What is a .VDB file?
VDB is an OpenVDB file - a sparse volumetric format for clouds, smoke and fire, storing only the voxels that actually contain data.
- Did you know
- OpenVDB, created at DreamWorks Animation, won an Academy Sci-Tech Award for making huge volumetric effects practical in film.
- By storing only the voxels that contain data, OpenVDB can represent a vast cloud or plume of smoke without wasting memory on empty space.
- OpenVDB was released as open source in 2012 and is now built into Houdini, Blender and most major effects pipelines.
- What Analyser reads
- Header and metadata extraction for 3D meshes, voxels, BIM, point clouds and Gaussian splats: MagicaVoxel VOX, COLLADA DAE/ZAE, USD crate, X3D/VRML, LightWave LWO/LWS, Quake MD2/MD3/MDL, VRM avatars, Siemens JT, LAS/LAZ/PCD/PTS/E57 LiDAR clouds, IFC BIM, and .splat/.spz - vertex/face/point counts, bounding boxes, units and authoring tool. glTF/GLB now open in a full 3D viewer - see the 3D model section.
- Depth of analysis
- .VDB is an identification-grade format: Analyser recognises it from its bytes and decodes the header metadata it carries, rather than opening it in a full viewer. Formats that do get a full viewer are marked "Full" on the formats page.
- Open a .VDB file
- Drag a .VDB file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It is identified entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.