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CAD & 3D File Formats

CAD and 3D files are where engineering meets incompatibility — every application has its own format, and exchanging files is an industry unto itself.

Formats 22
Most common .3ds, .3mf, .blend
About cad & 3d files

CAD and 3D files are where engineering meets incompatibility. Every major CAD application has its own proprietary format, and exchanging files between them is an industry unto itself. The open interchange formats (STEP, OBJ, STL) sacrifice features for compatibility — which is usually the right trade.

The 3D printing world standardised on STL (triangle meshes, nothing else) decades ago, and 3MF is slowly replacing it with support for colour, materials, and metadata. The game development world uses FBX for rigged, animated assets and glTF/GLB for web delivery. Architecture and engineering live in DWG (AutoCAD's proprietary kingdom) and exchange via STEP and DXF.

The common thread is that proprietary formats preserve the most information (layers, constraints, parametric history) while interchange formats preserve geometry and little else. If you're working within one application, use its native format. If you're sending files to someone else, ask what format they need — the answer matters more here than in any other category.

All cad & 3d formats
.3ds A legacy 3D format from the DOS era that still shows up ever... .3mf 3MF is a modern 3D printing format replacing STL — supportin... .blend Blend is Blender's native project file — containing the comp... .dae XML-based 3D interchange — "COLLAborative Design Activity." .dgn Bentley MicroStation's native format — civil engineering and... .dwf Autodesk's lightweight format for sharing CAD drawings — vie... .dwg DWG is AutoCAD's native file format — the de facto standard ... .dxf DXF is an open CAD interchange format — the most widely supp... .f3d Autodesk Fusion 360's native format — parametric CAD/CAM in ... .fbx FBX is a 3D interchange format supporting geometry, material... .glb GLB is the binary version of glTF — a single file containing... .gltf glTF is the open standard for 3D scenes — compact, fast to p... .ifc The open standard for BIM — architecture and construction da... .iges The granddaddy of CAD interchange — older than STEP, still k... .obj OBJ is a simple, widely supported 3D model format — storing ... .skp SketchUp's native format — architecture and interior design ... .step STEP is an ISO standard for 3D CAD data exchange — preservin... .stl STL is a 3D model format that describes surfaces as triangle... .usd Pixar's 3D scene format — from Hollywood VFX to Apple's AR s... .usdz Apple's AR format — 3D objects you can place in your living ... .wrl Virtual Reality Modelling Language — the 1990s dream of 3D o... .x3d The successor to VRML — open-standard interactive 3D for the...
FAQ
What's the best format for 3D printing?
STL is universally accepted by every slicer and print service. 3MF is the modern replacement with support for colour and materials. If your slicer supports 3MF, prefer it. Otherwise, STL works everywhere.
How do I open a DWG file without AutoCAD?
Autodesk DWG TrueView (free) opens and converts DWG files but can't edit. Autodesk Viewer (free, web-based) displays them in a browser. LibreCAD (free, open-source) handles simpler 2D DWGs. For full editing, you need AutoCAD or a compatible alternative.
What's the difference between OBJ and STL?
Both are simple 3D mesh formats. OBJ supports texture coordinates and material references; STL does not. For 3D printing, STL is standard. For sharing 3D models with textures (games, visualisation), OBJ or glTF is better.
Related categories
Image Files → Code Files → Archive Files →