Attributes, parameters, characteristics, and properties—all these terms crop up time and again in BIM workflows. This is a peculiarity of the German language and often leads to confusion in the BIM world, because ultimately they all (more or less) refer to the same thing: the information stored in BIM objects—the “i” in BIM, so to speak.
In English, particularly in the terminology used by IFC and bSDD, the terms "property" and "parameter" are predominant.
Parameters are a special case; across various languages, they are primarily described as control tools that influence geometry. For example, wall thickness, wall height, etc., are usually referred to as parameters, whereas fire resistance ratings, structural behavior, etc., are more commonly referred to as properties or characteristics.
The figure illustrates the relationship between these terms in German-language interpretation:
Search terms: placeholders, parameterization