Remove IFC, RVT, NWD Materials & Colours

Strip the material and colour information from every element — keep the shapes, drop the paint.

Besides IFC, this tool takes Revit (.rvt) and Navisworks (.nwd) files, with no Revit or Navisworks licence. Drop one in and it is converted to IFC first, then the tool runs on that IFC; your original file is not changed.

Remove the material and colour definitions from an IFC model — keep every shape, drop the paint. Upload the model, optionally scope it to specific classes or a selection, and download geometry without the material layer.

IFC materials are more than a colour. A single element can carry a material, a material layer set describing its build-up, an association relationship binding the two, and a presentation style controlling how it draws — and the same definitions repeat across the model. In a hand-off where nobody uses any of it, that's a meaningful share of the file supporting information the recipient will discard or override anyway.

When to reach for it: When the person receiving the model only needs the 3D shapes and doesn't care about how they look. Stripping materials is one of the cheapest ways to shrink a file that's mostly inflated by visual styling.

What you get: The same model with every material, texture, and colour definition removed. Shapes and relationships are untouched.

Example: Remove textures and colours to shrink an IFC model for mobile viewing or embedding in a web page.

When stripping materials is the right move

Before a 3D export — GLB and OBJ don't carry IFC materials in any case, and the recipient assigns their own in Blender, Unity or a render tool.
Before sharing with a client or contractor who wants geometry, not specification. Material layer build-ups can carry commercially sensitive detail about what things are actually made of.
When the file is heavy and materials are a visible share of it — the IFC Performance Check's class breakdown shows whether they are.
When the receiving tool overrides all appearance anyway, which most coordination and clash tools do.

Scope it, and check the scope applies

Materials can be stripped from the whole model or from a selection — specific classes, or elements picked in the 3D viewer. The scope is honoured properly, which is worth stating because it once wasn't: selecting ten walls and running the standalone strip used to remove materials from the entire model regardless of what the interface showed. Selecting ten walls now strips those ten.

Everything except the material layer survives — geometry, properties, relationships, GlobalIds, the spatial hierarchy. The model remains fully valid IFC and every data-side workflow is unaffected. What changes is that elements draw in a default colour instead of their assigned one.

Know what you're giving up

Material definitions carry real information, and this removes it. Quantity takeoff grouped BY MATERIAL stops working. Material layer build-ups — the composition of a wall or a floor — are gone. Any downstream check or schedule keyed on material returns nothing. If any of those matter for the recipient, don't run it, or run it on a copy.

The original stays untouched: the run writes a new file, and in a workspace your source model remains available as its own version. If your goal is a smaller file rather than removing the material layer specifically, Reduce IFC File Size and Deep Clean IFC Model both cut size without losing information anyone uses.

Using it on Revit and Navisworks files

When you open a .rvt or a .nwd file here, BIMCamel converts it to IFC on the server and brings you back to this tool with the converted model loaded. Element ids, levels and properties come across under their Revit and Navisworks names, so pick properties as they appear in your model. Your .rvt or .nwd itself is never edited: a tool that changes the model gives you an IFC back.

Revit files can be up to 25 MB without an account, 100 MB with a free one and 200 MB on a paid plan. Navisworks files can be up to 25 MB without an account, 100 MB with a free one and 200 MB on a paid plan, and they open in the browser viewer at the same sizes. Revit projects saved in Revit 2021 to 2027 are supported.

How to remove materials and colours from an IFC file

Upload your model (IFC, RVT or NWD)
Click Run — no configuration needed
Download the slimmer file

Under the hood

BIMCamel parses IFC files in the browser using the open-source web-ifc engine and renders models with @thatopen/components + three.js. Heavy operations (clean / optimise / validate / convert) run on disposable server-side workers using the same web-ifc stack plus our own .NET pipeline; results stream back to your browser as soon as they're ready. Uploads sit on our servers only as long as your tier's retention window allows and are never used to train AI.

Frequently asked questions

How do I strip materials from an IFC model?

Upload it and run — the material and colour definitions are removed while every shape, property, relationship and GlobalId stays. Scope it to specific classes or a viewer selection if you only want part of the model affected.

Does removing materials shrink the file?

Usually, and sometimes considerably — materials, layer sets, association relationships and presentation styles repeat throughout a model. The IFC Performance Check's class breakdown shows whether they're a significant share of yours.

Will the model still be valid IFC?

Yes. Only the material layer is removed; geometry, properties, relationships and the spatial hierarchy are untouched, so every data-side workflow works exactly as before. Elements simply draw in a default colour.

What stops working after stripping materials?

Anything keyed on material: quantity takeoff grouped by material, material layer build-ups describing what a wall or floor is made of, and any schedule or check that reads material. If those matter to the recipient, run it on a copy.

Should I strip materials before exporting to GLB or OBJ?

It does no harm — those formats don't carry IFC materials anyway, and the recipient assigns their own in Blender, Unity or a render tool. Strip them if it makes the file meaningfully lighter to process.

Which IFC versions are supported?

IFC2x3 and IFC4 — the two schema versions exported by essentially every AEC authoring application. IFC4x3, the infrastructure schema, works too: it opens in the viewer, and validation, health reports, property-set editing and georeferencing all run on it. Tools that need geometry processing, such as clash detection and 3D export, aren't verified on IFC4x3 yet.

What's the maximum IFC file size?

Up to 25 MB as a guest, 100 MB with a free account, 500 MB on Pro, and 1 GB on Team. The caps are on upload size only — every tool itself is available on every tier.

What happens to my file after processing?

Your file is uploaded over HTTPS and processed on our servers. Guest uploads are stream-only — the working files are deleted as soon as your download finishes. Free accounts keep results for 7 days; Pro and Team keep saved models until you delete them. Files are never shared with third parties or used to train AI.

Is Remove IFC Materials & Colours free?

Yes. Remove IFC Materials & Colours is free to use — guests get 3 runs a day with 25 MB uploads, and a free account raises that to 10 runs a day with 100 MB uploads. No trial clock, no watermarks.

Can I use a Revit or Navisworks file with Remove IFC, RVT, NWD Materials & Colours?

Yes. Open a .rvt or .nwd file and it is converted to IFC first; the tool then runs on that IFC and your original file is not changed.