A structural engineer can extract structural information from an IFC file into a structural analysis and design software and then fill in the structural details into the model. However, this is the best case scenario. Right now it does not work well across software developed by different companies. For example, if the building model is in Revit Architecture and you import the file into SAP2000, you will have do a lot of fine tuning before the model is right. However things work well with Revit Structures. But then Revit Structures does not have all the features present in SAP2000. BIM was meant for the specific purpose that data could be exchanged between applications developed by different companies. So, we will have to wait a little more before it gets better.