BIMsurfer vs F3D
BIMsurfer
github.com
F3D
f3d.appSide by side
| Figure | BIMsurfer | F3D |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · 3D Model Viewer Software | 7.8 (#16) | 8.1 (#8) |
| License | The project is distributed under the MIT License, which permits use, copying, modification, distribution, sublicensing, and sale subject to its stated conditions. | F3D is distributed under the BSD 3-Clause License, which permits redistribution and use in source and binary forms with or without modification subject to its conditions. |
| Purpose | BIMsurfer is a WebGL-based IFC model viewer for BIMserver. | F3D is software for viewing 3D data, generating high quality renderings, and browsing 3D models. |
| Rendering | Version 3 requires WebGL 2.0 and is designed for high performance. | F3D supports realistic rendering with lighting and materials. |
Plans
In their own words
F3D
F3D is free software for viewing 3D data, browsing models, and generating renderings. It supports lighting and materials for realistic rendering, animations with GPU-accelerated skinning for character rigs, and visualization tasks such as CAD, Gaussian splatting, volume rendering, and scientific work. Its supported formats include VTK, STL, DICOM, STEP, OBJ, glTF, FBX, USD, IFC, and Gaussian splat files, among many others. Packages are available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android, and a browser viewer can open or accept dropped files and provides rendering and display controls. Developers can use a Python package, a beta JavaScript/WebAssembly package, or the libf3d C++ library with Python and Java bindings. F3D is distributed under the BSD 3-Clause License. Some capabilities have specific limits: FBX PBR materials and Alembic materials are unsupported, while Gaussian splatting requires OpenGL 4.3, which macOS does not support. Documentation also says volume rendering and HDRI need a decent GPU. Plugins can vary by package.