form the Other section at the bottom.
4. Click Export. 
 

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Your IFC will now have the designated colors in the model. See the example here for other ways to set filters to use as Object Representation.