Prolincur Technologies

RVT / IFC3D Tiles

Revit and IFC to 3D Tiles: streaming BIM models in the browser

How to convert Revit and IFC models into OGC 3D Tiles that stream in a web viewer, with BIM properties kept.

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The problem

Why this conversion is hard

  • BIM models are large and detailed. Loading a whole model in the browser is slow or fails outright.
  • RVT is a closed format that only Revit can open, so it needs a conversion step first.
  • Viewers that strip BIM properties lose what makes the model useful: element type, level, material and IDs.

Our approach

How we do it

  1. 01

    Revit to IFC

    RVT files are exported to IFC through Autodesk Platform Services, so no desktop Revit is needed.

  2. 02

    IFC to glTF

    Geometry is tessellated into glTF, with an element ID on every mesh and the BIM properties stored alongside.

  3. 03

    Tile

    The model is split into a spatial hierarchy of tiles with levels of detail, described by a tileset.json.

  4. 04

    Stream and query

    The viewer streams only the visible tiles, and clicking an element looks up its properties by ID.

Example

A short working example

A starting point to show the idea. Production pipelines add validation, tiling and error handling around it.

Shell and JSON: IFC to glTF, then a minimal 3D Tiles 1.1 tileset
# Tessellate IFC to binary glTF with IfcOpenShell
IfcConvert building.ifc building.glb

# tileset.json: 3D Tiles 1.1 can reference glTF content directly
{
  "asset": { "version": "1.1" },
  "geometricError": 200,
  "root": {
    "boundingVolume": { "box": [0, 0, 20,  60, 0, 0,  0, 40, 0,  0, 0, 20] },
    "geometricError": 0,
    "refine": "REPLACE",
    "content": { "uri": "building.glb" }
  }
}

Pitfalls

What usually goes wrong

  • A single tile is a start, not the goal: split large models by storey or spatial grid.
  • IFC uses a Z-up coordinate system and glTF uses Y-up. Apply the axis conversion once.
  • Keep IFC GlobalIds as feature IDs so properties survive the conversion.
  • Read IfcMapConversion or IfcSite to place the model in real-world coordinates.

Case studies

Where we have done this

Related

Services and other guides

Want this done on your own RVT / IFC files?

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