Help & user guide

IFC Navigator is designed to be self-explanatory. This page covers the basics in case something is not obvious.

Opening an IFC file

There are two ways to open a file:

• Click Open IFC in the top-right and pick a .ifc file.
• Drag and drop a .ifc file anywhere on the page.

The IFC file is parsed locally by a WebAssembly engine. Nothing is uploaded, so even confidential project files are safe to open.

Navigating the 3D view

• Orbit: click and drag with the left mouse button.
• Pan: click and drag with the right mouse button (or two-finger drag on a trackpad).
• Zoom: scroll wheel, or pinch on a trackpad.

The camera auto-fits to the model on load. You can re-trigger fit by re-opening the file.

Selecting an element

Click any wall, slab, beam, pipe, or other IFC element. The selection is highlighted in blue and a properties panel opens on the right.

Click in empty space (or press Esc via the close button) to deselect. Drag to orbit will not trigger a selection — only short clicks do.

Reading the properties panel

The panel shows two kinds of information:

• Direct attributes — defined by the IFC schema for the element's type. For an IfcWall: Name, GlobalId, Tag, ObjectType, etc.
• Property sets (Pset_*) — custom property bags attached by the authoring tool. Examples: Pset_WallCommon, Pset_QuantityTakeOff, vendor-specific psets.

See the property-sets guide for what each common Pset means.

Supported IFC versions

IFC2x3, IFC4, and IFC4x3 are all supported. See the version comparison if you are unsure which one your file uses.

Browser requirements

• WebGL2 enabled (default on all modern browsers)
• JavaScript enabled
• ~512 MB free RAM for medium models, more for very large ones

Troubleshooting

The file does not open.

Confirm the file extension is .ifc (not .ifczip; zip-wrapped IFC is not yet supported — extract first). If it still fails, the file may be corrupted or use a non-standard schema variant; try re-exporting from the authoring tool.

The model appears empty or off-screen.

Some IFC files use very large coordinates (real-world UTM coordinates, for example). The viewer normalises to the local origin automatically, but if the model still seems missing, scroll out aggressively to find it.

The browser becomes slow on large models.

Models above a few hundred MB may exhaust memory on consumer laptops. Close other tabs, or split the model in your authoring tool before exporting.