Blender File Formats: A Complete Guide - SelfCAD

The Main Blender File Formats

A digital asset such as a 3D model, text, or video is represented by the data stored in various file formats. Although there are many formats, they differ in terms of what they store and how they keep it. The variety of file formats has increased in line with the capabilities of the digital world. That's because a new (or updated) 3D file format needs to be designed to hold every new type of data produced using digital instruments. Most formats store various data types, typically related to a particular topic, use case, or industry.

Blender is a free, open-source digital graphics program designed for many purposes, including hard surface modeling and animation. In the industries where Blender excels, there are numerous alternative file formats, but like all digital products, Blender only supports a few of them. Blender and other programs cannot simply import or export any file since each format needs to be carefully specified, developed, and integrated into the software to be supported. Generally, only files relevant to the software's intended application are kept among the diverse range of readily available formats. For instance, it seems reasonable that Word documents aren't supported because you wouldn't upload them into Blender.

However, a program's supported file types are a crucial feature, especially for one as adaptable as Blender. In this article, we'll review the list of file types that Blender formally supports. But before that, we would like to get to know of the best 3D modeling software for creating 3D models besides Blender.

Best 3D Modeling Software to Prepare Your 3D Models: SelfCAD

Learning how to create models takes a long time because most 3D modeling software are not user-friendly and those that are easy to use cannot be used to create complex designs. But there are some that are easy to use and powerful at the same time like SelfCAD. With SelfCAD, users can create designs that can be exported in many 3D files formats and you can also import files and modify them in the program, as shown in the video below.

It is the first 3D design software that combines 3D modeling, sculpting, rendering, simple animation, and 3D printing technologies under a single roof. SelfCAD's online slicer ensures that you can prepare your 3D files for 3D printing without opening another program. Get to know how to slice your designs in SelfCAD in the video below.

In addition, there are a considerable amount of interactive tutorials to make learning how to use the program much simpler. The image to 3D model tool is useful in turning 2D images into 3D photos at a click of a button. As we continue to examine the common 3D file formats, it is important to remember that 3D information is recorded in 3D models as either binary data or plain text. Since each 3D software program has a unique file format, there are hundreds of various 3D file formats accessible.

A List of 3D File Formats Supported by Blender

Blender supports a wide range of 3D file formats. Below we discuss the main 3D file formats supported by Blender.

• OBJ (.obj): The OBJ file format is excellent for simple geometry. This is due to the lack of support for animations. However, it still provides an ideal setup for your scene's static objects. Unlike other file formats, the OBJ file format does not limit your geometric typology to triangles, which is a major benefit. In other words, it doesn't triangulate your mesh, which can significantly reduce the number of polygons in static hard surface models like those used in architecture.
• Blender (.blend): Blender's own file type is called Blend. Blend files can manage almost all Blender-supported data, including lighting, perspectives, and color, and can only be accessed in Blender. Due to this, projects may be easily imported into Blender using the Blend format without any data being lost (unlike some file formats that can lose color and texture, for example). Select your Blend file and click "File > Open" to open this format.
• Universal Scene Description (.usd, .usdc, .usda): To create and edit scenes for animations, you can import Universal Scene Description files into Blender.
• Matroska (.mkv): It is a free, open-source format that can be exported with Blender and was first developed for multimedia files.
• Filmbox (.fbx): The ideal file format for video games is FBX because it is widely used and can be quickly integrated into Maya, Unity, or Unreal Engine. Since Unity downloads the .blend file and converts it to a .fbx, importing a .blend file into Unity is almost identical to importing a .fbx file. It is not advised to import a .blend file into Unity since the conversion takes longer to load the scene, and there is a chance that it will produce errors or other unexpected outcomes. When using Blender to create animations with 3D models that have special effects like texture and fog, you can import and export Filmbox (.fbx) models
• BioVision Motion Capture (.bvh): To work with motion capture visuals and animations, you can import and export Motion Capture files into Blender
• Alembic (.abc): You can import and export Alembic files into Blender to work with complex models and animations.
• Collada (.dae): To work with many 3D models in one file, you can import and export Collada files with Blender. Click "File > Import," select your preferred format, then choose your file to open this format as well as all of the formats listed below (but not Blend).
• Scalable Vector Graphics 1.1 (.svg): Blender allows you to alter drawings and other 2D visuals by importing SVG files.
• Stanford Polygon (.ply): If you want to work with the output of a 3D scan of an object, you can import and export Stanford Polygon files into Blender.
• Stereolithography (.stl): To create and edit 3D models for uses like 3D printing, you can import and export STL files into Blender (though you'll still need a 3D slicer to get the model ready for printing).
• gITF 2.0 (.glb,.gltf): To work with 3D scenes containing 3D models, gITF 2.0 files can be imported and exported into Blender.
• Wavefront (.obj): You can import and export Wavefront (.obj) files into Blender to create 3D models for uses like video game design.
• PNG (.png): The highest-quality image files are known as PNGs. They feature Alpha channels, which can be crucial for adding detail to a textured object, making them ideal to employ for creating video games. Additionaly, using Blender, setting your preferences with online PNG converter enables you to make secure and fast PNG images conversion. It lets you convert file to and from PNG without impacting over the Alpha channel and resolution.
• .jpg/.jpeg, or JPEG: Compared to PNGs, Jpegs are better for smaller files. They are equally useful for texturing in a game engine like Unity, even though they do not allow alpha channels.
• Photoshop file (.psd): Now, rather than painting inside the 3D program, you can further edit your baked images in Photoshop instead of exporting a .psd file from Blender (which can get messy). As Unity imports a .psd file, it flattens the picture automatically. This is beneficial if you want to see results quickly without flattening the image in Photoshop during a non-destructive approach.
• AVI (.avi): This format is considered the best choice in terms of quality. You would only switch to a different arrangement if you could further compress it (AVI files are huge). Generally speaking, sticking with AVI and later compressing it will be your best option.
• MOV (.mov): Although initially designed for movies, its format is excellent for gaming integration.

Conclusion

The only piece of software created and supported by the Blender Foundation is Blender 3D. For a wide range of applications, Blender can import and export a large number of file formats. In this article, we have covered all the natively supported file formats. In case you would like to modify your STL or any 3D files and you are not well familiar with Blender, you can always use SelfCAD software.

Enjoy powerful modeling, rendering, and 3D printing tools without the steep learning curve.

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