IFC Viewer Architectures: Where Should Model Processing Live?
Embedding a BIM viewer into a web application is not only a rendering decision. It establishes a system boundary.
The choice affects where source models are processed, which credentials participate in the request path, whether intermediate representations are created, how model revisions propagate, and which components an engineering team must integrate and operate.
For IFC-centric applications, one question is especially useful:
Where should IFC model processing live?
Autodesk Platform Services (APS) and the Flinker IFC Viewer SDK represent two different approaches.