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web-ifc

web-ifc is a javascript library to read and write ifc files, at native speeds. web-ifc is part of the ifc.js project, which aims to lower the threshold for developing open BIM applications.

Status

Although it is quite stable and fast already, web-ifc is in pre-alpha status until ifc support matures. The list of currently supported ifc elements, or level of support for different ifc types, is an undocumented work in progress.

Depending on your models, web-ifc may be quick and correct, or slow and broken. If your model does not work as expected please raise an issue and attach the model if possible, or contact us and we can discuss passing the model confidentially.

Install

npm install web-ifc

Quick setup

1const WebIFC = require("web-ifc/web-ifc-api.js");
2
3// initialize the API
4const ifcApi = new WebIFC.IfcAPI();
5
6// initialize the library
7await ifcApi.Init();
8
9// open a model from data
10let modelID = ifcApi.OpenModel(/* IFC data as a string or UInt8Array */, /* optional settings object */, );
11
12// the model is now loaded! use modelID to fetch geometry or properties
13// checkout examples/usage for some details on how to read/write IFC
14
15// close the model, all memory is freed
16ifcApi.CloseModel(modelID);
17

See examples for more details on how to use web-ifc.

Current Build

The current live build of web-ifc is avaialble here. Using this allows you to test newest fixes before we make a release. If you wish to use this version then download the zip file and place the contents of the dist folder manually into your node_modules/web-ifc folder. I.e if you are using web-ifc-three then it will be node_modules/web-ifc-three/node_modules/web-ifc. Please not you must replace the javascript and the WASM.

Requirements

These are the requirements needed to build web-ifc (only for those that wish to build their own version).

1. Node v16 or later
2. NPM v7 or later
3. EMSCRIPTEN v3.1.44 or later
4. CMAKE v3.18 or later

Building WASM module

Setting up emscripten and build system

The WASM library is built through emscripten, please see the emscripten installation guide for information on how to set up emscripten. Afterwards emsdk_env needs to be in your path.

To build the WASM you also need CMAKE see here and (on windows) MINGW see here - once installed (and in your path) run npm run setup-mingw to configure the environment for web-ifc.

WASM library

Run npm install to install all dependencies.

Run npm run setup-env whenever you open a new terminal, this will set up the required emscripten environment variables for you to compile code.

Run npm run build-release to build a release version of the wasm binary and the accompanying web-ifc api. It will be placed in ./dist.

If you wish to build the WASM with debugging enabled you can run npm run build-debug. This will enable you to inspect debugging information better when running web-ifc.

Run npm run dev to launch a development server with a basic ifc file viewer.

Stand alone C++

Although the primary focus of the library is to be used through WebAssembly in the browser/nodejs, the project can be used stand-alone as a c++ library or executable. See here for a simple entry point to get started.

Contributing

Want to help out? Great!

Please checkout our contribution suggestsions.