Supported file formats

F3D supports the following file formats:

Name	File Extension(s)	Full scene	Animation Support	Streaming Support	Plugin	Reader Name
Legacy VTK	.vtk	No	NONE	YES (VTK 9.7)	native	VTKLegacy
VTK XML	.vtp, .vtu, .vtr, .vti, .vts, .vtm	No	NONE	YES (VTK 9.7)	native	VTKXMLVT<P,U,R,I,S,M>
VTKHDF	.vtkhdf	No	UNIQUE	YES (VTK 9.6)	hdf	VTKHDF
EXODUS II	.e, .ex2, .exo, .g	No	UNIQUE	NO	hdf	ExodusII
NetCDF	.nc, .cdf, .ncdf	No	UNIQUE	NO	hdf	NetCDF
Polygon File Format	.ply	No	NONE	YES (VTK 9.5)	native	PLYReader
Standard Triangle Language	.stl	No	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	native	STL
DICOM	.dcm	No	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	native	DICOM
NRRD ("nearly raw raster data")	.nrrd, .nhdr	No	NONE	NO	native	Nrrd
MetaHeader MetaIO	.mhd, .mha	No	NONE	NO	native	MetaImage
Tag Image File Format 2D/3D	.tif, .tiff	No	NONE	NO	native	TIFF
PNG Image	.png	Yes	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	native	PNG
JPEG Image	.jpg, .jpeg	Yes	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	native	JPEG
BMP Image	.bmp	Yes	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	native	BMP
TGA Image	.tga	Yes	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	native	TGA
HDR Radiance Image	.hdr	Yes	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	native	HDR
WebP Image	.webp	Yes	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	native	WebP
OpenEXR Image	.exr	Yes	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	native	EXR
QuakeMDL	.mdl	Yes	SINGLE	YES (VTK 9.5)	native	QuakeMDL
CityGML	.gml	No	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	native	CityGML
Point Cloud	.pts	No	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	native	PTS
Standard for the Exchange of Product Data	.step, .stp, .stpnc, .p21, .210	No	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	occt	STEP
Initial Graphics Exchange Specification	.iges, .igs	No	NONE	NO	occt	IGES
Open CASCADE Technology BRep format	.brep	No	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	occt	BREP
Open CASCADE Technology XBF format	.xbf	No	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	occt	XBF
FreeCAD Standard	.fcstd	No	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	occt	FCStd
Alembic	.abc	No	UNIQUE	YES (VTK 9.6)	alembic	Alembic
Wavefront OBJ	.obj	Yes	NONE	PARTIAL (VTK 9.7)	native	OBJ
glTF	.gltf	Yes	MULTI	PARTIAL (VTK 9.6)	native	GLTF, GLTFDraco
glTF binary	.glb	Yes	MULTI	YES (VTK 9.6)	native	GLB, GLBDraco
Draco	.drc	No	NONE	YES	draco	Draco
Autodesk 3D Studio	.3ds	Yes	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	native	3DS
Virtual Reality Modeling Language	.wrl, .vrml	Yes	NONE	NO	native	VRMLReader
Autodesk Filmbox	.fbx	Yes	MULTI	YES (VTK 9.6)	assimp	FBX
COLLADA	.dae	Yes	MULTI	PARTIAL (VTK 9.6)	assimp	COLLADA
Object File Format	.off	Yes	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	assimp	OFF
Drawing Exchange Format	.dxf	Yes	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	assimp	DXF
DirectX	.x	Yes	MULTI	YES (VTK 9.6)	assimp	DirectX
3D Manufacturing Format	.3mf	Yes	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	assimp	3MF
Additive Manufacturing Format	.amf	Yes	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	assimp	AMF
Universal Scene Description	.usd, .usda, .usdc, .usdz	Yes	SINGLE	YES (VTK 9.6)	usd	USD
VDB	.vdb	No	NONE	YES (VTK 9.6)	vdb	VDB
Industry Foundation Classes	.ifc	No	NONE	YES	webifc	IFC
3D Gaussian splatting	.splat	No	NONE	YES (VTK 9.5)	native	Splat
Compressed 3D Gaussian splatting	.spz	No	NONE	YES (VTK 9.5)	native	SPZ
LASer format for lidar point cloud	.las, .laz	No	NONE	NO	pdal	LAS
Binary Point File	.bpf	No	NONE	NO	pdal	BinaryPointFile
TerraScan binary files	.bin	No	NONE	NO	pdal	TerraScanBIN
Optech Corrected Sensor Data	.csd	No	NONE	NO	pdal	OptechCSD
Point Cloud Data	.pcd	No	NONE	NO	pdal	PCD
Leica Cyclone	.ptx	No	NONE	NO	pdal	LeicaCyclonePTX
Airborne Topographic Mapper QFIT	.qi	No	NONE	NO	pdal	QFIT
Smoothed Best Estimate of Trajectory	.sbet	No	NONE	NO	pdal	SBET
Esri Scene Layer Package	.slpk	No	NONE	NO	pdal	SLPK

Streaming support means that F3D can read from stdin when you specify the reader name. See the piping examples.

