Convert IFC to 3MF Online
Upload an IFC building model and get a 3MF file that slicers and mesh tools will open: all geometry triangulated and merged into a single object. One thing to plan for before you print: the coordinates written are meters while the 3MF header says millimeters, so the model arrives 1000 times too small and has to be scaled up.
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What this conversion actually does
IFC is what BIM tools write when they export a building for another program to read: walls, slabs, columns, ducts and rooms, each a typed object with properties, placed in a storey hierarchy. That structure is the point of IFC, and it is also why a slicer will not open it. Bambu Studio, PrusaSlicer, Cura and most mesh editors want triangles in a container they recognize, and 3MF is the modern one of those containers.
On our servers the IFC is read by IfcOpenShell 0.8.5. Every product that carries geometry is tessellated with world coordinates on and vertices welded, then all of those meshes are concatenated into one mesh and written as 3MF by trimesh, at the library's default linear deflection of 0.001 and angular deflection of 0.5 radians with 16 segments per circle, so there is no quality setting on this page. What survives is the shape of the building and nothing else: one object with no color, no material, no element names, no storeys and no IFC properties, so a wall, a window frame and a staircase become regions of the same mesh. IfcSpace volumes and IfcOpeningElement bodies are not filtered either, so room volumes and door or window voids arrive as solid blocks inside the model. The coordinates written are meters whatever unit the IFC declares, while the 3MF header says millimeters, so expect to scale the object up by 1000.
People who land here are printing a massing model or a single building element, moving BIM geometry into a mesh workflow, or opening a coordination model in something lighter than a BIM viewer. If your authoring tool can leave spaces and openings out of the export, use it: the mesh will be smaller and cleaner. If you want a plain print file instead, IFC to STL uses the same mesher and behaves the same way on units; 3MF is the better pick when your slicer prefers it or you want to assign per-object print settings after import.
How to convert IFC to 3MF
- Export a single IFC file from Revit, ArchiCAD, Tekla or your BIM tool. IFC2x3, IFC4 and IFC4x3 all open; IFC2x2 does not. If you export a zipped IFC, keep the .ifczip extension, because a zip renamed to .ifc will not be read.
- Cut the model down before exporting if you can: hide or exclude spaces, openings, site and MEP you do not need. A smaller product count means a faster run and a mesh you can actually handle in a slicer.
- Drop the file on this page. Guests can upload up to 50 MB per file, a free account 100 MB, Plus 200 MB and Pro 1 GB, with up to 10 files per batch on the free tiers.
- Wait for the conversion to finish. It runs as a server-side job, not in your browser; a single element finishes quickly, a full building model takes longer, and each engine run is cut off after 10 minutes.
- Download the 3MF. The link stays valid for about four hours, after which the file is deleted.
- Open it in your slicer, scale the object up by 1000 (meters interpreted as millimeters), and delete any stray block that turns out to be a room volume or a door opening.
What you get
- Geometry from every IFC product that has a shape, tessellated with world coordinates so elements stay in their correct relative positions
- A single welded mesh in a standard 3MF container that Bambu Studio, PrusaSlicer, Cura and mesh editors read without a plugin
- IFC2x3, IFC4 and IFC4x3 accepted, plus .ifczip archives that keep their extension
- Server-side conversion with no software to install and no account needed for files within the guest limit
- Elements that fail to tessellate are skipped instead of failing the whole job: the run finishes, but those elements are missing from the mesh with no warning, so compare the result against the original model
- Other targets for the same IFC file: STL, OBJ, PLY, OFF, GLB and DAE come straight from the same mesher, while AMF, USDZ, FBX, DXF and 3DM are written by a second step after it
Video Tutorial
Need to convert IFC to 3MF? This quick tutorial shows you how to do it completely free! 🔗 Try it now: https://miconvert.com/en/ifc-to-3mf?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ifc-to-3mf
Frequently asked questions
Does the 3MF keep the colors and materials from my IFC?
No. The output is one object of plain triangles with no color, no material and no element names, even though the 3MF format itself can carry that data. If you need colored parts, split the model by element in your BIM tool, convert the pieces separately, and assign colors or filaments per object in the slicer.
Why is my building only a few millimeters tall in the slicer?
Because the geometry is written with meter values while the 3MF header declares millimeters. Scale the imported object by 1000, or 100000%, and it will be the right size. The same applies to IFC output in STL and AMF.
Are rooms and window openings included?
Yes, and that is usually unwanted. IfcSpace and IfcOpeningElement bodies are not filtered, so room volumes and door or window voids come through as solid blocks. The cleanest fix is to exclude spaces and openings in your IFC export settings; otherwise delete those blocks in a mesh editor or the slicer.
Does the model keep storeys, property sets or element names?
No. Everything is merged into one mesh, so the storey tree, IFC properties, GUIDs, classifications and element names are gone. 3MF here is a shape container, not a BIM file, and it cannot be turned back into usable IFC, Revit or DWG data.
Can I convert a whole folder of IFC files at once?
You can upload up to 10 files in one batch as a guest or free user, 25 on Plus and 50 on Pro, and each file becomes its own 3MF. There is no option to merge several IFC files into one model. There is also no ZIP-all-results button, so download each output individually within the four-hour window.
The conversion failed with a message about no geometry or an unreadable file. What now?
The engine's reason is collapsed into one of two generic messages, so the text will not tell you much; the usual causes are an IFC that holds properties or references but no shapes, an IFC2X2 file, or a zipped IFC renamed to .ifc. Re-export from your BIM tool with geometry included, choose IFC2x3 or IFC4, and keep .ifczip named .ifczip. If the file is very large, export fewer disciplines so the run finishes inside the 10-minute engine limit.
Is the printed result watertight?
Not reliably. The mesh concatenates each element's tessellated surfaces, so coincident walls, open shells and inverted faces from the original model carry over. Run your slicer's repair step or a mesh repair tool before printing anything structural.
What happens to my file after the conversion?
The upload is sent over HTTPS to our servers, converted there, and deleted as soon as the job's final attempt ends. The 3MF can be downloaded for about four hours through an unguessable link, then it is removed automatically. File names, sizes and outcomes are logged for operations, and signed-in users also get a row in their conversion history.