What is a .3MF file?
3MF is a modern 3D-printing format - a zipped package that is richer than STL.
- Did you know
- The 3MF Consortium, backed by Microsoft, released the format in 2015 to fix STL’s long-standing shortcomings.
- 3MF is a zipped package using the Open Packaging Conventions, the same container scheme Microsoft built for Office’s docx and xlsx files.
- Unlike STL, a single 3MF file can carry colours, materials, textures and even multiple objects with their full print arrangement.
- The 3MF Consortium is backed by companies including Microsoft, HP and Autodesk, which is widely credited with its adoption over rival formats.
- What Analyser shows you
- View STL, OBJ, PLY, OFF, STEP, IGES, BREP, 3MF, AMF and glTF/GLB models in an interactive WebGL viewer with orbit, orthographic or perspective projection, a wireframe topology overlay, an orientation cube, triangle count, bounding box, surface area and volume. glTF 2.0 and binary GLB scenes are parsed natively - the node graph is flattened, mesh geometry shown, and the authoring tool, version and mesh/material/animation counts read. STEP/IGES/BREP are tessellated with OpenCASCADE and STEP shows its originating CAD system, version and AP203/214/242 protocol; 3MF and AMF let you inspect each model and assembly on the build plate individually, and any pictures a 3MF package carries - its own thumbnail, the build-plate renders slicers such as Bambu Studio and OrcaSlicer write, and texture maps - are extracted and shown with it. Wavefront material libraries (MTL) are broken out into each material with its colours, shininess, opacity and the texture files it references.
- Open a .3MF file
- Drag a .3MF file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It opens entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.