How to read your report

Summary

Every IFC file you upload gets one report. It answers three questions: how good is the data, what is it worth, and what should be fixed first. The report is split into pages, grouped in a menu on the left (on a phone, a strip along the top). This article walks through them in the order most people read them.

The model header

At the top of every page: a thumbnail of the model (it takes you back to the Overview, where a click on the larger thumbnail enlarges it), the file name, and two score pills, Quality and Forensic BIM score™. Share & download gives you the download and sharing options described at the end of this article. The facts about the file and the analysis (schema, authoring tool, size, number of elements, when it was analysed) open from Details in the About this model card on the Overview. The search field at the top of the menu finds any check or section in the report.

The menu

Every page has its own web address, so you can bookmark or send a link straight to, for example, the Geometry page. The browser's back button takes you to the page you came from.

Summary pages

Overview

• About this model: the facility names, the facility types and tags, who made the file and with which tool. When a file holds many facilities, the title shows the first few with a button to show them all.
• Scores: the overall quality score, the Forensic BIM score™ with its grade, and the benchmark percentile, each linking to the page that explains it. Below them, In short, what holds up and what needs work.
• Your data DNA: one lane per dimension, one band per check, at the height of its score. Green at the top is good, red at the bottom is a problem. Click a band to open that check, or a lane name to open the dimension. Next to it, the quality profile shows the five dimension scores as a radar.
• What makes up the Forensic BIM score™ and By dimension: the four factors with their points, and the five dimension scores with the model's key figures.
• What to fix first: the three changes that would raise the score the most, with the points each one gains. The full list is on the Potential page.
• How big is it? The size of the asset measured from its geometry, see How we measure size.
• Potential savings: what the data saves over the useful life you choose, with the data as delivered and with complete data.
• Capabilities: the capabilities the model has earned or has within reach.

Scores

The two headline scores side by side, the radar of the five dimensions, and what makes up the Forensic BIM score™.

• Quality (0–100) is the weighted average of the five dimension scores. It answers: can others reuse this model with little rework? 80 and above is good, 55–79 needs attention, 30–54 is weak and below 30 is critical.
• Forensic BIM score™ (0–100, graded A to E) looks only at the data the objects carry, in four factors: completeness, richness, reliability and semantics. The page shows the points earned per factor.
• A model can't score well on quality without usable data. When the Forensic BIM score™ holds the quality score back, the Scores page says so: Limited by its data, with the score it would otherwise have had.

Capabilities

What the model is ready for: a valid file, real IFC rather than generic shapes, a clean export, georeferenced, take-off ready, coordination ready and more. Each capability is earned, within reach (close, with the missing condition shown) or not earned. Select one to see its rule. The full list of capabilities and their rules is in the Capabilities directory.

Benchmark

Where the file sits against comparable models in the forensicBIM reference corpus: buildings against buildings, infrastructure against infrastructure. See Benchmark: peer groups and percentiles. Files that are not IFC, or carry no usable data, have no Benchmark page.

Value pages

• Valuation: what the data is worth, from the cost to make it again to what it saves the owner, as the eleven numbers of the data value ladder.
• Potential: every improvement, ranked by priority, with the score points it gains. This is the list to hand to whoever made the file.
• Savings: what the data saves in operating and maintaining the asset, over a useful life you choose. See Operate & maintain savings.

Dimension pages

Each of the five dimensions has its own page. It opens with the dimension score, its status and the question it answers:

Below the header, the checks block, and then the detail cards for that dimension (for example the location map on Validity, or the density heatmap on Geometry). Geometry also points to the quantity check, whose result is on the Consistency page.

The checks block

• Every check behind the dimension score, highest score first. Checks that could not be measured for this file come last.
• buildingSMART validation topics that have not run yet show as Not run, without a score. On Validity the six topics scored there share one card.
• Filter by To improve, Passing or Not measured, and switch between cards and a compact list. The report remembers whether you prefer cards or the list.
• Each card shows the measured value, a detail line, the status and the score. Hover a card to read why it matters; click it to open it across the row with the explanation, the fix and a link to the detail card that shows the evidence.
• Checks marked key weigh most in the dimension score.

What each check measures, and why, is in What we check.

Downloading and sharing

• Download standalone HTML: the whole report as one file that opens offline in any browser, with the same pages and filters. The map and the 3D model need the live platform, so the download shows the coordinates instead of the map.
• Share secret link (Pro): a link that gives someone access to the report for 14 days, without an account.
• Download all info for AI chat (Pro): all metrics, findings and reading rules as one Markdown file to load into an AI assistant. It contains the analysis, not the IFC file itself.

Frequently asked questions