Frequently asked questions

Usage & Sharing

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Advanced Features

Embed API

We have tried to make the upload process for the .obj file format really simple and robust. Lots of corner cases are taken care of "automagically" by p3d.in. Here are the details of what's going on when you upload your mesh file.

Geometry

There's no need to triangulate your models, all polygon types including triangles, quads and n-gons are supported.

Some tools will give you the option to export as NURBS or polygon mesh, in that case choose polygon mesh.

Some tools will give you the option to export edges or lines, in that case disable that option since edges will be ignored by p3d.in.

Vertex Normals

Rendering of smooth shaded surfaces requires vertex normals. If your model comes with its own vertex normals we will happily use them, if not we will generate our own. In this case your model might look slightly different than it does in your 3D application.

UV Map

If you plan to add texture maps make sure your model includes the corresponding UV Map and the exporter is set up to save it.

Aligning and orientation

To make navigation easier p3d.in will automatically "fit" your model to the center of the screen.

Any incorrect model orientation should be easily fixable inside the interactive viewer. However for the sake of clarity, we use the standard Left Handed Coordinate System. Most exporters will default to this configuration.

Size

File size is currently limited to 300 MB per model (100 MB on free plan). This is to prevent browser freezing problems on low end computers and mobile devices.

Sculpted or scanned models can be larger than 300 MB. We recommend reducing the amount of polygons with a decimator. We have prepared a video tutorial about doing just that in the free software Blender.

.MTL files

The .obj file contains all the geometry data but the .mtl file contains information about your object's materials and is used to automate some of the material setup and texture assignment. Your 3D software of choice will often export this file alongside the .obj.

The .mtl keywords supported by p3d.in are:

.MTL Keyword	Type	Description
newmtl	String	Creates a new material with a given name.
Kd	RGB	The diffuse constant color.
map_Kd	Texture map	The texture map for the diffuse channel. Can include transparency.
Ks	RGB	The specular reflection constant color.
map_Ks	Texture map	The specular reflection color texture.
Ns	Float	The specular glossiness value.
map_Ns	Texture map	The specular glossiness grayscale texture.
d	Float	The opacity value.
map_refl or refl	Texture map	The spherical reflection map.
map_Ke	Texture map	The glow or emissive map.
map_ao	Texture map	The ambient occlusion map.
map_normal	Texture map	The tangent space normal map.
map_bump	Texture map	The bump map texture.