Cross-platform online visualization system for open BIM based on WebGL

Online BIM visualization system is the first and primary task for building web applications of BIM. Light-weighted, cross-platform and open are three basic rules when building online BIM visualization systems. Currently, some efforts have been made on BIM visualization. However, most of them are designed for local BIM, and the online ones neglect the network load (without light-weighted) or are platform dependent (without cross-platform). This study develops a novel online BIM visualization system based on IFC and WebGL, termed as WebBIM. WebBIM firstly converts the raw IFC geometry data into triangles, light-weights the BIM geometry data by sharing the geometry data among the object instances generated from the same facility component, compresses the geometry, and directly renders the decompressed triangular BIM data in web browsers. Finally, empirical studies from extensive real projects’ BIM data show that WebBIM is efficient, capable of visualization of large BIM files and compatible with mainstream devices.