The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) data model is a platform-neutral  open file format specification, designed to easy software platform interoperability.

Here's Wikipedia page: What is the IFC file format?

Bentley's Civil Products are all based on Bentley's Common Data Environment (CDE), the dgn. 

For collaboration or consumption of your work outside of Bentley's portfolio, you may need to export your data into other formats.

If you need capabilities beyond the industry-limited open IFC format, Bentley's i-Model has broader capabilities.

Exporting to an IFC file is easy - as shown in this video:  How to Export to IFC Format

How can anyone view iModels, IFC files, DGNs, DWGs for free?

Click here for information about Bentley View