What is the expected time to index IFC semantic properties for large models using WebIFC?

[sanraz299]

I am building a web-based IFC viewer using WebIFC (WASM) with JavaScript, and I am implementing a custom semantic indexing step to cache IFC properties for fast access on element selection. For large IFC files (~400–500 MB), I open the model with WebIFC and traverse semantic relationships such as IfcRelDefinesByProperties and IfcRelDefinesByType to build lookup maps (element → property sets → property values), which are then cached so properties can be queried instantly without re-parsing the IFC. In practice, this full property indexing step is taking a significant amount of time (tens of seconds to minutes). I would like to understand what is considered expected or normal indexing time for large IFCs using WebIFC, and whether recommended patterns involve eager indexing of all properties or more selective / lazy approaches to reduce initial load time.

WebIFC (WASM), JavaScript/TypeScript, browser environment, geometry handled separately (fragments/meshes), indexing focused purely on semantic/property relationships.

[beachtom]

Are you generating the lookup maps in JS/TS. Doing that in TS/JS will be quite slow - which is why internally we do it in C++.

I wouldnot expect it to take minutes yet. In pure C++ on a 4gb IFC file it takes < 2min here.... perhaps you can share some code and we can identify where the issues arise