Overview

The IFC Desktop Viewer is a Windows tool for exploring the geometry and product structure in IFC exchange files. You can turn assembly components on/off, turn annotations on/off, change the display color and transparency of things. Tooltip popups display the underlying IFC entities for the shape representations, relationship, and product entities so that you can trace their use within the IFC P21 file.

Using the Viewer

• Reading IFC Files

• Product and Shape Tree
• Adjust the Geometry View
• Pick Shapes, Faces, and Edges
• Show/Hide Products, Shapes, and Faces
• Show/Hide Annotation
• Change Colors
• Change Transparency

• View the IFC File Header Information
• View the IFC File Instance Details

Window Layout

The viewer window is split into two panels as shown below. The left panel shows the product structure tree of IFC assemblies. Right clicking on an entry will bring up a context menu that you can use to control the appearance of items on the geometry panel. You can hide or show items, change their color, or even make them transparent. Hidden items and items without geometry are shown using light gray text in the product tree.

The right panel shows the IFC geometry, and can be manipulated using the toolbar at the top of the window. By default, the mouse will rotate the scene, but other toolbar buttons pan the view, align the display to standard views, zoom in and out, or pick faces, edges, and solids.