How do I embed an IFC model on a website?

Host the .ifc file at a public URL that allows cross-origin requests, then add an iframe pointing at the viewer with ?model= &embed=1. The model is fetched and parsed by the visitor's browser. The free embed builder generates the snippet for you with a live preview.

Can I show an IFC model inside Power BI?

Yes. Add a web content or HTML viewer visual and paste the iframe snippet. The accent parameter matches the viewer to the report's colours.

Why does my embedded IFC not load?

Nine times in ten it is CORS: the server hosting the file does not send an Access-Control-Allow-Origin header, so the browser refuses to hand the file to the viewer. Private links that require a login, and sharing links that return an HTML page instead of the file, are the other common causes.

When should I use the SDK instead of an iframe?

When your page needs to talk to the model — select elements from your own UI, read the Health Score or issue list, run an IDS check, or react to clicks. The iframe shows a model; the SDK lets your application control and query it.

Back to the BIM & IFC blog

Tools & comparisons · 2026-10-01 · 9 min

How to Embed an IFC Viewer in a Website, CDE or Power BI Report

An interactive 3D model in a proposal, a project page, a CDE panel or a Power BI dashboard — with one iframe, no build step, and without uploading the model to anybody's server. What the URL parameters do, and when you need the SDK instead.

How to Embed an IFC Viewer in a Website, CDE or Power BI Report — IFC Viewer Online article cover

Screenshots of a BIM model are a strange thing to put in a proposal. The whole point of the model is that it is three-dimensional and full of data, and the screenshot throws away both. An embedded viewer keeps them: the reader can orbit, section, click an element and read its properties, on any device, without installing anything.

Doing it takes one iframe. Doing it well takes knowing about four parameters and one browser security rule.

The minimum embed

<iframe
  src="https://www.ifcvieweronline.eu/?model=https://your-host.com/model.ifc&embed=1"
  width="100%" height="600"
  style="border:0;border-radius:12px;max-width:100%"
  loading="lazy" allow="fullscreen"
  title="3D IFC model">
</iframe>

The visitor's browser downloads the IFC directly from your host and parses it locally. The model is never uploaded to us, which is usually the first question from anyone who has signed an NDA — and a genuine difference from embeds that require you to upload the model to a vendor's cloud first.

Build your embed

Paste a public IFC URL, pick a preset, and copy the iframe. The preview updates live.

Open IFC Viewer

The parameters worth knowing

Parameter	Does	Use it for
model	Loads one or more IFC URLs (comma-separated for a federated set)	Everything
ui	Chrome preset: minimal, full, kiosk or client	Matching the audience
validate	Runs validation on load and shows the Health Score	Showing quality, not just geometry
isolate / select	Opens with one IFC class isolated, or one element selected	Pointing at the thing you are writing about
accent	Tints the viewer to a hex colour	Dashboards and branded pages
lang	Forces the interface language	Localised sites
map	Places the model on the basemap from its georeferencing	Site context in proposals

The full reference, including solar studies and point clouds, is in the embed documentation.

The ui preset matters most. minimal is right for blog posts and documentation. kiosk strips everything for screens in a lobby or a sales suite. client is designed for sending to a building owner: a clean view and a quality badge, without the tools a coordinator needs and a client does not.

Where it works

Websites and blogs — any CMS that accepts HTML: WordPress, Webflow, Ghost, a static site.
Power BI — a web content or HTML viewer visual, with accent set to the report theme. A model next to the cost and programme charts it explains.
Notion, Confluence, SharePoint — paste the URL as an embed block.
CDE panels and internal tools — an iframe, with lifecycle events posted to the parent window so the host can react when the model is ready or validated.
Proposals and tenders — as a link if the format does not allow embeds. A live model link in a tender response is still rare enough to be noticed.

Why it does not load: CORS, and two other causes

Flow diagram of an embedded IFC viewer: the page loads the iframe, the viewer fetches the IFC from your storage, which must return an Access-Control-Allow-Origin header — The model travels from your storage to the visitor's browser. Without a CORS header on the host, the browser refuses to hand it over.

Sharing links that return a web page, not the file. Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive share links usually open a preview page; you need the direct-download form of the link.
Links that require login. The visitor's browser has no session on your CDE, so a private link returns a sign-in page.
Very large files on slow hosts. The model is downloaded in full before parsing; host big federated sets somewhere fast, and consider splitting them.

If the models are too large to embed comfortably, how to reduce IFC file size covers the safe reductions.

When an iframe is not enough: the SDK

An iframe shows a model. As soon as your page needs to talk to it — highlight an element when a row in your table is clicked, read the Health Score into your dashboard, run an IDS specification and list the failures in your own UI, trigger a guided tour — you want the SDK. It wraps the same viewer with a typed, two-way API, available as a script or as an <ifc-viewer> web component.

If instead you want to build your own viewer from the underlying libraries, viewing IFC on the web with three.js and Fragments covers what that involves — and why most teams that start there end up embedding.

For confidential projects, the same client-side architecture that makes embeds work is what keeps the model off third-party servers; the details are in IFC viewers for confidential and NDA projects.

How to Embed an IFC Viewer in a Website, CDE or Power BI Report