This page was put together originally to help a group of students work with 3D applications and 3D data sets. Students often have little or no money,
so the idea was to put together an outline and a list of tools that could be used without spending any money, or in other words free.
The other goal was to give the students a variety of applications for different platforms to work on.
The operating systems that most students work on are Windows. Some use Apple, Linux, or Unix.
Not all the applications listed here are free but it does give a comparison of what applications are free and what applications cost.
Obviously most applications that have a price on them work better and will save time, however if you don’t have any money this will do you no good.
If you find this page useful or if you find other 3D applications/tools that are free please let us know and we will try to update this page.
Input 3D file formats
DXF (Data eXchange Format) is used for various entities in AutoCAD from AutoDeskInc.
OBJ Developed by WaveFront Technologies Inc. which was bought out by Alias and then bought out by AutoDesk.
PLY Was developed by Stanford University Computer Graphics Lab for storing points and geometries.
STL Is for stereolithography developed by 3D systems.
VRML Virtual Reality Modeling Language.
XYZ Point cloud data in ascii format, each line has 3 values for each point in X, Y and Z.
XYZI Point cloud data in ascii format, each line has 4 values for each point in X, Y, Z, and Intensity.
XYZRGB Point cloud data in ascii format, each line has 6 values for each point in X, Y, Z, and RGB for color.
Output 3D file formats
DXF (Data eXchange Format) is used for various entities in AutoCAD from AutoDeskInc.
IGES Initial Graphics Exchange Specification.
IV Open Inventor file developed by SGI.
NFF Neutral File Format developed by Eric Haines.
OBJ Developed by WaveFront Technologies Inc. which is now Alias.
QS QSplat a program for displaying large 3D models in real time by Stanford University.
STL Is for stereolithography developed by 3D systems.
VRML Virtual Reality Modeling Language.
VTK Visualization ToolKit used by VTK and Paraview.
AC Developed by AC3D.org which is now Inivis Ltd.
U3D A format defined by a special consortium "3D Industry Forum" to establish a 3D unversal standard.
Convert DXF files
DXF > 3DS use 3DS Max to import file.
DXF > IGES use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2IGS1 for wire frame or STL2IGS2 for surface.
DXF > IV use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2IV.
DXF > MAX use 3DS Max to import file.
DXF > NFF use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2NFF.
DXF > OBJ use STL_UTIL.
DXF > STL use STL_UTIL.
DXF > VRML 1.0 use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2VRML.
DXF > VRML 2.0 use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2WRL2.
DXF > VTK use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2VTK.
DXF > AC use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2AC3D.
Convert OBJ files
OBJ > DXF use STL_UTIL.
OBJ > IGES use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2IGS1 for wire frame or STL2IGS2 for surface.
OBJ > IV use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2IV.
OBJ > NFF use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2NFF.
OBJ > STL use STL_UTIL.
OBJ > VRML 1.0 use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2VRML.
OBJ > VRML 2.0 use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2WRL2, for OBJ with textues use OBJT2WRL.
OBJ > VTK use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2VTK.
OBJ > AC use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2AC3D.
OBJ > U3D use MeshLab save as U3D.
Convert STL files
STL > 3DS use 3DS Max to import file.
STL > DXF use STL_UTIL.
STL > IGES use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2IGS1 for wire frame or STL2IGS2 for surface.
STL > IV use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2IV.
STL > MAX use 3DS Max to import file.
STL > NFF use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2NFF.
STL > OBJ use STL_UTIL.
STL > VRML 1.0 use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2VRML.
STL > VRML 2.0 use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2WRL2.
STL > VTK use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2VTK.
STL > AC use STL_UTIL and save as BINARY STL then use STL2AC3D.
STL > U3D use MeshLab save as U3D.
Convert PLY files
PLY files come in BINARY or ASCII, the DOS programs here can only read BINARY.
PLY files may also contain color information not all file formats can save color information.
To convert PLY BINARY files with color information from Cyberware use PLYswapR to convert
big endian to little endian then use PLY4VIS this will convert to VRML 2.0, SGI IV, and STL
(stl files contain no color information). To convert PLY BINARY file without color information
from (VTK or ParaView) use PLY2VIS this will convert to VRML 2.0, SGI IV, and STL.
To swap little endian to or from big endian PLY files with no color use PLYswapN.
To swap little endian to or from big endian PLY files with color and with tristrips use PLYswapT.
