Cover Image Credit: VDI Wissensforum
The June 2026 session of Štefan's georeferencing course at VDI Wissensforum takes place June 29–30 in Düsseldorf. The course covers coordinate reference systems, transformation methods, IFC 4.3 georeferencing at the schema level, and BIM-GIS integration — with hands-on exercises on real files throughout.
Further sessions: November 4–5, 2026 (online), March 2–3, and November 18–19, 2027 (online).
What two days looks like
The course starts with coordinate reference systems — projected, topocentric, geocentric — and the role each plays in BIM and infrastructure work. Most georeferencing problems start here: a model was built in one system, the survey data is in another, and nobody caught the mismatch.
From there, transformations. The course covers Helmert and NTv2: what each handles, where they differ, and when the choice matters. Transformations between reference systems introduce distortions that compound in multidisciplinary projects, and the course works through how to quantify and account for them.
The IFC 4.3 part covers IfcProjectedCRS and IfcMapConversion: how to populate them so any compliant tool can reconstruct the coordinate placement without needing external documentation. The BIM-GIS section covers where GML and IFC pipelines diverge and how to move data between them without losing coordinate precision.
The second day includes case studies from infrastructure practice — the failure modes that come up in real projects and how to catch them before they become coordination problems. Participants bring laptops.