diff --git a/src/ifcopenshell-python/ifcopenshell/geom/main.py b/src/ifcopenshell-python/ifcopenshell/geom/main.py
index 5f3e2079f2..fa1cbd22f2 100644
--- a/src/ifcopenshell-python/ifcopenshell/geom/main.py
+++ b/src/ifcopenshell-python/ifcopenshell/geom/main.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import os
 import sys
 import operator
 
-from .. import ifcopenshell_wrapper
+from .. import open, ifcopenshell_wrapper
 from ..file import file
 from ..entity_instance import entity_instance
 
@@ -307,10 +307,7 @@ class iterator(ifcopenshell_wrapper.Iterator):
             self.file = file
             file_or_filename = file_or_filename.wrapped_data
         else:
-            # @todo?
-            self.file = None
-            # Makes sure people are able to use python's platform agnostic paths
-            file_or_filename = os.path.abspath(file_or_filename)
+            file_or_filename = self.file = open(file_or_filename)
 
         if include is not None and exclude is not None:
             raise ValueError("include and exclude cannot be specified simultaneously")
@@ -342,7 +339,7 @@ class iterator(ifcopenshell_wrapper.Iterator):
                 geometry_library, self.settings, file_or_filename, include_or_exclude, include is not None, num_threads
             )
         else:
-            ifcopenshell_wrapper.Iterator.__init__(self, geometry_library, settings, file_or_filename, num_threads)
+            self.this = ifcopenshell_wrapper.construct_iterator(geometry_library, self.settings, file_or_filename, num_threads)
 
     if has_occ:
 
diff --git a/src/ifcwrap/IfcGeomWrapper.i b/src/ifcwrap/IfcGeomWrapper.i
index 5b7b4aba0b..6991abbdaf 100644
--- a/src/ifcwrap/IfcGeomWrapper.i
+++ b/src/ifcwrap/IfcGeomWrapper.i
@@ -628,6 +628,7 @@ struct ShapeRTTI : public boost::static_visitor<PyObject*>
 	$result = boost::apply_visitor(ShapeRTTI(), (boost::variant<IfcGeom::Element*, IfcGeom::Representation::Representation*, IfcGeom::Transformation*>) $1);
 }
 
+%newobject construct_iterator;
 %newobject construct_iterator_with_include_exclude;
 %newobject construct_iterator_with_include_exclude_globalid;
 %newobject construct_iterator_with_include_exclude_id;
@@ -635,6 +636,10 @@ struct ShapeRTTI : public boost::static_visitor<PyObject*>
 // I couldn't get the vector<string> typemap to be applied when %extending Iterator constructor.
 // anyway it does not matter as SWIG generates C code without actual constructors
 %inline %{
+	IfcGeom::Iterator* construct_iterator(const std::string& geometry_library, ifcopenshell::geometry::Settings settings, IfcParse::IfcFile* file, int num_threads) {
+		return new IfcGeom::Iterator(ifcopenshell::geometry::kernels::construct(file, geometry_library, settings), settings, file, num_threads);
+	}
+
 	IfcGeom::Iterator* construct_iterator_with_include_exclude(const std::string& geometry_library, ifcopenshell::geometry::Settings settings, IfcParse::IfcFile* file, std::vector<std::string> elems, bool include, int num_threads) {
 		std::set<std::string> elems_set(elems.begin(), elems.end());
 		IfcGeom::entity_filter ef{ include, false, elems_set };