3D file format

Draft

Introduction

3D graphics combines a large area of applications such as gaming, interactive environments, movies, computer-aided design and manufacturing.

There exist many (dozens) of 3D file formats. The list presented here is not complete. It's purpose is just to have a central index of formats referred to in other edutechwiki articles, plus some pointers....

List of file formats

Not complete list of file formats used in 3D modeling, Computer-aided design and manufacturing.

Citations access date: Early March 2010 by default.

3DS - 3D Studio

.3ds is one of the file formats used by the Autodesk 3ds Max 3D modeling, animation and rendering software.

• .3ds (Wikipedia)
• Other extensions: .max
• Media-type: application/x-3ds and image/x-3s

BLEN - BLENDER

.blend is the format used by Blender. Each .blend file contains a database. This database contains all scenes, objects, meshes, textures, etc. that are in the file.

• Blender Data System (Wiki manual page)
• Note: Blender can import most popular formats. Just go file->import

DAE - COLLADA

.dae was designed as format for COLLAborative Design Activity for establishing an interchange file format for interactive 3D applications. Also used as native format in the same spirit as X3D.

• Collada
• COLLADA (Wikipedia)
• Tools support: Many (e.g. Blender)

DXF - AutoCAD

.dxf “(Drawing Interchange Format, or Drawing Exchange Format) is a CAD data file format developed by Autodesk[1] for enabling data interoperability between AutoCAD and other programs.” (Wikipedia)

• AutoCAD DXF (Wikipedia)

LWO - Lightwave

.lwo is a format for the LightWave high-end software package used for rendering 3D images, both animated and static. Recent versions of Lightwave (CORE) also use Collada.

OBJ

.obj “is a geometry definition file format first developed by Wavefront Technologies for its Advanced Visualizer animation package. The file format is open and has been adopted by other 3D graphics application vendors. For the most part it is a universally accepted format.” (Wikipedia)

• Obj (Wikipedia)
• Tools support: Most 3D modeling software

OFF

.off Object File Format (.off) files are used to represent the geometry of a model by specifying the polygons of the model's surface. The polygons can have any number of vertices.

• Princeton Shape Retrieval and Analysis Group

PLY

.ply is the a computer file format known as the Polygon File Format or the Stanford Triangle Format. The format was principally designed by the Stanford graphics lab to store three dimensional data from 3D scanners. Can also be used as alternative to STL.

• PLY (file format) (Wikipedia)
• PLY - Polygon File Format

SKP - Google sketchup

.skp is used by Google sketchup.

STL

.stl “is a file format native to the stereolithography CAD software created by 3D Systems. This file format is supported by many other software packages; it is widely used for rapid prototyping and computer-aided manufacturing.” (Wikipedia)

• STL (file format)
• Tools support: Meshlab

WRL - VRML

• VRML

X3D

• X3D is the successor of VRML, but VRML remains somewhat popular in open-source and academics.

XSI - SoftImage

.xsi

Software

• Modeling software, see 3D modeling and Computer-aider design and manufacturing

Conversion software

....

Links

• Category Graphics file formats (Wikipedia)
• Category CAD file formats (Wikipedia)