To open the 2D viewer, click on the 2D button on the right in the 3D panel.
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The following topics will be described in this article:

In the 2D viewer a slice through 3D objects from a model are displayed.

When a new ifc file is uploaded as a revision either to a model or to a document that is linked to a model, 2D slices through the objects in the ifc file at 1.4 meters above the height that is set for each of the storeys in the ifc file are generated.
While it is possible to configure these slices to be shown at a different height with the storey configurator in the case of for example an in-between storey it is not possible to alter the content of each slice after it is generated.

This is what a the 2D viewer can look like when a storey is displayed:

If no 2D view has previously been selected and there are models on the models page of the project the default model storey is displayed.

The default storey is the storey from the latest revision of one of the models that has the most objects of interest.

Objects of interest include objects like walls, doors and windows.

Configuring the default storey

If a building has been configured in the storey configurator, the first storey of the first building that is created is displayed instead of the default storey that is picked based on objects of interests.

Load 2D views of different storeys in models into the 2D viewer in different ways.

2D button

Click on the 2D button for a model.

2D buttons for models can be found in multiple places:

Playing a snapshot

Play 2D or 3D snapshot from a topic or play a snapshot from a bookmark to load in the 2D models that were enabled at the time the snapshot was created.

View marker on 2D

A marker, of a topic with a marker that is placed on a storey, can be clicked to select play on 2D.

Click this button to make the storeys of models, that were enabled when the marker was made created, available in the 2D viewer.

Access required: Read access to the document connected to each of the models.

Configured storeys

If building are configured in the story configurator, the storeys that are configured in each of these buildings will always be available.

Access required: Read access to the document connected to each of the models.

When 2D views of multiple models have been enabled at the same time they are displayed together in the 2D viewer.

Select a story from one of the models to view the storeys from all enabled models that are generated for this height together in the 2D viewer.

For example, when 2D views of both the architectural and structural model are enabled and the first floor of the architectural model is selected, if the structural model has a storey that is at the same height of the first floor of the architectural model then both the walls from the architectural model and the beams from the structural model are displayed together in the 2D viewer.

Load in 2D views of multiple models at once

To load in 2D views of multiple models at once, select the models on the models page and click on the 2D button towards the top of the models page.

Configured storeys

Select a storey from a building that is configured in the storey configurator to automatically load the 2D views of all models that are configured for that storey into the 2D viewer.

There are several ways to configure your 2D viewer to suit your needs.

Highlighting selected objects

The lines that are generated for each storey when the model is processed stay linked to the 3D object that was sliced through when the lines were generated.

When an object is selected in the 3D viewer, if a storey of that model is enabled in the 2D viewer that was generated on the height where this object exists, the object will also be highlighted in the 2D viewer.

Door swings

Door swings are specified in the IFC file.

You can see how this works in the following BuildingSMART articles:

IFC 2x3

IFC 4

If no door swing is specified the door will swing open to the right.

It is possible to underlay a PDF from the documents section with the storey configurator.

This is especially helpful if there are objects above or below the height where the 3D objects are sliced through that do not show up in the 2D viewer.

Examples of these are: Ducts and pipes, Electrical outlets, Ceiling plans, Road and rail

If you have markers enabled you will be able to see any topics of which you have specified the location on each storey of the building.

Hovering over the marker will show you the topic number and title.

Clicking on the marker will let you open up the topic in the topic board.

Click here to read more about the 2D location of topics.

The following buttons and areas can be clicked on to be able to perform different actions.

Click here to read more about these different actions.

A good way to export an image from the 2D viewer is by making a 2D snapshot.

It is also possible to get .svg files with vector lines by extracting the .svg from the webpage element.