ThatOpen Performance and Memory Management

Overview

BIM models are large. A typical building model contains millions of triangles, thousands of IFC elements, and dozens of material definitions. Without proper memory management, a single model can consume gigabytes of browser memory and crash the tab. This skill covers every performance-critical pattern for ThatOpen applications: disposal chains, memory budgets, worker offloading, GPU optimization, and strategies for handling models that exceed normal limits.

Critical Rules

1. ALWAYS dispose resources when done. Every FragmentsModel, THREE.Mesh, THREE.Material, and THREE.Texture holds GPU memory. The browser garbage collector does NOT free GPU resources — you must call .dispose() explicitly.

2. ALWAYS dispose in the correct order. components.dispose() handles ordering internally (FragmentsManager last). When disposing manually,