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Frequently asked questions

The questions we get asked most often. If yours is not here, get in touch — recurring questions get added to this page.

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Opening and viewing

Can I open an IFC file online without installing software?
Yes. Drag the .ifc file onto the upload page, and once conversion finishes you can rotate, zoom and click through the model directly in a browser. No desktop software and no plugin is required, and the same link works on phones and tablets.
What is an IFC file and why can't I open it?
IFC stands for Industry Foundation Classes, the neutral exchange format used across building and structural engineering, with the .ifc extension. It is a plain text format, so a text editor will open it, but you will only see hundreds of thousands of lines of coordinates and entity definitions. Seeing the 3D model requires a viewer; an online viewer means the person receiving the model does not have to install anything.
Which IFC versions are supported?
IFC2x3 and IFC4 are supported, which covers what almost every detailing and design package exports today. The version detected in your file is shown on the model page after upload.
How large can a single model file be?
The per-file limit is 200 MB on the Free plan, 1 GB on Basic and 2 GB on Pro Team. Ultra has no per-file cap and is bounded only by the storage quota. In practice a full steel detailing model for one plant building is usually between tens and a few hundred megabytes.
Can it handle models with tens of thousands of elements?
Yes. An uploaded model is converted server-side into a format built for web rendering, and the browser loads that instead of the raw IFC, so models with tens of thousands of elements stay responsive on an ordinary laptop. Conversion happens once; every later visit reads the converted result. Display runs on our in-house 3D engine built for steel, so a model with tens of thousands of bolts loads into the browser all at once.
Is the 3D engine your own? How is it different from a generic IFC viewer?
Yes. It is built from the ground up for steel models rather than adapted from a general-purpose engine. Four things set it apart from a generic viewer: a whole plant, bolts and all, loads into the browser at once and rotates without waiting for pieces to stream in; in a plant over a hundred metres long every member still sits within a millimetre of where it belongs; zoomed out to the whole building, member outlines stay crisp instead of smearing; and clash detection and quantity take-off work on the very model on screen, so results always match what you see. Conversion after upload is faster too: models with tens of thousands of members open within minutes.
How long does conversion take?
Most models convert in under a minute to a few minutes; even large models with tens of thousands of members and every bolt finish within minutes, depending mainly on element count. Conversion runs in the background, so you can close the page, and the uploader gets an email when it is done.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. A share link opens directly in a mobile browser with pinch to zoom, rotation and element selection, so checking a piece mark on site does not require a laptop.

Sharing and collaboration

Can a share link have a password or an expiry date?
Yes. Share links support an access password and an expiry date, after which the link stops working. The Free plan allows 3 active links at a time with a maximum lifetime of 7 days; paid plans raise both limits, and password protection is a paid capability.
Which tools does someone opening a share link get?
Tools on a share page follow the plan of the model's owner, not the visitor. A paying user sending a link to a client gives that client the full set of measuring, sectioning, x-ray and isolation tools without the client needing a plan of their own.
Can several people on a team use it together?
Yes. Paid plans include team seats: add colleagues to your team and they can open models in your account without re-uploading them. Basic includes 1 seat, Pro Team 3 and Ultra 10, counting the account owner.

Steel structures

Can I see piece marks and part numbers?
Yes. An IFC exported from detailing software carries assembly and part marks, and clicking any element shows its mark, section, material, length and weight in the property panel. That mark is what the shop and the erection crew work from.
Can I export a bill of quantities from an IFC?
Yes. Quantities, lengths and weights are summarised by section, material and mark and exported as a table for procurement and estimating. This is available on Pro Team and above.
Is there clash detection?
Yes. It finds real geometric intersections and gaps below a threshold, reporting the location, the two element marks involved and the penetration depth, and clicking a result jumps the 3D view to that spot. This is available on Pro Team and above.
Why aren't bolts through holes reported as clashes?
A bolt passing through a hole in a plate is the design, not a clash. Reporting every such intersection would produce thousands of results on a healthy model and bury the few that matter. Fasteners, parts welded together inside one assembly, and any pair of elements that already touch somewhere are therefore excluded from pairing. The quality of clash detection is judged by its false positive rate, not by how many results it can produce.
What clearance threshold should I use?
The default reports clear distances below 10 mm. In real models clear distances cluster at 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 mm, and those are deliberate construction gaps, such as 2 mm between a purlin and its cleat or 10 mm between a girt and a column. A 30 mm threshold pulls whole families of construction gaps into the list and makes it unusable. The threshold can be set per company standard, per project and per individual model.
What does the model health check look at?
It checks fabricability and erectability against shop conventions: elements longer than stock length, single-piece weights beyond overhead crane or mobile crane capacity, elements sharing a mark whose geometry does not match, missing sections or materials, and orphaned elements. It is a rule-based check and does not compute geometric intersections; that is what clash detection does.
Can I see plate thickness and hole positions for a single part?
Yes. Selecting a part opens a flat drawing of it with overall dimensions, plate thickness or section width, and hole diameters grouped by size. You can also measure between any two points on the drawing and save the measurement for colleagues. These drawings are for review and checking only and are not fabrication documents.
Can I compare two versions of a model?
Yes. Upload a new version and compare it against an earlier one to list added, removed, moved and re-sectioned elements, colour-coded in 3D. It is far faster than comparing drawings by hand after a design change.

Accounts and pricing

What does the free plan include?
The Free plan covers uploading, conversion, viewing and sharing, with a 1 GB storage quota and a 200 MB per-file limit. Measuring, sectioning, x-ray and the checking capabilities belong to paid plans. Signing up needs no payment method.
Can other people see the models I upload?
Uploaded models are private by default. You can create a share link, publish to the community for signed-in users, or publish to the gallery for everyone. Withdrawing a publication may leave its share link active; disable sharing to stop link access. Withdrawing a community publication keeps the link's sign-in requirement.
How do I pay for a plan?
Plans are currently activated offline by contacting us; there is no online checkout. When a plan expires your existing models and share links keep working, you simply cannot use paid capabilities or upload more until you renew, and everything comes back the moment you do.