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This feature was introduced in xeokit-sdk v2.3.
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<aside> ℹ️ See also: Converting Models to XKT with convert2xkt
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<aside> ℹ️ See also: Converting IFC Models to XKT using ifc2gltf
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<aside> ℹ️ See also: Automatically Splitting Large Models for Better Performance
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<aside> ℹ️ There is also an earlier version of this pipeline: Converting IFC Models to XKT using 3rd-Party Open Source Tools, which uses COLLADA2GLTF within the conversion process. This pipeline removes COLLADA2GLTF.
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The xeokit SDK enables us to load large, full-precision BIM models over the Web in seconds and view them in the browser. To do this, we pre-convert our IFC (2x3 and 4.3) files into xeokit's native XKT format. The XKT format compresses model geometry and metadata into a compact payload that a xeokit viewer can load quickly while using minimal browser resources.
In this tutorial, we'll use open source command line tools convert an IFC file into XKT. Then we'll create a simple viewer in JavaScript using the xeokit SDK, to view our XKT with.
We have an older tutorial, similar to this one, which uses COLLADA2GLTF within the conversion process. In this tutorial, we no longer use COLLADA2GLTF, since our convert2xkt tool is now able to convert binary glTF that was output straight from IfcConvert.
Note that the pipeline in this tutorial only converts IFC element structure, and does not convert property sets. For property sets, we recommend Converting IFC Models to XKT using ifc2gltf.
The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) data model is used to describe architectural, building and construction industry data.
IFC defines an entity-relationship model consisting of various entities organized into a object-based inheritance model, with classes representing various building elements such as IfcWall, geometry such as IfcExtrudedAreaSolid, and basic constructs such as IfcCartesianPoint.
The data model is developed by buildingSMART to facilitate interoperability in the AEC industry, and is a commonly used open collaboration format in BIM based projects.
An IFC file is usually provided as an IFC-SPF file ("STEP-file") , which is a text format in which each line represents an entity that instantiates a class within the data model.