PLY > DXF use PLY2VIS for noncolor models or PLY4VIS for color then use STL2DXF.
PLY > IGES use PLY2VIS for noncolor models or PLY4VIS for color then use STL2IGS2.
PLY > IV use PLY2VIS for noncolor models or PLY4VIS for color.
PLY > NFF use PLY2VIS for noncolor models or PLY4VIS for color then use STL2NFF.
PLY > OBJ use PLY2VIS for noncolor models or PLY4VIS for color then use STL2OBJ.
PLY > QS use QSplatMake.exe from QSplat.
PLY > STL use PLY2VIS for noncolor models or PLY4VIS for color note STL files stores no color.
PLY > VRML use PLY2VIS for noncolor models or PLY4VIS for color.
PLY > VTK use ParaView.
PLY > AC use PLY2VIS for noncolor models or PLY4VIS for color then use STL2AC3D.
PLY > U3D use MeshLab save as U3D.
Convert Point Cloud files
To convert ASCII Point Cloud files use xyz2vrml.exe or xyzi2vrml.exe to convert to VRML then use
ParaView or MeshLab for surface or to view point cloud. You can also view ASCII Point Cloud files
with PartiView but this is not easy you will need to carefuly read the documentation.
XYZ > 3DS use MeshLab to convert to surface then save as 3DS.
XYZ > IGES use MeshLab to convert to surface then save as STL then use STL2IGS1 for wire frame or STL2IGS2 for surface.
XYZ > PLY use MeshLab to convert to surface then save as PLY.
XYZ > DXF use MeshLab to convert to surface then save as DXF.
XYZ > IV use MeshLab to convert to surface then save as PLY then use PLY2VIS.
XYZ > MAX use MeshLab to convert to surface then save as 3DS then use 3DSMax to export as MAX.
XYZ > OBJ use MeshLab to convert to surface then save as OBJ.
XYZ > STL use MeshLab to convert to surface then save as STL.
XYZ > VTK use xyz2vrml.exe then open VRML with ParaView save as VTK.
XYZ > AC use MeshLab to convert to surface then save STL, then use STL2AC3D.
XYZ > VRML use xyz2vrml.exe
XYZI > VRML use xyzi2vrml.exe
XYZRGB > VRML use xyzRGB2vrml.exe
A note about point clouds. Point clouds come from many different sources. The most
common sources are LiDAR (laser pulse), SONAR (underwater sound pulse), Photogrammetry
(point triangulation from a series of overlapping images), and Xbox Kinect (IR
projector pattern & color images). Each source produces many different types of
point clouds. Here are the most common types of point clouds:
1. XYZ : Point with no attributes only location in 3D space as XYZ.
2. XYZI : Intensity or reflection as an attribute and location
in 3D space as X, Y, Z, and I(intensity or reflection).
Several examples can be found here: Point Clouds from LiDAR
3. XYZRGB : Location in 3D space as X, Y, Z, and R(red), G(green), B(blue)
as color. Here is an exmaple of XYZRGB : Point Cloud from Images
4. XYZRGBIJK : Color as an attribute, a Normal as an attribute, and location
in 3D space as X, Y, Z, R, G, B, I, J, and K.
Here the location in 3D space is (XYZ), the color is (RGB) and the Normal
is (IJK). In most cases the IJK values are used for shading.
To view an interactive XYZRGBIJK example use this link: Color shaded pointcloud
5. More complicated point clouds will have more attributes per point location
that may include color infrared, hyperspectral bands, surface roughness,
size of point as a splat or surfel, and any of the above items (2 to 4).
More information about this can found here: Point Cloud Poster
Storage of point clouds come in many formats the two most common are ASCII and LAS.
The tools listed in this section are only for ASCII point clouds. To convert from LAS
to ASCII use LAStools.
Convert VRML files
To convert VRML files use VTK or ParaView to read then save as PLY or any other type supported by VTK.
VRML > 3DS use 3DS Max to import VRML then export to 3DS.
VRML > IGES use ParaView save as PLY then use PLY2VIS then STL2IGS1 to save wire frame or STL2IGS2 to save surface.
VRML > PLY use ParaView (may not save color information).
VRML > DXF use ParaView save as PLY then use PLY2VIS then use STL2DXF.
VRML > IV use ParaView save as PLY then use PLY2VIS.
VRML > MAX use 3DS Max to import VRML then save as MAX.
VRML > OBJ use ParaView save as PLY then use PLY2VIS then use STL2OBJ.
