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Cross-platform online visualization system for open BIM based on WebGL

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Abstract

Online BIM visualization system is the first and primary task for building web applications of BIM. Light-weighted, cross-platform and open are three basic rules when building online BIM visualization systems. Currently, some efforts have been made on BIM visualization. However, most of them are designed for local BIM, and the online ones neglect the network load (without light-weighted) or are platform dependent (without cross-platform). This study develops a novel online BIM visualization system based on IFC and WebGL, termed as WebBIM. WebBIM firstly converts the raw IFC geometry data into triangles, light-weights the BIM geometry data by sharing the geometry data among the object instances generated from the same facility component, compresses the geometry, and directly renders the decompressed triangular BIM data in web browsers. Finally, empirical studies from extensive real projects’ BIM data show that WebBIM is efficient, capable of visualization of large BIM files and compatible with mainstream devices.

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  1. http://unity3d.com

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Beijing Natural Science Foundation under grant no. 4174087, the Scientific Research Project of Beijing Educational Committee under grand no. SQKM201710016002, and the Natural Science Foundation of China under grant nos. 71601013 and 71531012.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Intelligent Processing for Building Big Data, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, 100044, China

    Xiaoping Zhou, Jia Wang & Zhe Gao

  2. Institute of Mapping and Urban Spatial Information, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, 102616, China

    Ming Guo

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  1. Xiaoping Zhou
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  2. Jia Wang
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Correspondence to Xiaoping Zhou, Jia Wang or Ming Guo.

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Zhou, X., Wang, J., Guo, M. et al. Cross-platform online visualization system for open BIM based on WebGL. Multimed Tools Appl 78, 28575–28590 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-018-5820-0

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