The data sits in a file nobody can open
The architect sends an IFC, and the estimator needs the material of a wall or a value from a property set. Without a viewer the file is a few hundred megabytes of text that nobody on the team can read.
IFC viewer
View IFC properties and quantities online, without desktop software
An IFC file holds far more than shape: every wall, door and duct carries attributes, materials, property sets and quantities. If you only need to read that data, installing authoring software is overkill. Upload the file to Fidrel and it opens in your browser as a model tree you can search, with the data of each object one click away.
30 days free · No long-term contract.
Why reading IFC data is harder than it should be
Desktop viewers on locked-down laptops
Owner’s staff and field people often cannot install software. A viewer that needs an installer, a license seat or a graphics workstation stays with the one person who has it.
Quantities without units
Quantity sets exported in feet or millimeters look like nonsense when read raw. A viewer has to say which unit the numbers are in before anyone prices from them.
What the model tree shows
The tree sorts the model by level and, within each level, by object type, so you can go from one floor to its walls to a single wall. A search box finds objects by name. Several models can open together as a federated model, and the left panel then lists the models so that each can be switched off. IFC 2x3, IFC 4 and IFC 4.3 files are read.
BIM & 3D
Attributes, materials and property sets
Select an object and its data is split into groups that fold open: the object’s Attributes, its Type with the type’s own values, its Materials, each property set under its own name, and its Quantities. A group appears only if the model holds it, and when an object has no properties at all, Fidrel says there are none in the model. The raw listing under All BIM properties is there for anything the groups do not show.
How to read an object’s data in Fidrel
Step 1
Upload and build the model
Upload the IFC, as .ifc or zipped .ifczip, to the project’s models. Fidrel reads the file header, shows the IFC version and the software it came from, and builds the 3D model in your browser. Keep the tab open until it is ready.
Step 2
Find the object in the tree
Open the Model tree, which groups the objects by level and by object type, and use Search objects to find one by name. Click an object in the tree or in the 3D view to select it.
Step 3
Read its data
The Object information panel lists Attributes, the object’s Type, its Materials, each property set and its Quantities. Open All BIM properties for the complete raw data of the object.
Quantities and their units
The Quantities panel counts objects and adds up volume per group from the geometry, and you can group by object type or by level and choose which models to include. Area and length come from the model’s quantity sets, so export the IFC with base quantities (Qto) to get them; without them Fidrel says the model has no quantity sets. Quantity sets written in the model’s own units, including feet in an American export, are converted to meters, square meters and cubic meters, and where Fidrel cannot confirm a unit it shows no quantity-set numbers rather than wrong ones. The table can be exported as CSV.
Large models and the original file
The model is built in your own browser, which can take a few minutes and a lot of memory for a large file, and up to a few hundred megabytes build on an ordinary computer. Split a very large model by building or level. The original IFC is kept unchanged with the project documents, and you can download it again.
What the viewer does not do
The viewer is read-only: you cannot edit the model or save a changed IFC file. Native Revit, Archicad, Tekla or Navisworks files do not open and must be exported to IFC first. Area and length appear only when the exported IFC includes quantity sets, and the largest file is 512 MB.
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IFC 2x3, IFC 4 and IFC 4.3, as .ifc or zipped .ifczip, up to 512 MB. Other versions are refused with a message to export again as one of these.
No. The 3D model is built in your browser from the uploaded file, so a modern browser on an ordinary computer is enough for models of up to a few hundred megabytes.
Yes. Select the object and its Materials, Type and property sets open as groups, and All BIM properties shows the raw data if you need everything.
They come from the model’s quantity sets. If the export has none, Fidrel says so; export the IFC again with base quantities (Qto) to get areas and lengths.
No, the viewer is read-only. Change the model in your authoring software, then upload the next issue as a new version of the same model so the history and linked issues stay.