Import process in One Click LCA

Import process in One Click LCA

Make sure you have the things listed below before starting:
  • One Click LCA user account
  • An existing project linked to the user account with a valid One Click LCA license that enables automated import (Starter plus or higher)
  • Red through the guide and set up one of the automated import options for One Click LCA (see options here)

1. Start import from your automated import integration

Open the model in your modeling tool and find the One Click LCA button   

OR
Click 'Import Excel or gbXML files'


2. Set the import target








'Choose the project or entity' and 'Choose or create a design' - Choose in which project and design the data should be imported. If you do not wish to overwrite any of your existing designs material data, you can choose 'New design'.

'Choose the indicator' - select the calculation tool. This will define which environmental data can be linked to your building materials. Different calculation tools have different requirements for the environmental data that can be used for the LCA calculations. Make sure to select the correct tool, in such way you ensure that in the material mapping to environmental profiles (step 6) will be done according to your certification rules.      

'Import mode' - choose the 'Fast & silent' setting only if you are sure that your import file contains minor or no flaws for LCA purposes. import mode is suited for import files which have preferably already been run through One Click LCA and have very few or no warnings (warnings should concern less than 5% of the data). This is to skip the verification steps and get directly to the results.

3. Select import settings and choose filtering rules


'Remove empty data' - recommended setting, which will remove all data that does not have material name defined or no quantity. This will make the import also faster.

'Filtering settings' - the setting will define which material groups / classes will be imported. Select filter based on your certification, import all groups by choosing 'All data' or choose yourself which material groups will be imported by selecting 'Choose data groups manually'. The filter will enable you to import only the necessary material groups.

'Review & change combining settings' - allows you to manually select which materials should be combined and imported as one data row. For example, your model contains 25 elements of the same wall type. One Click LCA combines such rows automatically- importing this into a one row allows you to link your material to environmental profile once (and not 25 times) and provides you with much better overview. The setting allows you to change and review how the data is combined. 

‘Don’t overwrite existing data’ is useful if you import your model in sections, e.g. separating different building parts. When selecting this option, none of the previously entered material data in your design will be overwritten.

‘Temporary calculation’ allows you to download the calculation results to excel sheet and will not save the results under the design.

Once you have selected suitable import settings, click ‘GO!’

4. Filter import data

This step is only relevant if you chose 'Choose data groups manually' for the Filtering settings
Dependent on the purpose of your LCA calculation, you might not need to include all building elements to the study, so it's best to filter them out. If you deselect a group, it will not be imported. By clicking on the green question mark you can manually delete the materials that you do not wish to import.

5. Verify data combining

This step is only relevant if you chose 'Review & change combining settings' in the Additional settings.  
Depending on how the information in your model/dataset is given, you can select the most suitable way to combine your data. Combining data is crucial to speed up the import and to simplify your calculations. The software will also give you recommendations on which rule to use. This will significantly reduce the amount of imported data.

CLASS - shows to which material group the material belongs to (e.g. beam, column, wall, etc). In most cases, this is always used as grouping criteria, since it is important to see your LCA results for different building elements. 
MATERIAL (or IFCMATERIAL) - describes the material of the data, if material info is also described in another group, e.g. Type or, Comment, then make sure to use it for combining criteria.
QTY_TYPE - describes the quantity type, it is crucial that the data which uses different quantity to describe the amount is not being combined. So make sure to use this as combining criteria.

There are other parameters which you can choose as combining criteria, dependent on your modeling software or import file.

When you click on the green sheet you will see which elements are combined in this specific group. You can deselect the row if you do not wish to combine this data. 

6. Review and map your data

Once your data is filtered and combined you will be taken to the MAPPING page, the last step before your import is complete. 

Model checker 

Available for Business license and higher, check how to fix the issues with your import model here. 

Identified data

Lists the data which the software automatically mapped to environmental profiles based on the description
Make sure to confirm if all is mapped appropriately for your project.

By clicking on the column headings, you are able to sort the rows. 
'Material' -  material names imported from your model/file
Green sheet icon - see which data is contained in each row
'Class' - if necessary, you can change the material CLASS for each row
'Comment' - use the comment field to mark anything you might need to know after the import, e.g. if the resource is consisting of more than one material. 
'Quantity' and 'Share' - shows the data significance for your LCA calculations. According to the EN 15978 standard, the materials with the share less than 1% can be discarded. The sum of discarded materials cannot be more than 1%. A total of maximum 5% may be discarded.
'Resource name' - automatically selected environmental data
'Mapping' - click 'Change' to choose another environmental profile
Green question mark - see detailed description of the auto-selected data resource
'Decide later' - imports the row without auto-mapped resource. Will be displayed as 'Unidentified material' after the import. 

'Delete' - deletes the row, it won't be imported 

Unidentified or problematic data





Lists all the data which was not mapped or has some issues, e.g. the name is too generic. Same issues are listed in the Model checker.
'Target resource' - Find suitable environmental profile to describe your material. Choose the filter ribbon to simplify your search.

Find help for choosing the right environmental profiles by looking into our guides:

7. Analyse your results

See our guidance about reporting LCA results here.
Download EN 15978 sample report template from the attachments here.

All the imported data can be edited in the ‘Building materials’ question form. You can also create a copy of the data for editing purposes.

Tips and tricks

Download excel at any point of your import

In all the import steps you can click ‘Download Excel’ and get your data on an Excel spreadsheet. Having the data in the Excel allows you to review or modify your data without modifying your model. This may be useful if you are not familiar with the modelling practices. Read more about importing data from Excel here.

How to import resources that consists of more than one material 

Resources which consists of more than one materials can be imported in several ways: 
  • Map your material to one of the materials it consists of and mark to the comment row that this is 'Composite' or similar (just so you find it easily in your 'Building materials' question form). After the import process is completed, you can go to the 'Building materials' question form. Make sure to divide your material quantities as necessary.
  • Select 'Decide later' and map your materials in the 'Building materials' question form after the import. Make sure to divide your material quantities as necessary.
  • Delete the row and add the composite materials in the 'Building materials' question form. Make sure not to forget it!

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