Files that hold a three-dimensional model
Every 3D file tends to grow its own internal structure. Most formats are read natively by the application that wrote them. Many can also be opened through someone else's importer, or through a converter, which is how a model survives a change of software. A few widely used formats have no formal standard, or are proprietary: Blender's .blend, Wavefront .obj, and Autodesk .fbx are the ones people trip over most often. They move a huge amount of work. They are a poor place to park a model you will need to read in twenty years, unless you also keep the program that wrote them.
The tables below are the other pile: formats with a published standard, or one on the way, as that list stood in October 2026. They group by job more than by extension. Scene interchange is not the same problem as a file a printer can trust, and neither is the same problem as a city model.
With a published standard
| Extension | Name | Job | Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
.3mf | 3D Manufacturing Format | 3D printing. Carries a model from design software to other programs, services, and printers. | ISO/IEC 25422:2025 |
.amf | Additive manufacturing file format | 3D printing. An XML interchange for additive manufacturing. | ISO/ASTM 52915:2020 |
.gltf, .glb | glTF | Web and real-time. Efficient loading of scenes and models. Gaussian splats can travel in the KHR_gaussian_splatting extension. | ISO/IEC 12113:2022 |
.x3d, .x3dv, .x3db | X3D | Web and real-time. Interactive 3D with HTML integration, glTF-style physically based materials, and audio. | ISO/IEC 19775-1:2023 |
.usd, .usda, .usdc, .usdz | Universal Scene Description | Scene interchange across media, technology, and design. | OpenUSD Core Specification 1.0 (2025) |
.stp, .step | STEP | CAD. Exchange of product data, and long-term archiving. AP242 replaced the older AP203 and AP214 application protocols. | ISO 10303 (AP242: ISO 10303-242:2025) |
.jt | JT | CAD. Visualisation of product data across systems and across a product's life. Used with STEP AP242 in automotive exchange. | ISO 14306 |
.prc | Product Representation Compact | CAD. 3D content, especially CAD data, embedded in a PDF for viewing and exchange. | ISO 14739-1:2014 |
.ifc | Industry Foundation Classes | Architecture. Building information for buildings and for infrastructure such as bridges, roads, railways, and ports. | ISO 16739-1:2024 |
.gml | CityGML | Geospatial. City and terrain models for planning, building information, disaster management, navigation, and energy simulation. | OGC CityGML 3.0 (2023) |
.b3dm, .i3dm, .pnts, .cmpt, .glb | 3D Tiles | Geospatial. Streaming large sets: photogrammetry, buildings, CAD, point clouds. glTF is the primary tile payload, beside a tileset file. | OGC Community Standard (2019) |
.slpk | Indexed 3D Scene Layer | Geospatial. Streaming and analysis of large geographic sets, including buildings, textured meshes from aerial or drone imagery, and point features. | OGC Community Standard (2017) |
.e57 | E57 | Point clouds, colour, intensity, and photographs from 3D imaging systems such as laser scanners. | ASTM E2807 |
.las | LAS | Exchange of lidar point clouds between different hardware and software. | ASPRS LAS 1.4 |
.laz | LAZ | Lossless compression of LAS 1.4 point clouds, in chunks that can be decompressed on their own. | OGC Community Standard (2026) |
The CityGML row is about a city model a planner can query: ground, buildings, and the uses of both. A game level that happens to contain streets is a different file, even if both of them show a building.
glTF and X3D are the two on this list most likely to meet a web page. glTF is built to load quickly. X3D is the successor of the older VRML and is specified as an interactive scene, including a route into HTML. SVG is not on the list. SVG is a flat drawing. It can sit beside a 3D scene on a page. It does not hold the scene.
Still being written
As of October 2026 these were in development and had not been published as standards.
| Name | Job | Where it stood |
|---|---|---|
| IFCX (also called IFC 5) | A modular successor to IFC for building information. Drafts are JSON files that can be layered, so several parties can add data to one model and exchange only what changed. | A buildingSMART project, developed with ISO committee TC 59/SC 13. The project plan was approved in August 2026. Not yet a published standard. |
| Gaussian Splat Coding | Compressed storage and streaming of 3D Gaussian splats. Existing files such as .ply, .splat, and .spz are fragmented. Static splats in the original Inria layout are the first case being covered. | MPEG amendments, committee draft and working draft in January 2026. No extension had been fixed. |
The splat row is why a list like this dates badly. Gaussian splatting is a recent way to store a scene, and the file format lagged the pictures. Until a standard settles, people pass around whatever the software wrote last Tuesday.
Older formats you will still meet
| Extension | Name | What happened |
|---|---|---|
.dae | COLLADA | An interchange format between creation tools and real-time viewers, published as ISO/PAS 17506:2012. Removed from Blender 5.0. glTF, USD, and FBX are the suggested replacements. |
.igs, .iges | IGES | A neutral exchange for product data between different CAD and manufacturing systems, ANSI Y14.26M-1981. Superseded by STEP. A migration plan was published in 1996. Files remain. |
.u3d | Universal 3D | Downstream viewing of CAD data, with compression and levels of detail. ECMA-363. No longer actively maintained. Use is expected to decline in favour of PRC. |
.wrl | VRML | Interactive 3D scenes on the web, ISO/IEC 14772-1:1997. Superseded by X3D. |
Superseded does not mean deleted. An archive of automotive data from the 1990s may be IGES, and the only honest thing to do is read it and write STEP if you need a file a current system will promise to keep. VRML pages still exist. A browser that shows them is usually showing them through an X3D lineage, or not showing them at all.
Choosing a format is mostly choosing which question the file will be asked later. A printer asks for a solid it can slice. A browser asks for something that arrives quickly and draws at frame rate. A contractor asks for a building model several firms can annotate. A film pipeline asks for a scene description that survives a trip through more than one program. Building a model is how the geometry gets made. The extension is how it gets to leave the program that made it.