ifc — IFC Importer / Exporter

Import and export models using the IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) open standard.

Overview

The xeokit SDK provides support for loading IFC STEP files, the industry-standard exchange format for Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) domain.

IFC represents both geometry and rich semantic structure, enabling querying, classification, and analysis workflows after import.

The SDK can also write a SceneModel + DataModel back out to an IFC4 STEP file via IFCExporter, completing the round-trip.

Importing IFC

Use IFCLoader to load an IFC file into:

• a SceneModel for geometry and materials
• a DataModel for IFC semantics and relationships

Exporting IFC

Use IFCExporter to write a SceneModel and/or DataModel back out to IFC. The exporter targets the IFC4 schema and resolves to the IFC STEP file as a text string.

Shape

classDiagram
    direction TB
    class IFCLoader {
      +format / versions / fileDataType
      +load(params, options?) Promise~void~
    }
    class IFCExporter {
      +format / versions / fileDataType
      +write(params, options?) Promise~string~
    }
    class ModelLoader {
      <<formats>>
    }
    class ModelExporter {
      <<formats>>
    }
    ModelLoader <|-- IFCLoader
    ModelExporter <|-- IFCExporter

Features

• IFC2x3 + IFC4 + IFC4x3 — multi-version parser; auto-detects the schema from the FILE_SCHEMA(...) header.
• Geometry + semantics — fills a SceneModel with implicit geometry (extrusions, sweeps, profiles) tessellated into triangle meshes, and a DataModel with the IFC entity graph (IfcProject → IfcSite → IfcBuilding → IfcBuildingStorey → …).
• Stable type ids — IFC type constants are exported from ifctypes_* sub-modules so application code references them by symbol instead of magic strings.
• Property-set passthrough — every IfcPropertySet attached to an IfcObject becomes a PropertySet on the matching DataObject.
• IFC4 export — IFCExporter writes a SceneModel + DataModel back out to an IFC4 STEP file, for round-tripping or handing geometry + semantics to other BIM tools.

Installation

npm install @xeokit/sdk
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Example: loading an IFC model (with error checking)

import { Scene } from "@xeokit/sdk/model/scene";
import { Data } from "@xeokit/sdk/model/data";
import { Viewer } from "@xeokit/sdk/viewing/viewer";
import { WebGLRenderer } from "@xeokit/sdk/viewing/webGLRenderer";
import { ViewController } from "@xeokit/sdk/viewing/viewController";
import { IFCLoader } from "@xeokit/sdk/formats/ifc";

// 1) Create containers for geometry and IFC semantics
const scene = new Scene();
const data  = new Data();

// 2) Create Viewer + renderer
const viewer = new Viewer({ scene });
new WebGLRenderer({ viewer });

// 3) Create a View bound to a canvas
const viewResult = viewer.createView({
  id: "myView",
  elementId: "myCanvas"
});

if (viewResult.ok === false) {
  throw new Error(viewResult.error);
}

const view = viewResult.value;

// 4) Position the camera
view.camera.eye  = [1841982.93, 10.03, -5173286.74];
view.camera.look = [1842009.49, 9.68, -5173295.85];
view.camera.up   = [0, 1, 0];

new ViewController(view, {});

// 5) Create target models
const sceneModelResult = scene.createModel({ id: "myModel" });

if (sceneModelResult.ok === false) {
  throw new Error(sceneModelResult.error);
}

const dataModelResult = data.createModel({ id: "myModel" });

if (dataModelResult.ok === false) {
  throw new Error(dataModelResult.error);
}

const sceneModel = sceneModelResult.value;
const dataModel  = dataModelResult.value;

// 6) Create the IFC loader
const ifcLoader = new IFCLoader();

// 7) Load the IFC STEP file
ifcLoader.load({
  filePath: "model.ifc",
  sceneModel,
  dataModel
})
.then(() => {
  // Model successfully loaded and visible
})
.catch(err => {
  sceneModel.destroy();
  dataModel.destroy();
  console.error(String(err));
});
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Example: exporting an IFC model

IFCExporter.write resolves to the IFC4 STEP file as a text string, which you can save or upload:

import { IFCExporter } from "@xeokit/sdk/formats/ifc";

// Given a populated `sceneModel` and `dataModel`:
const ifcText = await new IFCExporter().write({ sceneModel, dataModel });

// e.g. trigger a browser download
const blob = new Blob([ifcText], { type: "application/x-step" });
const url  = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
const a    = document.createElement("a");
a.href = url;
a.download = "model.ifc";
a.click();
URL.revokeObjectURL(url);
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Notes

• Always check result.ok === false when calling xeokit factory methods.
• Clean up partially-created models on failure to avoid leaking state.
• The resulting DataModel exposes full IFC entities and relationships for querying and analysis.