IfcOpenShell File I/O Operations

Quick Reference

Decision Tree: Opening vs Creating IFC Files

Need an IFC model?
├── Existing file on disk?
│   └── YES → ifcopenshell.open("path/to/file.ifc")
│       ├── Large file (100MB+)? → use should_stream=True
│       └── Non-standard extension? → use format=".ifc"
│
└── NO → Create new file
    ├── Need header metadata, timestamps, MVD? (production use)
    │   └── YES → ifcopenshell.api.project.create_file(version="IFC4")
    │
    └── Need bare-minimum empty file? (testing, prototyping)
        └── ifcopenshell.file(schema="IFC4")