The BC3 format (FIEBDC): budget exchange

📐 Focus⏱ 6 min read

BC3 is the exchange format of the FIEBDC standard (Formato de Intercambio Estándar de Bases de Datos de la Construcción, the Spanish construction database exchange standard), the sector agreement that moves complete budgets between different tools without rekeying. It is a discreet, decisive infrastructure: thanks to it, the price database, the office that budgets, the contractor that tenders and the direction that certifies can each work in their own program on the same content.

What a BC3 file carries

Content Detail
Structure Chapters, sub-chapters and work items with their hierarchical codes
Concepts Short descriptions and long texts for each unit
Prices Complete breakdowns: materials, labour, machinery, auxiliaries, percentages
Quantities The measurement lines with their dimensions and comments
Specifications and associated information Condition texts and complementary data depending on the version

In other words: the file carries the whole budget as a system, not a flat list of amounts. A well-built BC3 reproduces in the destination tool the same hierarchy, the same breakdowns and the same measurement lines as the origin.

Uses in the workflow

Database → budget: price databases are distributed in BC3; the office imports the reference items and adapts them in its tool. Design → tender: the bill of quantities is issued to contractors in BC3, each one prices in its own program and returns the file with its prices: the comparison table is assembled without rekeying a single quantity. Contract → site: the contracted budget circulates into monitoring and certificates keeping structure and breakdowns.

Precautions of use

Three checks avoid the usual frictions. The standard's version: sender and receiver must handle compatible versions, and the export is tested with a re-import before distribution. Integrity after the journey: chapter totals compared between origin and destination after every import, because rounding and percentage interpretations can produce small drifts worth catching immediately. And code discipline: the exchange works on stable codes; renumbering items between a tender's outbound and return breaks the correspondence and with it the automatic comparison.

The essentials

BC3 keeps the Spanish quantities-and-budgets system circulating between tools: structure, breakdowns and measurement lines travel complete. Its three hygiene rules (tested compatible versions, totals verified after import, stable codes during the tender) cost minutes and avoid the rekeying and mismatches the format exists precisely to eliminate.

Note: usual practices in Spain in 2026; exact capabilities depend on the standard's version and the tools employed.

Frequently asked questions

The FIEBDC standard for exchanging budgets, carrying the complete structure with chapters, items, breakdowns and quantities.

To exchange budgets between programs and between parties without redoing the work. It is the sector's usual standard in Spain.

Checking that measurement rules travel with the quantities rather than the quantities alone, and confirming which version of the format each program accepts.

It depends on how they were loaded at source. It is worth verifying, because a takeoff without its rule loses the information that makes it comparable.

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