If a format supports streaming, F3D checks its header content before trying to open it. Use the --skip-content-check option to skip this check and rely on the file extension only.

To get accurate information for your own build of F3D, use the dedicated option, --list-readers.

Reader options

Readers can provide options. Set them using the -D/--define command-line option. eg: -DVDB.downsampling_factor=0.5 or using the set_reader_option command. Reader option names start with the reader name from the table above, followed by the option name.

For booleans, 0 means false and any other value means true. Unsigned int interprets anything that is not a non-negative integer as the default value.

Plugin	Option Name	Argument Type	Description
mdl	QuakeMDL.skin_index	unsigned int	Select a particular skin from a mdl file. Uses 0-indexing, default is 0.
occt	STEP.linear_deflection	double	Control the distance between a curve and the resulting tessellation, default is 0.1.
occt	STEP.angular_deflection	double	Control the angle between two subsequent segments, default is 0.5.
occt	STEP.relative_deflection	bool	Control if the deflection values are relative to object size, default is false.
occt	STEP.read_wire	bool	Control whether lines are read, default is true.
occt	IGES.linear_deflection	double	Control the distance between a curve and the resulting tessellation, default is 0.1.
occt	IGES.angular_deflection	double	Control the angle between two subsequent segments, default is 0.5.
occt	IGES.relative_deflection	bool	Control if the deflection values are relative to object size, default is false.
occt	IGES.read_wire	bool	Control whether lines are read, default is true.
occt	BREP.linear_deflection	double	Control the distance between a curve and the resulting tessellation, default is 0.1.
occt	BREP.angular_deflection	double	Control the angle between two subsequent segments, default is 0.5.
occt	BREP.relative_deflection	bool	Control if the deflection values are relative to object size, default is false.
occt	BREP.read_wire	bool	Control whether lines are read, default is true.
occt	XBF.linear_deflection	double	Control the distance between a curve and the resulting tessellation, default is 0.1.
occt	XBF.angular_deflection	double	Control the angle between two subsequent segments, default is 0.5.
occt	XBF.relative_deflection	bool	Control if the deflection values are relative to object size, default is false.
occt	XBF.read_wire	bool	Control whether lines are read, default is true.
occt	FCStd.linear_deflection	double	Control the distance between a curve and the resulting tessellation, default is 0.1.
occt	FCStd.angular_deflection	double	Control the angle between two subsequent segments, default is 0.5.
occt	FCStd.relative_deflection	bool	Control if the deflection values are relative to object size, default is false.
occt	FCStd.read_wire	bool	Control whether lines are read, default is true.
usd	USD.resources_path	string	Additional path to find USD plugInfo.json resources
usd	USD.subdivision_level	unsigned int	Specify the subdivision level to apply when specified. Default is 0 (no subdivision)
vdb	VDB.downsampling_factor	double	Control the level of downsampling when reading a volume, default is 0.1.
webifc	IFC.circle_segments	int	Number of segments for circular geometry, default is 12.
webifc	IFC.read_openings	bool	Read IfcOpeningElement entities (doors/windows cutouts), default is false.
webifc	IFC.read_spaces	bool	Read IfcSpace entities (room volumes), default is false.

Format details

QuakeMDL

• F3D loads model textures with a simple PBR lighting (diffuse color only, no specular, index of refraction set to 1.0).
• Selecting skin is not supported.
• Animation frames are split based on their names, eg: stand1, stand2, stand3, run1, run2, run3.

3D Gaussian splatting

F3D supports 3 different formats:

• .ply: Original 3DGS format
• .splat: Format specified by the splat repository. Does not support spherical harmonics.
• .spz: Niantic's SPZ format (v2 and v3)

No config files come with the .ply format because this format is not dedicated to 3DGS only. If you use .ply for 3DGS only, set up a config file similar to what is done for .splat or .spz. See the configuration file documentation.