<< User Guide

Viewing glTF using xeoconvert and XGFLoader

Introduction

In this tutorial, we'll view a glTF model in the browser using a xeokit Viewer . To optimize performance, we'll first convert the glTF file to an XGF file and a DataModelParams JSON file. The import process consists of two steps:

  1. Use xeoconvert with option --pipeline ifc2xgf to convert glTF into XGF and JSON DataModelParams files.
  2. Use XGFLoader and DataModelParamsLoader to load the XGF and JSON DataModelParams files into a xeokit Viewer in a webpage.

Example glTF Model

For this tutorial, we'll use the Duplex glTF model (source: http://drumbeat.cs.hut.fi/ifc/).

Below is the final result— the model loaded from XGF and DataModelParams JSON files into a xeokit Viewer. In the following steps, we'll walk through the process of achieving this.

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Placeholder image

Viewing a glTF Model, Converted to XKF by gltf2xgf



Step 1. Convert glTF into XGF and DataModelParams Files

The first step is to convert our glTF file into an XGF file for geometry and JSON DataModelParams file for the glTF scene metadata. We'll use the xeoconvert CLI tool to do this conversion step:

npm xeoconvert --pipeline gltf2xgf --gltf model.glb --xgf model.xgf --datamodel model.json

The parameters we provided the tool are:

  • --pipeline selects the conversion pipeline, gltf2xgf
  • --gltf path to source glTF file
  • --xkt path to target XKT file
  • --datamodel path to target DataModelParams file (optional)

Step 2. View the XGF and DataModelParams Files

Now we'll create a Web page containing a xeokit Viewer that views our converted model.

HTML

Create an HTML page in index.html that contains a canvas element:

example-html:ifc2xgf_Duplex

JavaScript

Then create JavaScript in index.js to create the Viewer and view our converted model.

The steps in the JavaScript are as follows.

example-javascript:ifc2xgf_Duplex