Chunks are now grouped by world-space centroid instead of mesh-id
range, so each chunk's AABB tightly bounds its geometry instead of
spanning the whole model. Distance-based eviction can finally
distinguish the near corner of a skyscraper from the far corner.
Algorithm:
1. Compute each mesh's centroid = mean of its instances' world AABB
centres.
2. Sort mesh indices lexicographically by (z, y, x) centroid. Stable
sort keeps mesh-id order as tiebreaker for instanced repeats.
3. Greedy-pack sorted meshes into chunks ≤ WGPU_CHUNK_VERTEX_BYTES_LIMIT.
4. Each Chunk stores its mesh_ids list; the per-mesh layout (chunk_local
base_vertex / ebo_first_u32) is computed by walking the list at plan
time.
Loader: chunk vertex/index bytes are no longer file-contiguous, so
streaming uses new multi-range read paths
(readSidecarVertexRanges / readSidecarIndexRanges). Each range list
is sorted by file offset and adjacent ranges coalesced with a 64 KB
gap tolerance — on the close-camera benchmark this brings the
per-chunk seek count back down to ~mesh-id-grouping levels, so the
spatial sort costs ~nothing on I/O while delivering tighter AABBs.
Non-streaming applyCachedModel mirrors the spatial plan but gathers
from in-memory data.vertices / data.indices via per-mesh
queueWriteBuffer calls at chunk-local offsets.
Chunk struct drops vertex_byte_offset and index_first_u32 (no longer
meaningful — each chunk is N scattered ranges). vertex_byte_size and
index_count stay as aggregates for pool sizing + eviction math.
Tuning: kept WGPU_CHUNK_VERTEX_BYTES_LIMIT at 128 MB. Tried 8 MB and
32 MB; both gave tighter AABBs but the scatter-gather I/O cost blew
up because the per-frame load count grows linearly as chunks shrink
(orbit shifts the working set faster across finer chunks). 128 MB +
coalescing is the empirical sweet spot pre-v14. Once sidecar v14
re-orders bytes on disk to match spatial chunks, we can drop the
limit to ~8 MB for sharp eviction without re-paying the seek cost.
Benchmarks (big federation, --streaming):
close camera: avg 36 fps median 53 (was 35/49) — parity
default camera: avg 33 fps median 47 (was 40/49) — small regression
likely from increased coalesce overhead on more-
scattered orbit traversals; will resolve with v14.
Pixel-identical to non-streaming on basic.ifc on both paths.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
IfcOpenShell
IfcOpenShell is an open source (LGPL) software library for working with Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). Complete parsing support is provided for IFC2x3 TC1, IFC4 Add2 TC1, IFC4x1, IFC4x2, and IFC4x3 Add2. Extensive geometric support is implemented for the IFC releases IFC2x3 TC1 and IFC4 Add2 TC1. Extending with support for arbitrary IFC schemas is possible at compile-time when using C++ and at run-time when using Python.
In addition to a C++ and Python API, IfcOpenShell comes with an ecosystem of tools, notably including IfcConvert (an application to convert IFC models to other formats), Bonsai (an add-on to Blender providing a graphical IFC authoring platform), and many other libraries, CLI apps, and more. Support is also provided for auxiliary standards such as BCF and IDS.
For more information, see:
Development is sponsored through your generous donations!
Contents
| Name | Description | License | Service |
|---|---|---|---|
| bcf | Library to read and write BCF-XML and query OpenCDE BCF-API modules | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| bonsai | Add-on to Blender providing a graphical native IFC authoring platform | GPL-3.0-or-later | |
| bsdd | Library to query the bSDD API | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifc2ca | Utility to convert IFC structural analysis models to Code_Aster | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifc4d | Convert to and from IFC and project management software | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifc5d | Report and optimise cost information from IFC | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifcbimtester | Wrapper for Gherkin based unit testing for IFC models | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifcblender | Historic Blender IFC import add-on | LGPL-3.0-or-later* | |
| ifccityjson | Convert CityJSON to IFC | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifcclash | Clash detection library and CLI app | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifcconvert | CLI app to convert IFC to many other formats | LGPL-3.0-or-later* | |
| ifccsv | Library and CLI app to export and import schedules from IFC | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifcdiff | Compare changes between IFC models | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifcedit | CLI wrapper for ifcopenshell.api IFC model mutation functions | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifcfm | Extract IFC data for FM handover requirements | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifcmax | Historic extension for IFC support in 3DS Max | LGPL-3.0-or-later* | |
| ifcmcp | MCP server for querying and editing IFC building models | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifcopenshell-python | Python library for IFC manipulation | LGPL-3.0-or-later* | |
| ifcpatch | Utility to run pre-packaged scripts to manipulate IFCs | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifcquery | CLI tool for querying and inspecting IFC building models | LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifcsverchok | Blender Add-on for visual node programming with IFC | GPL-3.0-or-later | |
| ifctester | Library, CLI and webapp for IDS model auditing | LGPL-3.0-or-later |
The IfcOpenShell C++ codebase is split into multiple interal libraries:
| Name | Description | License |
|---|---|---|
| ifcgeom | Internal library for IfcOpenShell | LGPL-3.0-or-later* |
| ifcgeom_schema_agnostic | Internal library for IfcOpenShell | LGPL-3.0-or-later* |
| ifcgeomserver | Internal library for IfcOpenShell | LGPL-3.0-or-later* |
| ifcjni | Internal library for IfcOpenShell | LGPL-3.0-or-later* |
| ifcparse | Internal library for IfcOpenShell | LGPL-3.0-or-later* |
| ifcwrap | Internal library for IfcOpenShell | LGPL-3.0-or-later* |
| qtviewer | Internal library for IfcOpenShell | LGPL-3.0-or-later* |
| serializers | Internal library for IfcOpenShell | LGPL-3.0-or-later* |