ifc-lite-geometry 1.0.0

Geometry processing and mesh generation for IFC models
Documentation

Overview

IFC-Lite is a next-generation IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) platform built with Rust + WebAssembly for parsing, geometry processing, and WebGPU for 3D visualization. It's designed to be a 95x smaller and significantly faster alternative to existing web-based IFC solutions.

Features

Feature Description
STEP/IFC Parsing Zero-copy tokenization at ~1,259 MB/s with full IFC4 schema support (776 entities)
Streaming Pipeline Progressive geometry processing - first triangles render in 300-500ms
WebGPU Rendering Modern GPU-accelerated 3D visualization with depth testing and frustum culling
Columnar Storage Memory-efficient TypedArray storage with 30% string deduplication
Zero-Copy GPU Direct WASM memory binding to GPU buffers

Quick Start

Prerequisites

  • Node.js 18.0+ with pnpm 8.0+
  • Rust toolchain with wasm32-unknown-unknown target
  • Modern browser with WebGPU support (Chrome 113+, Edge 113+, Firefox 127+, Safari 18+)

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/louistrue/ifc-lite.git
cd ifc-lite

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Build all packages
pnpm build

# Run the viewer
cd apps/viewer
pnpm dev

Basic Usage

import { IfcParser } from '@ifc-lite/parser';
import { Renderer } from '@ifc-lite/renderer';

// Parse IFC file
const parser = new IfcParser();
const result = await parser.parse(ifcArrayBuffer);

// Access entities
const walls = result.entities.filter(e => e.type === 'IFCWALL');
console.log(`Found ${walls.length} walls`);

// Render geometry
const renderer = new Renderer(canvas);
await renderer.loadGeometry(result.geometry);
renderer.render();

Documentation

Resource Description
User Guide Complete guide with tutorials and examples
API Reference Rustdoc API documentation
Architecture System design and data flow
Contributing How to contribute to the project

Architecture

IFC files flow through three layers:

Parser (Rust/WASM) — Zero-copy STEP tokenizer, entity scanner, and geometry processor using nom, earcutr, and nalgebra.

Data (TypeScript) — Columnar TypedArrays for properties, CSR graph for relationships, GPU-ready geometry buffers.

Output — WebGPU renderer, Parquet analytics, glTF/JSON-LD/CSV export.

Project Structure

ifc-lite/
├── rust/                      # Rust/WASM backend
│   ├── core/                  # IFC/STEP parsing (~2,000 LOC)
│   ├── geometry/              # Geometry processing (~2,500 LOC)
│   └── wasm-bindings/         # JavaScript API (~800 LOC)
│
├── packages/                  # TypeScript packages
│   ├── parser/                # High-level IFC parser
│   ├── geometry/              # Geometry bridge (WASM)
│   ├── renderer/              # WebGPU rendering
│   ├── query/                 # Query system
│   ├── data/                  # Columnar data structures
│   ├── spatial/               # Spatial indexing
│   ├── export/                # Export formats
│   └── codegen/               # Schema generator
│
├── apps/
│   └── viewer/                # React web application
│
├── docs/                      # Documentation (MkDocs)
└── plan/                      # Technical specifications

Performance

Bundle Size Comparison

Library Size Gzipped
IFC-Lite ~86 KB ~28 KB
Traditional WASM 8+ MB N/A
Reduction 93% -

Parse Performance

Model Size IFC-Lite Notes
10 MB ~800ms Small models
50 MB ~2.7s Typical models
100+ MB ~5s+ Complex geometry

Geometry Processing

  • 1.9x faster mesh extraction than traditional solutions
  • Streaming pipeline with batched processing (100 meshes/batch)
  • First triangles visible in 300-500ms

Browser Requirements

Browser Minimum Version WebGPU
Chrome 113+ ✅
Edge 113+ ✅
Firefox 127+ ✅
Safari 18+ ✅

Development

# Watch mode for all packages
pnpm -r dev

# Build specific package
cd packages/parser && pnpm build

# Run tests
pnpm test

# Build Rust/WASM
cd rust && cargo build --release --target wasm32-unknown-unknown

# Generate Rustdoc
cd rust && cargo doc --no-deps --open

# Build documentation site
cd docs && mkdocs serve

Packages

Package Description Status
@ifc-lite/parser STEP tokenizer & entity extraction ✅ Stable
@ifc-lite/geometry Geometry processing bridge ✅ Stable
@ifc-lite/renderer WebGPU rendering pipeline ✅ Stable
@ifc-lite/query Fluent & SQL query system 🚧 Beta
@ifc-lite/data Columnar data structures ✅ Stable
@ifc-lite/spatial Spatial indexing & culling 🚧 Beta
@ifc-lite/export Export (glTF, Parquet, etc.) 🚧 Beta

Rust Crates

Crate Description Status
ifc-lite-core STEP/IFC parsing ✅ Stable
ifc-lite-geometry Mesh triangulation ✅ Stable
ifc-lite-wasm WASM bindings ✅ Stable

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details.

# Fork and clone
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/ifc-lite.git

# Create a branch
git checkout -b feature/my-feature

# Make changes and test
pnpm test

# Submit a pull request

License

This project is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.

Acknowledgments