@ifc-lite/export

Export formats for IFC-Lite. Supports exporting IFC data to glTF/GLB, Apache Parquet, Apache Arrow, IFC STEP, and IFC5 IFCX.

Installation

npm install @ifc-lite/export

Quick Start

import { GLTFExporter, ParquetExporter, exportToStep, Ifc5Exporter, generateLod0, generateLod1 } from '@ifc-lite/export';

// Export geometry to GLB
const gltfExporter = new GLTFExporter();
const glb = await gltfExporter.export(parseResult, { format: 'glb' });

// Export data to Parquet (15-50x smaller than JSON)
const parquetExporter = new ParquetExporter();
const parquet = await parquetExporter.exportEntities(parseResult);

// Export to IFC STEP (with mutations applied)
const step = exportToStep(dataStore, { schema: 'IFC4' });

// Export to IFC5 IFCX (JSON + USD geometry)
const ifc5 = new Ifc5Exporter(dataStore, geometryResult);
const result = ifc5.export({ includeGeometry: true });
// result.content is IFCX JSON, save as .ifcx

// Generate lightweight LOD artifacts from IFC bytes
const lod0 = await generateLod0(ifcBytes);
const lod1 = await generateLod1(ifcBytes, { quality: 'medium' });

Features

GLB/glTF geometry export
Apache Parquet serialization (columnar, compressed)
Apache Arrow in-memory format
IFC STEP export with mutations applied
IFC5 IFCX export with USD geometry and full schema conversion
Lightweight LOD0/LOD1 generation from IFC bytes
Cross-schema conversion (IFC2X3 ↔ IFC4 ↔ IFC4X3 ↔ IFC5)

Lightweight LOD Generation

The LOD generators are environment-agnostic. They accept IFC bytes, not file paths, so the same API works in Node, browser, and server runtimes.

import { generateLod0, generateLod1 } from '@ifc-lite/export';

const bytes = await file.arrayBuffer();

const lod0 = await generateLod0(bytes);
// => JSON envelopes, transforms, and world-space bounding boxes

const lod1 = await generateLod1(bytes, { quality: 'medium' });
// => { glb, meta }

generateLod0() returns cheap geometric envelopes for every placeable element.

generateLod1() returns:

glb: binary GLB geometry
meta: generation status, failed elements, and expressId → node/mesh mapping

If meshing fails, LOD1 degrades gracefully to box geometry derived from LOD0.

IFC5 Export

The Ifc5Exporter converts IFC data from any schema version to the IFC5 IFCX JSON format:

import { Ifc5Exporter } from '@ifc-lite/export';

const exporter = new Ifc5Exporter(dataStore, geometryResult, mutationView);
const result = exporter.export({
  includeGeometry: true,    // Convert meshes to USD format
  includeProperties: true,  // Map properties to bsi::ifc::prop:: namespace
  applyMutations: true,     // Apply property edits
  visibleOnly: false,       // Filter by visibility
});

// result.content → IFCX JSON string
// result.stats → { nodeCount, propertyCount, meshCount, fileSize }

Output includes:

Entity types converted to IFC5 naming
Properties in IFCX attribute namespaces (bsi::ifc::prop::PsetName::PropName)
Tessellated geometry as USD meshes (usd::usdgeom::mesh)
Spatial hierarchy as IFCX path-based nodes
Presentation data (diffuse color, opacity)

API

See the Exporting Guide and API Reference.

License

MPL-2.0