FAQ

 

Can MysticThumbs handle 3D files such as  OBJ, STL, STP, DXF?

 

Unfortunately, only a few 3D formats are handled. These formats have embedded thumbnails that MysticThumbs can extract.

 

Examples of supported formats are Blender (.blend) and 3DS Max (.max) files.

 

For other 3D formats that do not include an embedded thumbnail, unfortunately it would required a non-trivial solution to generate thumbnails for these.

 

The reason for a lack of support for 3D and CAD files in general, but specifically those types are the lack of embedded thumbnails within the files.

 

For 3D formats such as these, there is no specific image of the file, and without an embedded thumbnail included (for example 3ds Max does include one in .max files and is supported) it essentially requires a fully fledged application to load and render the files into a 2D image.

 

Even if this were generically possible (say for simple .obj files) there are further problems, such as where to render the image from, what part to render, how back-faces are handled, materials and texturing, etc.

 

It becomes a very large and indeterminate problem. For this reason, MysticThumbs does not attempt any 3D files without access to an embedded thumbnail or there would be at the very least, a lot of complaints from users that "they look wrong".

 

If you are aware that any 3D formats do have the capability to carry an embedded thumbnail - then please let us know and we'll look into it.

 

 

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