VRML > STL use ParaView save as PLY then use PLY2VIS.
VRML > VTK use ParaView.
VRML > AC use ParaView save as PLY then use PLY2VIS then use STL2AC3D.
VRML > U3D use MeshLab save as U3D.
3D Viewers and/or converters
ModelPress (Windows) free
STL_UTIL (Windows) free
VRMLView (Windows and Unix) free
ParaView (Windows and Unix) free
PartiView (Windows, Linux, IRIX, and Mac) free
MicroView (Windows and Linux) free
MeshLab (Windows, Linux, and Mac) free
SketchUp (Windows) free Google version
OpenSG (Windows, IRIX, Linux, and Mac) free
OSG (Windows, Linux, and Mac) free
PERFLY (Windows, IRIX and Linix) free
QSplat (Windows, IRIX, Linux, Mac, and Solaris) free
VisIt (Windows, Unix, Linux, and Mac) free
IMView (Windows) free
Elefont (Windows) free, if useful donate
AC3Dscreensaver (Windows) free (use STL2AC3D to convert)
AC3D (Window, Unix and Mac) $$
quick3D Viewer (Windows) $$
3D Object Converter (Windows) $$
Adobe 3D (Windows) $$$
VRML Free Viewers/plugins
VRMLView (Windows and Unix)
Cortona (Windows and Mac)
Blaxxum (Windows)
Cosmo (Windows and IRIX)
Octaga (Windows and Linux)
3D render to image or movie
PERFLY (Windows and Unix) Free
POV-Ray (Windows, Unix and Mac) Free
Blender (Windows, Unix and Mac) Free
MeshLab (Windows, Linux, and Mac) free
OpenSG (Windows, IRIX, Linux, and Mac) free
OSG (Windows, Linux, and Mac) free
AC3D (Windows, Unix and Mac) $$
formZ (Windows and Mac) $$$
3DS Max (Windows) $$$
Maya (Windows) $$$$
To make/edit/modify/view movies
VLC media player (Windows, Mac, Linux) Free
Apple IMovie (Mac) Free
MS Movie Maker (Windows) Free
makempeg (Unix) Free
Xanim (Unix) Free
AutoStitch (Window) Free check license
QuickTime Pro (Windows and Mac) $$
Pano2QTVR (Windows) $$
Adobe Premiere (Windows and Mac) $$$
Final Cut Pro (Mac) $$$$
To edit/view images
IrfanView (Windows) Free
the GIMP (Windows, Unix, Mac) Free
XV (Unix) $$
ExifPro (Windows) $$
PaintShopPro (Windows) $$
PhotoShop (Windows and Mac) $$$
Notes:
The DOS programs objT2wrl.exe, ply2vis.exe, ply4vis.exe, PLYswapR.exe, PLYswapT.exe, PLYswapN.exe,
stl2dxf.exe, stl2igs1.exe, stl2igs2.exe, stl2iv.exe, stl2nff.exe, stl2obj.exe, stl2vrml.exe, stl2vtk.exe,
stl2wrl2.exe, stl2ac3d.exe, xyz2vrml.exe, xyzi2vrml.exe and xyzRGB2vrml.exe can be found
here:
http://www.hitechmex.org/DOS/
Some input ASCII files have the wrong end of line terminators, to fix this use WordPad to open and save as
Text Document - MS-DOS format.
Make sure to read the readme.txt file before you use any of the programs.
Most CAD/CAM programs will read DXF or IGES files.
Most CAD/CAM programs will save or export DXF, you may need to triangulate before saving.
Use ParaView to read DEM, AVS, EnSight, HDF5, SpyPlot, PDB, XMol, Plot3D, Gaussian Cube, POP, Xdmf,
BYU, AVS, and Facet Polygonal files.
ParaView will output PLY files you can then use ply2vis.exe to convert to VRML, IV, and STL.
Use stl2ac3d to convert stl files into ac3d file types, this can be used with the AC3D free screen saver.
The programs xyz2vrml.exe and xyzi2vrml.exe will convert points to VRML points, it will not create a surface,
to create a surface from a pointcloud use MeshLab or ParaView.
For a view of 3D models made with some of the tools above try this link:
Visualization Models
For a selection of 3D models made with some of the tools above try this link:
Free 3D Models
For all kinds of information on 3D try this link:
Ultimate 3D Link
Web by Reuben Reyes
Poor Persons Outline for Working in 3D 
