Nothing is uploaded
The file is read with your browser's own file API and parsed by web-ifc, an open-source WebAssembly IFC parser. No request leaves the page, so a confidential model stays confidential.
Free tool
Free online IFC viewer.
Drag an IFC file into the window below and read it: every element, its class, its name and its GUID. No account, no upload, no watermark. The model is parsed by your own browser and never reaches a server — ours or anyone else's.
Drop an IFC file here
IFC2x3 and IFC4, up to 512 MB. It is read in this browser tab — nothing is uploaded, and no copy is kept.
Works offline once the page has loaded.
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Drag to orbit, scroll to zoom, right-drag to pan. F fits the model, Esc clears the selection. The viewer reads geometry and identity (class, name, GUID); it does not yet read property sets or the spatial tree.
What it does
Enough to check a model, not enough to pretend it is a BIM seat.
IFC2x3 and IFC4
The two schemas in circulation. Geometry is built the same way our own application builds it, so what you see here is what AutoIFC sees.
Element identity
Click anything to read its IFC class, its name and its GlobalId — the three fields you need when a model and a schedule disagree.
Class visibility
Every class in the file is listed with its count, and any of them can be switched off to see behind it.
The format
What the viewer reads
IFC — Industry Foundation Classes — is the open, ISO-standard format building models are exchanged in. The viewer reads IFC2x3 and IFC4, which covers what Revit, Archicad, Tekla, Allplan and Vectorworks export today; IFC4.3 infrastructure models may load partially.
An .ifcXML file is the same data in XML, and an .ifcZIP is one of the two compressed. Unzip an .ifcZIP and you get the .ifc this viewer reads.
What is actually inside the file — the spatial tree, the relationships, GlobalIds, property sets, the versions and model view definitions, shown with lines from a real one — is in What is an IFC file?
Opening one
How to open an IFC file
Nothing opens an .ifc by double-clicking it on a clean machine: it is not a format Windows or macOS knows. You have three honest options.
1. A browser viewer, for a look
The tool at the top of this page, or one of the other free web viewers. Right for checking what is in a file someone sent you, reading a GUID, or confirming an export worked before you forward it. Wrong for marking a model up or issuing anything.
2. A desktop viewer, for review
BIMvision, Solibri Anywhere, usBIM.viewer+ and Open IFC Viewer are free and handle far larger models than a browser tab, with sectioning, measurement and property inspection. BIMcollab Zoom adds issue tracking. These are what you want if you are actually reviewing a delivery.
3. Your BIM application, to work on it
Revit links IFC rather than opening it — Insert → Link IFC keeps the reference live and is almost always what you want over Open, which converts. Archicad, Tekla, Allplan and Vectorworks all import IFC directly. Blender reads it through Bonsai, the open-source add-on formerly called BlenderBIM.
If it will not open
- It is an
.ifczip— unzip it first. - The file is enormous — a browser tab holds the whole model in memory. Past roughly 300 MB, use a desktop viewer.
- It opens but shows nothing — the file may carry only properties and a spatial tree with no geometry, which is a valid and surprisingly common export. It may also be geo-referenced a long way from the origin; this viewer re-centres on load, many do not.
- It is an IFC4.3 infrastructure model — support is still uneven everywhere, including here.
Straight answers
Questions about the viewer.
Is my model uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read by your browser and parsed by WebAssembly running in the same tab. There is no upload, no temporary copy on a server and no analytics event carrying your file name. Once this page has loaded you can disconnect from the network and the viewer still works — which is the easiest way to verify the claim rather than take our word for it.
Is it really free? What is the catch?
It is free and there is no account, no size-limited trial and no watermark. We built it because AutoIFC already contains an IFC viewer for reviewing the models it generates, so publishing one costs us very little — and because people who open IFC files are the people who eventually need facades modelled from a scan. That is the whole exchange.
Which versions of IFC does it read?
IFC2x3 and IFC4, which covers essentially everything exported by Revit, Archicad, Tekla, Allplan and Vectorworks today. IFC4.3 infrastructure models may load partially. It does not read .ifcxml or .ifczip directly — unzip an .ifczip and open the .ifc inside it.
How big a file can it handle?
The limit is your machine, not a licence. Models up to a few hundred megabytes open on a normal laptop; the viewer refuses past 512 MB because the whole model is held in browser memory and a failure there is an unhelpful one. For anything larger, a desktop viewer is the right tool.
Can I see property sets and the spatial tree?
Not yet. Today the viewer reads geometry and identity — class, name and GlobalId per element. Property sets and the project/site/building/storey tree are the next thing we will add. We would rather say that plainly than let you hunt for a panel that is not there.
Does it work on a phone or tablet?
Yes, on any browser with WebGL2, and the orbit and pinch gestures work. Large models will struggle on mobile memory; that is a hardware limit rather than a deliberate one.
What engine is under it?
web-ifc, the open-source WebAssembly IFC parser from That Open Company, drawn with three.js. Both are open source, and the geometry path here is the same one AutoIFC uses internally, so a model that looks right in our application looks right here.
Who makes this
We generate the IFC, not just read it.
AutoIFC turns a terrestrial laser scan into an IFC model of a building's facade. Upload E57, LAS, LAZ or PLY; every window, door, vent, railing and wall is proposed, measured against your own points, and put in front of you to accept, reject or edit before anything is downloaded.
On one named building of a surveyed estate, scored against the surveyor's own IFC: 99 % of the windows found, 94 % of the windows we drew are theirs, and 96 % of the wall surface covered. On buildings nobody had read before, on clouds four times thinner, we find 75 % — we publish that figure too, because it is the one that tells you what a new building does.
If the model you just opened above was drawn by hand from a point cloud, that is the work we automate.
Scan in, IFC out.
500 free credits on every new account, about one building front. Running and reviewing are free; you pay only to take the model out.