Introducing BCFSleuth
🕵️♀️ Sleuthing through your BCF files so you don’t have to.
Built over a long weekend using Vibe Coding and a solid assist from AI, BCFSleuth is a lightweight, browser-based app that lets you explore and export BCF files (2.0, 2.1, 3.0) with zero setup.
🔍 Quickly preview BCF data
📁 Export to clean, structured CSV or Excel
📸 View and export images
🛡️ No servers — runs entirely client-side
📱 Mobile-friendly for on-the-go use
🤖 AI-Assisted Development
This project showcases what happens when domain expertise meets AI-assisted development:
- 🧠 AI Assistant: Claude (Anthropic) supported architecture, code generation, and bug fixing
- ⚡ Live Development: Built in real time using pair-style coding with AI
- 🏗️ Industry Expertise: AECO/BIM knowledge and product direction by The BIMsider
- 🔄 Iterative Workflow: Focused on production-level code through rapid prototyping and refinement
🧩 What It Actually Does
BCFSleuth isn’t just a file viewer — it’s a full BCF analyzer and exporter designed with practical AECO workflows in mind.
- Load
.bcfzip, or .bcf files directly in your browser (nothing gets uploaded) - Automatically detects the BCF version (2.0, 2.1, 3.0) and adapts accordingly
- Parses issues, comments, metadata, and even custom fields
- Previews issue details in a clean, responsive layout
- Lets you download:
- Flat or hierarchical CSVs (for quick review or import elsewhere)
- Formatted Excel files with conditional styling
- Images either individually or in bulk (including lightbox previews)
- PDF summaries of each topic with markup context
📸 Screenshots
Here’s a quick look at BCFSleuth in action:
📈 What’s Next
- Customization options for PDF report generation
- Statistical analysis engine with D3.js visualizations
- Interactive charts for issue trends and resolution patterns
You can check out the full source code and try the app yourself:
📂 github.com/TheBIMsider/bcfsleuth
🙏 Acknowledgments
BCFSleuth was inspired by the original Sloth application by Simon Moreau at BIM42. Big thanks to Simon for his pioneering work in BCF processing and open-source tools for the AECO world.
Just like this app, my AI coding buddy also moonlights as my blogging buddy—helping make sure my spelling, grammar, and phrasing (among other things) stayed on point in this post 😉
Until next time, keep building, vibe coding, and maybe sleuthing out a few hidden BCF gems along the way! 🕵️♂️📂
All the Links: thebimsider.com/links