This article explains what an IFC file is and how to open or convert an IFC file.
A file with the IFC file extension is an Industry Foundation Classes file. The IFC-SPF format is currently being developed by buildingSMART and is used by Building Information Modeling (BIM) programs to store models and designs of facilities and buildings.
The IFC-XML and IFC-ZIP formats are similar, but use the file extensions .IFCXML and .IFCZIP instead to indicate that the file is XML-structured or ZIP-compressed, respectively. Other similar formats also exist, including ifcJSON, ifcHDF, IFC-Turtle, and IFC-RDF.
There are several compatible programs: Autodesk's Revit, Adobe Acrobat, FME Desktop, CYPECAD, SketchUp (with the IFC2SKP plug-in) and Graphisoft's Archicad.