# Online 3D Viewer Manual

This is the user manual for the 3dviewer.net website. The website can open several 3D file formats and visualize the model in your browser. Supported file formats: obj, 3ds, stl, ply, gltf, glb, and off.

1. Supported file formats
2. Loading models

1. Loading models from your computer
2. Loading models hosted on a web server
3. Missing files

3. Embedding the viewer

1. Embedding models hosted on GitHub
2. Embedding models hosted on DropBox
3. Self-hosted viewer

4. Exporting models

## Supported file formats

The website supports several file formats for import and export. If a file format has an ascii and binary version, usually it's recommended to use the binary version.

Format | Import | Export | Comment
--- | --- | --- | ---
obj | ascii | ✓ | ✓ | with mtl and texture support
3ds | binary | ✓ | ✗ | with texture support
stl | ascii | ✓ | ✓ | binary version is preferred
binary | ✓ | ✓ | -
ply | ascii | ✓ | ✓ | binary version is preferred
binary | ✓ | ✓ | with vertex and face color support
gltf | ascii (.gltf) | ✓ | ✓ | version 2.0
binary (.glb) | ✓ | ✓ | version 2.0
off | ascii | ✓ | ✓ | -
binary | ✗ | ✗ | -

## Loading models

There are several ways to load models. You can use files from your computer or load files hosted on an external web server.

Please note, that some 3D models are built up from multiple files (for example an obj file usually comes with an mtl file, and some texture files). For the correct visualization you have to import all of the required files. See the Missing files section for more details.

### Loading models from your computer

You can load models from your computer. In this case the model won't be uploaded to any web server, the whole visualization happens in your browser.

There are two ways to load models from your computer:

1. Use the open button on the toolbar (). Here you can select all the relevant files.
2. Drag and drop all the relevant files into the browser window.

### Loading models hosted on a web server

You can load models by url with the open url button on the toolbar (). Here you can list all of the model files. You should place every file in a separate line.

To make this work, CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) must be enabled on the server.

### Missing files

Sometimes you see missing files in the tree (). It means that your model refers to another files, but they are not selected to import. To solve the issue you have to import the model again together with the referenced files, or just import the missing files on their own.

## Embedding the viewer

The website allows you to embed a 3D model in your page. It works only if your models are hosted on a web server. To get the embedding code, click on the embedding button () in the toolbar.

### Embedding models hosted on GitHub

To host your models on GitHub follow the steps below:

1. Commit models to GitHub with all the required files.
2. Go to 3dviewer.net, and click on the open url button in the toolbar ().
3. Open the files on GitHub, copy the link of the file from the address bar, and paste it in the dialog. See the example below.
   https://github.com/kovacsv/Online3DViewer/blob/master/test/testfiles/3ds/cube_four_instances.3ds
   https://github.com/kovacsv/Online3DViewer/blob/master/test/testfiles/3ds/texture.png
4. Click on OK, and if the model is loaded, click on the embed button in the toolbar ().

### Embedding models hosted on DropBox

To host your models on DropBox follow the steps below:

1. Upload models to DropBox with all the required files.
2. Go to 3dviewer.net, and click on the open url button in the toolbar ().
3. Get the sharing link from DropBox for all of the files, and paste it in the dialog. See the example below.
   https://www.dropbox.com/s/wd6lt7h4xa8fuv0/cube_four_instances.3ds?dl=0
   https://www.dropbox.com/s/6dfk1jveevbofxm/texture.png?dl=0
4. Click on OK, and if the model is loaded, click on the embed button in the toolbar ().

### Self-hosted viewer

You can host the viewer and the models on your website. See the developer documentation for details.

## Exporting models

You can export your model in several file formats. To achieve this, click on the export button in the toolbar (). After that select the format you would like to export to, and download the resulting files one by one.