Tutorials BimCraft help Walkthroughs
Open an IFC model and look around in 3D
Open an IFC file, orbit, pan and zoom, and use Fit, Top, Front and Side to get your bearings.
Written for BimCraft 0.3. The same help is inside the app: press F1.
What you'll do
Open an IFC model, move around it in 3D and jump to the standard views. About five minutes.
You need an .ifc file. Most BIM programs export one; in Revit it is File > Export > IFC. See Get a project file into 3D through IFC.
Steps
- Click Choose a file (or the drop area at the top left).
- Choose your
.ifcfile and confirm. - Wait for the status line to finish. It shows "Starting the IFC engine…" the first time, then "Reading the model…" and "Building geometry: … of … elements".
- Look at the model: it opens in a three-quarter view, fitted to the screen.
- Click Top in the toolbar above the model to look straight down.
- Click Front to look at the front, then Side to look from the side.
- Click Fit, or press FF, to go back to the three-quarter view of the whole model.
What you should see
- The model in the middle, with thin dark edges for a drawing-like look.
- The File panel on the left: the file name, size, IFC schema (for example IFC2X3 or IFC4), project name, phase, the program it was exported from, author, export date, and element and triangle counts.
- The Storeys and Elements lists under it.
- The status line: "Opened file name: n elements in s s".
Moving around
Mouse
| To | Do this |
|---|---|
| Orbit | Drag with the left button |
| Pan | Drag with the right button, or hold ⇧Shift (or ⌘Ctrl) and drag with the left button |
| Zoom | Scroll the wheel, or drag with the middle button |
| See everything | Press FF or click Fit |
Mac, Mouse
On a trackpad: drag with one finger pressed to orbit; hold ⇧Shift or ⌘Ctrl and drag to pan; scroll with two fingers or pinch to zoom. A two-finger click is a right-click, and you can drag with it to pan, but ⇧Shift and drag is easier.
Touch
| To | Do this |
|---|---|
| Orbit | Drag with one finger |
| Zoom | Pinch with two fingers |
| Pan | Move two fingers together |
| See everything | Tap Fit |
Orbiting always turns around a point in the middle of the model. Panning moves that point, so after a long pan the orbit may feel off-center: click Fit to reset it.
Common mistakes
- Expecting named views. BimCraft has four fixed views (Fit, Top, Front, Side), the view cube in the bottom-right corner and free orbit. It does not save views.
- Looking for plans and sections. There are no 2D plans or section boxes in this build. Cut the model with one Section plane (Cut an IFC model with a section plane), or turn storeys off: Show and hide storeys, spaces and edges.
- Opening a project file and expecting 3D. A project file opens as a file card. Export IFC first.
- Opening an
.ifczip. Unzip it, or export plain.ifc. - A very large model makes the tab slow or crash. See Browsers, devices and memory.