IfcEvent is used to capture information about particular things that happen or that may happen. Particularly used in work plans (or process maps) they identify e.g. a point at which a message containing information may be issued or at which a rule or constraint is invoked. 

IfcEvent may be contained within an IfcTask using the IfcRelNests relationship. The event is considered active during the time period of the enclosing task (including any assigned IfcWorkCalendar); that is such event may be triggered within the task time period but not outside of it. As an IfcEvent is considered to be atomic, no use is anticipated for nesting processes inside the event. 

The relationship IfcRelSequence is used to indicate control flow. An IfcEvent as a predecessor (IfcRelSequence.RelatingProcess) indicates that the succeeding process (typically IfcProcedure or IfcTask) is triggered in response to the event. An IfcEvent as a successor (IfcRelSequence.RelatedProcess) indicates that the completion of the preceding process causes the event to be triggered. As events have zero duration, the IfcRelSequence.SequenceType attribute has no effect on an IfcEvent but still applies to the opposite end of the relationship if IfcTask is used. 

An IfcEvent may be assigned to an IfcWorkCalendar to indicate times when such event is active using IfcRelAssignsToControl; otherwise the effective calendar is determined by the nearest IfcProcess ancestor with a calendar assigned. 

For building operation scenarios, IfcEvent may be assigned to a product (IfcElement subtype) using IfcRelAssignsToProduct to indicate a specific product occurrence that sources the event.

• EXAMPLE: An IfcSensor for a motion sensor may have a "Motion Sensed" event. If the IfcEvent is defined by an IfcEventType and the IfcEventType is assigned to a product type (using IfcRelAssignsToProduct), then the IfcEvent must be assigned to one or more occurrences of the specified product type using IfcRelAssignsToProduct.