Reference

Every format, eight capability axes, no marketing

The table we hand new engineers. Each entry says what the format is for, why we use it, and the specific way it will bite you. Filter by capability to answer the questions that actually come up — the answers are usually shorter than you would hope.

26: Formats documented
17: We ingest
14: We emit
2: AR-ready

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Pipeline role

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26 of 26 formats

Format	Category	PBR materials	Animation	Scene hierarchy	Semantic metadata	Compression	Streaming / LOD	AR-ready	Direct browser load	Typical size
3D Gaussian Splats .splat / .ply / .spz Research / emerging · 2023	Neural & volumetric	○	◐	○	○	●	◐	◐	●	20–400 MB
3MF .3mf 3MF Consortium · 2015	Additive & manufacturing	◐	○	●	●	●	○	○	○	0.5–80 MB
AMF .amf ASTM F2915 · 2011	Additive & manufacturing	○	○	●	●	●	○	○	○	1–100 MB
CityGML / CityJSON .gml / .json OGC · 2008	BIM & geospatial	○	○	●	●	◐	◐	○	◐	5 MB–40 GB
Draco glTF extension Google · 2017	Web & real-time	○	◐	○	○	●	◐	◐	●	−85% geometry
E57 .e57 ASTM E2807 · 2011	Scan & point cloud	○	○	◐	●	●	○	○	○	500 MB–200 GB
FBX .fbx Autodesk · 2006	Mesh & exchange	◐	●	●	◐	○	○	○	○	1–500 MB
G-code .gcode / .nc ISO 6983 / vendor · 1958	Additive & manufacturing	○	●	○	◐	○	●	○	◐	1–400 MB
glTF 2.0 .gltf / .glb Khronos Group · 2017	Web & real-time	●	●	●	◐	●	◐	●	●	0.5–8 MB
IFC .ifc / .ifcx buildingSMART · 1997	BIM & geospatial	◐	○	●	●	◐	◐	◐	◐	20 MB–3 GB
IGES .igs / .iges ANSI · 1980	CAD & engineering	○	○	◐	○	○	○	○	○	2–200 MB
JT .jt Siemens / ISO 14306 · 2012	CAD & engineering	○	○	●	●	●	◐	○	○	2–300 MB
KTX2 / Basis Universal .ktx2 Khronos / Binomial · 2020	Web & real-time	●	○	○	○	●	●	◐	●	−75% textures
LAS / LAZ .las / .laz ASPRS · 2003	Scan & point cloud	○	○	○	●	●	◐	○	○	100 MB–500 GB
Meshopt glTF extension zeux / open source · 2019	Web & real-time	○	●	○	○	●	●	◐	●	−70% geometry
NeRF / radiance fields .ingp / .nerfstudio Research · 2020	Neural & volumetric	○	○	○	○	◐	○	○	◐	10–500 MB
OBJ .obj + .mtl Wavefront · 1992	Mesh & exchange	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	◐	1–800 MB
Octree point tiles .octree / 3D Tiles Potree / OGC 3D Tiles · 2016	Scan & point cloud	○	○	●	●	●	●	○	●	Paged, unbounded
OpenUSD .usd / .usda / .usdc Pixar / AOUSD · 2016	Mesh & exchange	●	●	●	●	◐	◐	◐	○	10 MB–4 GB
OpenVDB .vdb Academy Software Foundation · 2012	Neural & volumetric	○	●	◐	●	●	◐	○	○	50 MB–10 GB
Parasolid .x_t / .x_b Siemens · 1988	CAD & engineering	○	○	●	◐	○	○	○	○	1–150 MB
PLY .ply Stanford · 1994	Scan & point cloud	○	○	○	◐	○	○	○	◐	10 MB–20 GB
Revit .rvt Autodesk · 2000	BIM & geospatial	◐	○	●	●	○	○	○	○	50 MB–2 GB
STEP AP242 .stp / .step ISO 10303 · 1994	CAD & engineering	○	○	●	●	○	○	○	○	5–800 MB
STL .stl 3D Systems · 1987	Additive & manufacturing	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	◐	1–500 MB
USDZ .usdz Pixar / Apple · 2018	Web & real-time	●	●	●	◐	○	○	●	◐	2–25 MB

● Full support ◐ Partial or extension-dependent ○ Not supported Click any row for the honest note.

By family

What each category is for

CAD & engineering

Precise B-rep and parametric formats coming out of mechanical design and PLM.

STEP AP242
JT
IGES
Parasolid

Mesh & exchange

Polygon interchange formats — what modellers, DCC tools and game engines pass around.

OpenUSD
FBX
OBJ

Scan & point cloud

Reality capture output: LiDAR, photogrammetry and structured-light scanners.

PLY
E57
LAS / LAZ
Octree point tiles

BIM & geospatial

Built-environment formats carrying semantics, not just geometry.

IFC
CityGML / CityJSON
Revit

Additive & manufacturing

What actually goes to a printer, a CNC post-processor or a quality station.

STL
3MF
AMF
G-code

Web & real-time

The delivery end — what ships to a browser, a headset or a phone.

glTF 2.0
USDZ
Draco
KTX2 / Basis Universal
Meshopt

Neural & volumetric

Radiance-field and splat representations. Photoreal, awkward to edit, improving fast.

3D Gaussian Splats
NeRF / radiance fields
OpenVDB

Three rules

What twenty-six formats have taught us

Archive and delivery are never the same file

E57 and STEP are archives. glTF and octree tiles are deliveries. Serving an archive to a browser is the most common cause of a 3D project being quietly abandoned.

Units are asserted, not assumed

OBJ carries no units at all and FBX carries them inconsistently. We assert units on ingest and fail the build when a bounding box is implausible for its category — a chair four metres wide is a units bug, not a product.

Semantics survive or they do not

IFC and STEP AP242 carry meaning; glTF mostly does not. Decide early which side of that line your project lives on, because retrofitting semantics onto a mesh is a rebuild.

Have a format we do not list?

Send us a sample. If it is something we can ingest we will tell you what comes out the other end, and if it is not we will say which converter to run first.

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